The soldiers, lowering
their guns, knelt down also.
The Bolshevik authorities became excited; they did not expect such
a turn of events. "Enough said," declared the chiefs; "we have
come not to speak, but to act. If they do not want to go to
Smolny, let them get out of here." And they set themselves to the
task.
In groups of five the peasants were conducted down-stairs,
trampled upon, and, on their refusal to go to Smolny, pushed out
of doors during the night in the midst of the enormous city of
which they knew nothing.
Members of the Executive Committee were arrested,[39] the premises
occupied by sailors and Red Guards, the objects found therein
stolen.
The peasants found shelter in the homes of the inhabitants of
Petrograd, who, indignant, offered them hospitality. A certain
number were lodged in the barracks of the Preobrajenski Regiment.
The sailors, who but a few minutes before had sung a funeral hymn
to Logvinov, and wept when they saw that they had understood
nothing, now became the docile executioners of the orders of the
Bolsheviki. And when they were asked, "Why do you do this?" they
answered, as in the time, still recent, of Czarism: "It is the
order.
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