Socialist leaders.  As might be expected in a peasants’ Congress, members of the Socialist-Revolutionary party were in the majority, numbering 537.  The next largest group was the Social Democratic party, including Bolsheviki and Mensheviki, numbering 103.  There were 136 delegates described as non-partizan; 4 belonged to the group called the “People’s Socialists” and 6 to the Labor Group.  It was the most representative body of peasant workers ever brought together.

Among the first speakers to address the Congress was the venerable “Grandmother” of the Russian Revolution, Catherine Breshkovskaya, who spoke with the freedom accorded to her and to her alone.  “Tell me,” she demanded, “is there advantage to us in keeping our front on a war footing and in allowing the people to sit in trenches with their hands folded and to die from fever, scurvy, and all sorts of contagious diseases?  If our army had a real desire to help the Allies, the war would be finished in one or two months, but we are prolonging it by sitting with our hands folded.”  V.M.  Chernov, leader of the Socialist-Revolutionary party, the new Minister of Agriculture, made a notable address in which he traversed with great skill and courage the arguments of the Bolsheviki, making a superb defense of the policy of participation in the government.

Kerensky, idol of the peasants, appearing for the first time as Minister of War and head of the army and navy, made a vigorous plea for unity, for self-discipline, and for enthusiastic support of the new Provisional Government.  He did not mince matters:  “I intend to establish an iron discipline in the army.  I am certain that I shall succeed in my undertaking, because it will be a discipline based upon duty toward the country, the duty of honor....  By all means, we must see that the country becomes free and strong enough to elect the Constituent Assembly, the Assembly which, through its sovereign, absolute power, will give to the toiling Russian peasants that for which they have been yearning for centuries, the land....  We are afraid of no demagogues, whether they come from the right or from the left.  We shall attend to our business, quietly and firmly.”  Kerensky begged the peasants to assert their will that there should be “no repetition of the sad events of 1905-06, when the entire country seemed already in our hands, but slipped out because it became involved in anarchy.”  The speech created a profound impression and it was voted to have it printed in millions of copies, at the expense of the Congress, and have them distributed throughout the army.

A similar honor was accorded the speech of I.I.  Bunakov, one of the best known and most popular of the leaders of the Socialist-Revolutionary party.  With remorseless logic he traversed the arguments of the Bolsheviki and the Porazhentsi.  Taking the cry that there must be “no annexations,” for example, he declared that the peasants of Russia could only accept that in the sense that Poland be