Miliukov told his colleagues of the Duma that he had not resigned of his own free will, but under pressure:  “I had to resign, yielding not to force, but to the wish of a considerable majority of my colleagues.  With a clear conscience I can say that I did not leave on my own account, but was compelled to leave.”  Nevertheless, he said, the foreign policy he had pursued was the correct one.  “You could see for yourselves that my activity in foreign politics was in accord with your ideas,” he declared amid applause which eloquently testified to the approval with which the bourgeoisie regarded policies and tendencies which the proletariat condemned.  He pointed out that the pacifist policies of Zimmerwald and Keinthal had permeated a large part of the Socialist movement, and that the Soviet, the Councils of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates, claiming to exercise control over the Provisional Government, were divided.  He feared that the proposal to establish a Coalition Government would not lead to success, because of “discord in the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates itself.”  Not all the members of the latter body were agreed upon entering into a Coalition Government, and “it is evident that those who do not enter the government will continue to criticize those who have entered, and it is possible that the Socialists who enter the Cabinet will find themselves confronted with the same storm of criticism as the government did before.”  Still, because it meant the creation of a stronger government at once, which was the most vital need, he, like Guchkov, favored a coalition which would ally the Constitutional Democratic party with the majority of the Socialists.

The Soviet had decided at its meeting on May 14th to participate in a Coalition Ministry.  The struggle upon that question between Bolsheviki and Mensheviki was long and bitter.  The vote, which was forty-one in favor of participation to nineteen against, probably fairly represented the full strength of Bolshevism in its stronghold.  After various conferences between Premier Lvov and the other Ministers, on the one side, and representatives of the Soviet, on the other side, a new Provisional Government was announced, with Prince Lvov again Prime Minister.  In the new Cabinet there were seven Constitutional Democrats, six Socialists, and two Octobrists.  As Minister of War and head of the army and navy Alexander Kerensky took the place of Guchkov, while P.N.  Pereverzev, a clever member of the Socialist-Revolutionary party, succeeded Kerensky as Minister of Justice.  In Miliukov’s position at the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was placed M.I.  Terestchenko, a wealthy sugar-manufacturer, member of the Constitutional-Democratic party, who had held the post of Minister of Finance, which was now given to A.I.  Shingariev, a brilliant member of the same party, who had proved his worth and capacity as Minister of Agriculture.  To the latter post was appointed V.M.  Chernov, the leader of the Socialist-Revolutionists, one of the most capable Socialists in Russia, or, for that matter, the world.  Other Socialists of distinction in the new Provisional Government were I.G.  Tseretelli, as Minister of Posts and Telegraphs, and M.I.  Skobelev, as Minister of Labor.  As Minister of Supply an independent Socialist, A.V.  Peshekhonov, was chosen.