On the 9th of January took place the
funeral of the victims, in which all Petrograd took part. The Bolsheviki
this time did not dare to shoot into the magnificent procession preceded by
a long line of coffins. The 10th of January they dispersed the Third
All-Russian Congress of Peasants which had placed itself on the side of the
Constituent Assembly. The Congress had been at first arranged for the 8th
of January (the same day as the Bolshevik Congress of the Soviets), but,
because of the events, it was postponed to the 10th. The peasants who had
come to this Congress knew perfectly well that they would have a fight to
uphold, perhaps even to give their lives. Their neighbors, their
co-villagers, wept when they saw them set out, as if it were a question of
men condemned to death. That alone suffices to show to what degree were
conscious these peasants who had come from all corners of the country to
prepare themselves for the defense of the Constituent Assembly.
As soon as the Congress was opened sailors and Red Guards, armed with guns
and hand-grenades, broke into the premises (11 Kirillovskaia Street),
surrounded the house, poured into the corridors and the session hall, and
ordered all persons to leave.
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