sent delegates from every part of Russia, even from
the extreme border provinces, and many from the front. On the platform were
the members of the Organizing Committee, the Executive Committee of the
Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates, the Socialist-Revolutionary
party, the Social Democratic party, and a number of prominent Socialist
leaders. As might be expected in a peasants' Congress, members of the
Socialist-Revolutionary party were in the majority, numbering 537. The next
largest group was the Social Democratic party, including Bolsheviki and
Mensheviki, numbering 103. There were 136 delegates described as
non-partizan; 4 belonged to the group called the "People's Socialists" and
6 to the Labor Group. It was the most representative body of peasant
workers ever brought together.

Among the first speakers to address the Congress was the venerable
"Grandmother" of the Russian Revolution, Catherine Breshkovskaya, who spoke
with the freedom accorded to her and to her alone. "Tell me," she demanded,
"is there advantage to us in keeping our front on a war footing and in
allowing the people to sit in trenches with their hands folded and to die
from fever, scurvy, and all sorts of contagious diseases? If our army had a
real desire to help the Allies, the war would be finished in one or two
months, _but we are prolonging it by sitting with our hands folded_." V.M.
Chernov, leader of the Socialist-Revolutionary party, the new Minister of
Agriculture, made a notable address in which he traversed with great skill
and courage the arguments of the Bolsheviki, making a superb defense of the
policy of participation in the government.

Kerensky, idol of the peasants, appearing for the first time as Minister of
War and head of the army and navy, made a vigorous plea for unity, for
self-discipline, and for enthusiastic support of the new Provisional
Government. He did not mince matters: "I intend to establish an iron
discipline in the army. I am certain that I shall succeed in my
undertaking, because it will be a discipline based upon duty toward the
country, the duty of honor.... By all means, we must see that the country
becomes free and strong enough to elect the Constituent Assembly, the
Assembly which, through its sovereign, absolute power, will give to the
toiling Russian peasants that for which they have been yearning for
centuries, the land.... We are afraid of no demagogues, whether they come
from the right or from