ition Provisional Government, and supporting
Kerensky in his position, Tchcheidze nevertheless declined to enter the new
Cabinet himself. In this he was quite honest and not at all the tricky
politician he has been represented as being.

Tchcheidze knew that the Duma had been elected upon a most undemocratic
suffrage and that it did not and could not represent the masses of the
peasants and wage-workers. These classes were represented in the Council of
Workmen's and Soldiers' Deputies, which continued to exist as a separate
body, independent of the Duma, but co-operating with it as an equal. From a
Socialist point of view it would have been a mistake to disband the
Council, Tchcheidze believed. He saw Soviet government as the need of the
critical moment, rather than as the permanent, distinctive type of Russian
Social democracy as the critics of Kerensky have alleged.

While the Provisional Government was being created, the Czar, at General
Headquarters, was being forced to recognize the bitter fact that the
Romanov dynasty could no longer live. When he could no more resist the
pressure brought to bear upon him by the representatives of the Duma, he
wrote and signed a formal instrument of abdication of the Russian throne,
naming his brother, Grand-Duke Michael, as his successor. The latter dared
not attempt to assume the imperial role. He recognized that the end of
autocracy had been reached and declined to accept the throne unless chosen
by a popular referendum vote. On March 16th, the day after the abdication
of Nicholas II, Michael issued a statement in which he said:

This heavy responsibility has come to me at the voluntary request
of my brother, who has transferred the Imperial throne to me
during a time of warfare which is accompanied by unprecedented
popular disturbances.

Moved by the thought, which is in the minds of the entire people,
that the good of the country is paramount, I have adopted the firm
resolution to accept the supreme power only if this be the will of
our great people, who, by a plebiscite organized by their
representatives in a Constituent Assembly, shall establish a form
of government and new fundamental laws for the Russian state.

Consequently, invoking the benediction of our Lord, I urge all
citizens of Russia to submit to the Provisional Government,
established upon the initiative of the Duma and invested with full
plenary powers