Leaders of the mob rushed over to them, pleading with them not to fire.  A few scattering volleys were followed by a lull, and, then with a shout of joy, the troops last remaining loyal threw down their arms and rushed across to embrace the revolutionists.  At a great meeting of the mob a group of soldiers and working men was picked out to call upon the Duma and ask this body to form a temporary government.  Another group was appointed to wait upon Nicholas II and tell him that henceforth he was not the Czar of all the Russias, but plain Nicholas Romanoff.  Messengers were sent to the fighting fronts to inform the generals that they were no longer to take orders from the Czar, but from the representatives of the free people of Russia.  With remarkable calmness, the nation accepted the new situation.  Within two days a new government had been formed, composed of some of the best men in the great empire.  The Czar signed a paper giving up the throne in behalf of himself and his young son and nominating his brother Michael to take his place.  Michael, however, was too wise.  He notified the people that he would accept the crown only if they should vote to give it to him; and this the people would not do.

[Illustration:  Revolutionary soldiers holding a conference in the Duma]

The government, as formed at first, with its ministers of different departments like the American cabinet, was composed of citizens of the middle classes—­lawyers, professors of the universities, land-owners, merchants were represented—­and at the head of the ministry was a prince.  This arrangement did not satisfy the rabble.  The radical socialists, most of whom owned no property and wanted all wealth divided up among all the people, were not much happier to be ruled by the moderately well-to-do than they were to submit to the rule of the nobles.  The council of workingmen and soldiers, meeting in the great hall which had formerly housed the Duma, began to take upon themselves the powers of government.  Someone proclaimed that now the Russian people should have peace, and when Prof.  Milioukoff, foreign minister for the new government, assured France and England that Russia would stick by them to the last, a howling crowd of workingmen threatened to mob him.  “No annexations and no indemnities,” was the cry of the socialists.  “Let us go back to conditions as they were before the war.  Let each nation bear the burden of its own losses and let us have peace.”  After a stormy session, the new government agreed to include in its numbers several representatives of the soldiers and workingmen.  Prof.  Milioukoff resigned and Alexander Kerensky, a radical young lawyer, became the real leader of the Russian government.

[Illustration:  Kerensky (standing in automobile) reviewing Russian troops]