g the army." The result of these efforts, as
the members of the council themselves admitted, went far beyond
anything they had intended. On the 1st of May a number of political
demonstrations on the part of the soldiers took place in Petrograd.
Socialistic in nature, some of them directed against policies of the
Provisional Government. The council immediately disclaimed all
responsibility for the demonstrations and appealed to the soldiers to
remain in their barracks.

This disintegration in army organization nevertheless made continual
progress during the early part of May, 1917, and was fast
precipitating a crisis. The fact was that the Provisional Government,
though nominally at the head of affairs, had no material power behind
it. This power, the army, was organized in the council and was
self-conscious. Naturally it could not resist the temptation of
attempting to exercise its judgment, though it realized that it was
not fitted to assume the entire responsibility of government. It felt,
too, a right to assert itself because the Duma, on account of the
restrictive election laws which had created it years before during the
old regime did not represent those classes to which the soldiers
belonged.

The members of the Provisional Government did not deny the justice of
this claim, and early in May, 1917, they suggested as a remedy that
the cabinet be reorganized and the radical elements be given fuller
representation. But here again the council was faced by the obstacle
in the Socialist principle that Socialist organizations must never
fuse with so-called capitalist organizations. The offer was refused.

CHAPTER LXXXVI

KERENSKY SAVES RUSSIA FROM HERSELF

On May 9, 1917, the situation was intensified when the council issued
an appeal to the working classes of the world to come together in a
general congress to discuss terms of peace. This meant naturally an
international Socialist conference. There was really no disloyalty
behind this move. The majority of the deputies no doubt considered it
a means of forcing the hands of the Socialists of the Central
Empires, perhaps to force them to overthrow their autocracies. The
idea was to formulate a peace program which would come close to
demanding universal democracy the world over and, by having the Teuton
Socialists subscribe to it, force them to bring pressure to bear on
their governments which might even develop into revolution. But this
was not understood a