sia's population, the peasantry, had not yet
arrived at this state of mind, corrupt though they knew the
institution to be.

For some weeks while these reforms, in which the vast majority of the
people believed, were being promulgated the most enthusiastic harmony
prevailed between the two elements constituting the Provisional
Government. But those realizing the wide gulf lying between these two
elements, the constitutionalists and the revolutionary radicals, were
every day expecting the inevitable dissensions to arise. Eventually
they came. They would have come much sooner had it not been for the
fact that the nation was at war.

The friction which presently began between the two contrasting
elements sharing the power of government has undoubtedly been much
magnified and distorted by the press in Great Britain and this
country, not through malicious intent, but through ignorance of the
aims of one of these elements and of Russian character. The two
elements in question are, of course, found in all countries, and the
dissensions in Petrograd probably caused more bitterness in other
countries between these opposing elements than existed in Russia
itself. The conservative press of England and America exaggerated to
absurdity the program and aims of the radical forces in Russia, while
the Socialist press of these same countries was equally unreliable in
its partisanship, and would have had its readers believe Prince Lvov
and Milukov hardly any improvement on Protopopoff, a view in which it
would not have been supported by the most radical Russians. For the
true story of this period we must wait yet a while until dispassionate
witnesses have had time to present their experiences and observations
in permanent form.

Nevertheless, there seems to be no doubt that the wine of freedom did
rise to the heads of the ultraradicals, and the Russian radical's
ideas often do approach the borders of absurdity. Having obtained
democracy in civil life, the extremists among the deputies of the
Workingmen's and Soldier's Council wished to extend it in full to the
army. Though this army was face to face with the best organized
military machine in the world, they demanded the resignation of all
the officers, that their places might be filled by the votes of the
common soldiers. This rank absurdity the commanders on the front
naturally resisted, and it was not allowed to come into practice, but
the spirit behind the suggestion did begin to