The disorganization was felt more and more at the front; at
the same time anarchy increased in the interior of the country; production
diminished; the productiveness of labor was lowered, and an eight-hour day
became in fact a five or six-hour day. The strained relations between the
workers and the administration were such that certain factories preferred
to close. The central power suffered frequent crises; the Cadets, fearing
the responsibilities, preferred to remain out of power.
All this created a state of unrest and hastened the preparations for the
election of the Constituent Assembly, toward which the eyes of the whole
country were turned. Nevertheless, the country was far from chaos and from
the anarchy into which further events plunged it. Young Russia, not
accustomed to liberty, without experience in political life and autonomous
action, was far from that hopeless state to which the Bolsheviki reduced it
some months later. The people had confidence in the Socialists, in the
Revolutionary Socialist party, which then held sway everywhere, in the
municipalities, the zemstvos, and in the Soviets; they had confidence in
the Constituent Assembly which would restore order and work out the laws.
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