failure of the Czar's government to defend Russia." They
were only saying, in very moderate language, what millions were thinking;
what, a few months later, many of the liberal spokesmen of the country were
ready to say in harsher language. As early as January, 1915, the Duma met
and cautiously expressed its alarm. In July it met again, many of the
members coming directly from the front, in uniform. Only the fear that a
revolution would make the continuance of the war impossible prevented a
revolution at that time. The Duma was in a revolutionary mood. Miliukov,
for example, thundered:

" ... In January we came here with ... the feeling of patriotic alarm. We
then kept this feeling to ourselves. Yet in closed sessions of committees
we told the government all that filled the soul of the people. The answer
we received did not calm us; it amounted to saying that the government
could get along without us, without our co-operation. To-day we have
convened in a grave moment of trial for our fatherland. The patriotic alarm
of the people has proved to be well founded, to the misfortune of our
country. Secret things have become open, and the assertions of half a year
ago have turned out to be mere words. Yet the country cannot be satisfied
with words. _The people wish to take affairs into their own hands and to
correct what has been neglected. The people look upon us as legal executors
of their will_."

Kerensky spoke to the same general effect, adding, "_I appeal to the people
themselves to take into their hands the salvation of the country and fight
for a full right to govern the state_." The key-note of revolution was
being sounded now. For the spirit of revolution breathed in the words, "The
people wish to take affairs into their own hands," and in Kerensky's
challenge, "I appeal to the people themselves to take into their hands the
salvation of the country." The Duma was the logical center around which the
democratic forces of the country could rally. Its moderate character
determined this. Only its example was necessary to the development of a
great national movement to overthrow the old regime with its manifold
treachery, corruption, and incompetence. When, on August 22d, the
Progressive Bloc was formed by a coalition of Constitutional Democrats,
Progressives, Nationalists, and Octobrists--the last-named group having
hitherto generally supported the government--there was a general chorus of
approval throughout the countr