Cronstadt was entirely
in their hands. New elections of the Central Executive Committee of the
Soviet of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates soon became necessary; they
gave a big majority to the Bolsheviki. The old bureau, Tchcheidze at its
head, had to leave; the Bolsheviki triumphed clamorously.
To fight against the Bolsheviki the Executive Committee of the National
Soviet of Peasants' Delegates decided at the beginning of December to call
a Second General Peasants' Congress. This was to decide if the peasants
would defend the Constituent Assembly or if they would follow the
Bolsheviki. This Congress had, in effect, a decisive importance. It showed
what was the portion of the peasant class that upheld the Bolsheviki. It
was principally the peasants in soldiers' dress, the "declasse soldiers,"
men taken from the country life by the war, from their natural
surroundings, and desiring but one thing, the end of the war. The peasants
who had come from the country had, on the contrary, received the mandate to
uphold the Constituent Assembly. They firmly maintained their point of view
and resisted all the attempts of the Bolsheviki and the
"Socialist-Revolutionists of the Left" (who followed them blindly) to make
their influence prevail.
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