ion.

VIII

_The Second Peasant Congress_

In the space of a month a great amount of work was accomplished. A breach
was made in the general misunderstanding. Moral help was assured to the
Constituent Assembly on the part of the workmen and part of the soldiers of
Petrograd. There was no longer any confidence placed in the Bolsheviki.
Besides, the agitation was not the only cause of this change. The workers
soon came to understand that the Bolshevik tactics could only irritate and
disgust the great mass of the population, that the Bolsheviki were not the
representatives of the workers, that their promises of land, of peace, and
other earthly goods were only a snare. The industrial production diminished
more and more; numerous factories and shops closed their doors and
thousands of workmen found themselves on the streets. The population of
Petrograd, which, at first, received a quarter of a pound of bread per day
(a black bread made with straw), had now but one-eighth of a pound, while
in the time of Kerensky the ration was half a pound. The other products
(oatmeal, butter, eggs, milk) were entirely lacking or cost extremely high
prices. One ruble fifty copecks for a pound of potatoes, six rubles a
pound of meat, etc. The transportation of products to Petrograd had almost
ceased. The city was on the eve of famine.

The workers were irritated by the violence and the arbitrary manner of the
Bolsheviki, and by the exploits of the Red Guard, well paid, enjoying all
the privileges, well nourished, well clothed, and well shod in the midst of
a Petrograd starving and in rags.

Discontent manifested itself also among the soldiers of the Preobrajenski
and Litovsky regiments, and others. In this manner in the day of the
meeting of the Constituent Assembly they were no longer very numerous. What
loud cries, nevertheless, they had sent forth lately when Kerensky wished
to send the Preobrajenski and Seminovski regiments from Petrograd! "What?
Send the revolutionary regiments from Petrograd? To make easier the
surrender of the capital to the counter-revolution?" The soldiers of the
Preobrajenski Regiment organized in their barracks frequent meetings, where
the acts of the Bolsheviki were sharply criticized; they started a paper,
_The Soldiers' Cloak_, which was confiscated.

On the other hand, here is one of the resolutions voted by the workers of
the Putilov factory:

The Constituent Assembly is the only organ expressi