About this time the lack of food in Petrograd, the result largely of speculation and “cornering the market,” had become so serious that the government thought it wise to call in several regiments of Cossacks to reinforce the police.

These Cossacks are wild tribesmen of the plains who enjoy a freedom not shared by any other class in Russia.  They are warriors by trade and their sole duty consists in offering themselves, fully equipped, whenever the government has need of their services in war.  They were of a different race, originally, than the Russians themselves, although by inter-marrying they now have some Slavic blood in their veins.  Their appearance upon the streets of Petrograd was almost always a threat to the people.  Enjoying freedom themselves and liking nothing better than the practice of their trade—­fighting—­they had had little or no sympathy with the wrongs of the populace, and so were the strongest supporters of the despotic rule of the Czar.  At times when the Czar did not dare to trust his regular soldiers to enforce order in Petrograd or Moscow, for fear the men would refuse to fire upon their own relatives in the mob, the Cossacks could always be counted upon to ride their horses fearlessly through the people, sabering to right and left those who refused to disperse.

[Illustration:  Crowd in Petrograd during the Revolution]

The second week of March, 1917, found crowds in Petrograd protesting against the high prices of food and forming in long lines to demand grain of the government.  As day succeeded day, the crowds grew larger and bolder in their murmurings.  Cossacks were sent into the city, but for some strange reason they did not cause fear as they had in times past.  Their manner was different.  Instead of drawing their sabers, they good naturedly joked with the people as they rode among them to disperse the mobs, and were actually cheered at times by the populace.  The crowds grew larger and more boisterous.  Regiment after regiment of troops was called in.  The police fired upon the people when the latter refused to go home.  Then a strange thing happened.  A Cossack, his eyes flashing fire, rode at full tilt up the street toward a policeman who was firing on the mob, and shot him dead on the spot.  A shout went up from the people:  “The Cossacks are with us!” New regiments of troops were brought in.  The men who composed them knew that they were going to be ordered to fire upon their own kind of people—­their own kin perhaps, whose only crime was that they were hungry and had dared to say so.  One regiment turned upon its officers, refusing to obey them, and made them prisoners.  Another and another joined the revolting forces.  It was like the scenes in Paris on the 14th of July, 1789.  The people had gathered to protest, and, hardly knowing what they did, they had turned their protests into a revolution.  Regiments loyal to the Czar were hastily summoned to fire upon their revolting comrades.  They hesitated.