acted country. He said that he felt that help was needed urgently
and that Russia asked it as her right. "Russia has fought consistently
since the beginning," he said. "She saved France and England from
disaster early in the war. She is worn out by the strain and claims as
her right that the Allies now shoulder the burden."

On November 7th, an armed insurrection against the Coalition Government
and Premier Kerensky was precipitated by the Bolsheviki faction. The
revolt was headed by Leon Trotzky, President of the Central Executive
Committee of the Petrograd Council, with Nicholas Lenine, the Bolsheviki
leader. The Revolutionists seized the offices of the telephone and
telegraph companies and occupied the state bank and the Marie Palace
where the preliminary Parliament had been sitting. The garrison at
Petrograd espoused the cause of the Bolsheviki and complete control was
seized with comparatively little fighting. The government troops were
quickly overpowered, except at the Winter Palace, whose chief guardians
were the Woman's Battalion, and the Military Cadets. The Woman's
Battalion fought bravely, and suffered terribly, and with the Military
Cadets who also remained true, held the Palace for several hours. The
Bolsheviki brought up armored cars and the cruiser Aurora, and turned
the guns of the Fortress of SS. Peter and Paul upon the Palace before
its defenders would surrender.

That evening the Revolutionary Committee issued a characteristic
proclamation, denouncing the government of Kerensky as opposed to the
government and the people, and calling upon the soldiers in the army to
arrest their officers if they did not at once join the Revolution. They
announced the following program:

First: The offer of an immediate democratic peace.

Second: The immediate handing over of large proportional lands to the
peasants.

Third: The transmission of all authority to the Council of Workmen's and
Soldiers' Delegates.

Fourth: The honest convocation of the Constituent Assembly.

At a meeting of the Council, Trotzky declared that the government no
longer existed, and introduced Lenine as an old comrade whom he welcomed
back. Lenine was received with prolonged cheers, and said: "Now we have
a Revolution. The peasants and workmen control the government. This is
only a preliminary step toward a similar revolution everywhere."

Proclamation after proclamation came from the new government. In one of
them it was stated