and this appeal to the people shows how fully the moderate views of his group prevailed.  Indeed, the manner in which the moderate counsels of the Mensheviki dominated the Council at a time of great excitement and passion, when extremists might have been expected to obtain the lead, is one of the most remarkable features of the whole story of the Second Russian Revolution.  It appeared at this time that the Russian proletariat had fully learned the tragic lessons of 1905-06.

It is evident from the text of the appeal that at the time the Council looked upon the Revolution as being primarily a political event, not as a movement to reconstruct the economic and social system.  There is no reference to social democracy.  Even the land question is not referred to.  How limited their purpose was at the moment may be gathered from the statement, “The Council ... makes it its supreme task to organize the people’s forces and their struggle for a final securing of political freedom and popular government.”  It is also clearly evident that, notwithstanding the fact that the Council itself was a working-class organization, a manifestation of the class consciousness of the workers, the leaders of the Council did not regard the Revolution as a proletarian event, nor doubt the necessity of co-operation on the part of all classes.  Proletarian exclusiveness came later, but on March 13th the appeal of the Council was “to the entire population.”

March 14th saw the arrest of many of the leading reactionaries, including Protopopov and the traitor Sukhomlinov, and an approach to order.  All that day the representatives of the Duma and the representatives of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies, as it was now called, embryo of the first Soviet government, tried to reach an agreement concerning the future organization of Russia.  The representatives of the Duma were pitifully lacking in comprehension of the situation.  They wanted the Czar deposed, but the monarchy itself retained, subject to constitutional limitations analogous to those obtaining in England.  They wanted the Romanov dynasty retained, their choice being the Czar’s brother, Grand-Duke Michael.  The representatives of the Soviet, on the other hand, would not tolerate the suggestion that the monarchy be continued.  Standing, as yet, only for political democracy, they insisted that the monarchy must be abolished and that the new government be republican in form.  The statesmanship and political skill of these representatives of the workers were immeasurably superior to those possessed by the bourgeois representatives of the Duma.

V