time the members of the fraction, among whom were many peasants and workmen, followed up an active agitation in the workshops and factories of Petrograd, and among the soldiers of the Preobrajenski Regiment and some others.  The members of the Executive Committee of the Soviet of Peasants’ Delegates worked in concert with them.  It was precisely the opinion of the peasants and of the workmen which had most importance in the fight against the Bolsheviki.  They, the true representatives of the people, were listened to everywhere; people were obliged to reckon with them.

It was under these conditions that the Democratic Conference met.  Called by the Provisional Government, it comprised representatives of the Soviets, of parties, of organizations of the army, peasant organizations, co-operatives, zemstvos, agricultural committees, etc.  Its object was to solve the question of power until the meeting of the Constituent Assembly.

At this conference the Bolsheviki formed only a small minority; but they acted as masters of the situation, calling, in a provocative manner, all those who were not in accord with them, “Kornilovist, counter-revolutionaries, traitors!” Because of this attitude the conference, which ought to have had the character of an assembly deciding affairs of state, took on the character of a boisterous meeting, which lasted several days of unending twaddle.  What the Bolsheviki wanted was a verbal victory—­to have shouted more loudly than their opponents.  The same speeches were repeated every day.  Some upheld a power exclusively Socialist, others—­the majority composed of delegates from different corners of the country—­sanctioned an agreement with all the democratic elements.

The provincial delegates, having come with a view to serious work, returned to their homes, carrying with them a painful impression of lost opportunities, of useless debates.

There remained but a few weeks before the convocation of the Constituent Assembly.  Those who voted against a government exclusively Socialist did not think that, under the troublesome conditions of the time, they could expose the country to the risk of a dispersion of strength; they feared the possible isolation of the government in face of certain elements whose help could not be relied on.  But they did not take into account a fact which had resulted from the Kornilovist insurrection:  the natural distrust of the working masses in presence of all the non-Socialists, of those who—­not being in immediate contact with them—­placed themselves, were it ever so little, more on the right.

The Democratic conference resulted in the formation of a Pre-Parliament.  There the relations, between the forces in presence of each other, were about the same.  Besides the Bolsheviki soon abandoned the Pre-Parliament, for they were already preparing their insurrection which curtailed the dissolution of that institution.