Protopopov and Sturmer and their associates recognized as clearly as the liberals did the natural kinship and interdependence of the three great autocracies, the Romanov, Habsburg, and Hohenzollern dynasties.  They knew well that the crushing of autocracy in Austria-Hungary and Germany would make it impossible to maintain autocracy in Russia.  They realized, furthermore, that while the nation was not willing to attempt revolution during the war, the end of the war would inevitably bring with it revolution upon a scale far vaster than had ever been attempted before, unless, indeed, the revolutionary leaders could be goaded into making a premature attempt to overthrow the monarchy.  In that case, it might be possible to crush them.  Given a rebellion in the cities, which could be crushed by the police amply provided with machine-guns, and by “loyal” troops, with a vast army unprovided with food and no means of supplying it, there would be abundant justification for making a separate peace with Germany.  Thus the Revolution would be crushed and the whole system of autocracy, Russian, Austrian, and German, preserved.

The morning of the 27th of February—­new style—­was tense with an ominous expectancy.  In the Allied chancelleries anxious groups were gathered.  They realized that the fate of the Allies hung in the balance.  In Petrograd alone three hundred thousand workers went out on strike that day, and the police agents did their level best to provoke violence.  The large bodies of troops massed at various points throughout the city, and the police with their machine-guns, testified to the thoroughness with which the government had prepared to crush any revolutionary manifestations.  Thanks to the excellent discipline of the workers, and the fine wisdom of the leaders of the Social Democrats, the Socialist-Revolutionists, and the Labor Group, who constantly exhorted the workers not to fall into the trap set for them, there was no violence.

At the opening session of the Duma, Kerensky, leader of the Labor Group, made a characteristic address in which he denounced the arrest of the Labor Group members of the War Industries Committee.  He directed his attack against the “system,” not against individuals: 

“We are living in a state of anarchy unprecedented in our history.  In comparison with it the period of 1613 seems like child’s play.  Chaos has enveloped not only the political, but the economic life of the nation as well.  It destroys the very foundations of the nation’s social economic structure.

“Things have come to such a pass that recently one of the Ministries, shipping coal from Petrograd to a neighboring city, had armed the train with a special guard so that other authorities should not confiscate the coal on the way!  We have arrived already at the primitive stage when each person defends with all the resources at his command the material in his possession, ready to enter into mortal combat for it with his neighbor.  We are witnessing the same scenes which France went through at the time of the Revolution.  Then also the products shipped to Paris were accompanied by special detachments of troops to prevent their being seized by the provincial authorities....