The Executive Committee of
the Soviet of Peasants' Delegates played in this respect an important role.
It did all it could to explain to the peasants the complexity of the
problem in order to prevent them from attempting anything anarchistic, or
to attempt a disorganized recovery of lands which could end only with the
further enrichment of peasants who were already rich.
Such was, in its general aspect, the action of the National Soviet of
Peasants' Delegates, which, in the month of August, 1917, addressed,
through the intermediary of the International Socialist Bureau, an appeal
to the democracies of the world. In order to better understand the events
which followed, we must consider for a moment the general conditions which
at that time existed in Russia, and in the midst of which the action of
this organization was taking place.
II
_The Difficulties of the Beginning of the Revolution_
The honeymoon of the Revolution had passed rapidly. Joy gave place to cares
and alarms. Autocracy had bequeathed to the country an unwieldy heritage:
the army and the whole mechanism of the state were disorganized. Taking
advantage of the listlessness of the army, the Bolshevist propaganda
developed and at the same time increased the desire of the soldiers to
fight no more.
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