d itself strongly Socialistic in its election of officers.
Lenine, however, who was one of the candidates, received only 11
votes, as against 810 polled by Tchernov, a Social Revolutionist, and
809 by Catherine Breshkovskaya, the "grandmother of the revolution."

During the month of June, 1917, the Provisional Government made
distinct progress, considering the almost insurmountable obstacles
inherent in such a situation as it had to face. From now on there was
very little friction between the cabinet and the council; they worked
together with comparative harmony. The fact that the radical elements
were now so well represented in the ministry probably was the chief
reason, but the personality of Kerensky was now beginning to rise as
the dominating figure of the new Russia. A fairly extreme radical
himself, with the confidence of his associates, he was also respected
by the more conservative elements on account of his sanity and
practical abilities. On June 1, 1917, A. I. Konovalov, Minister of
Commerce and Trade, resigned on account of friction with his
associates over what he considered the Government's interference with
private industries, but this incident passed quietly.

On this same date there occurred another incident which, on account of
its highly dramatic aspect, attracted wide attention in the press of
the Allied countries, and was therefore considered more significant
than it has since proved to be. The local council of the Workingmen's
and Soldiers' Council of Deputies in Kronstadt, the location of the
naval arsenal and the headquarters of the Baltic fleet, declared
Kronstadt an independent republic. The president of this council, a
young student by the name of Anatole Lamanov, was apparently an
anarchist of the extreme type; extreme in that he believed that
anarchist principles could be put into immediate practice, and he at
once issued a proclamation calling on all other communities in Russia
to declare their independence. His idea was that all the communities
should be knit together very loosely for specific purposes, such as
the war against the Germans, of which he was still heartily in favor.
Later dispatches, if true, would indicate that the real instigator of
this comic-opera scene was a woman, possibly in the pay of the German
Government, since she was the companion of Robert Grimm, a Swiss
Socialist, later expelled from Russia by the Socialists themselves on
account of pro-German activities.

Wit