sembly, for the
defense of the Revolution--not by word alone, but by acts!

[Signed] _The Provisional Executive Committee of the National
Soviet of Peasants' Delegates, upholding the principle of the
defense of the Constituent Assembly_.

APPEAL OF THE CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE SOVIETS OF
WORKMEN'S AND SOLDIERS' DELEGATES, CHOSEN AT THE FIRST
ELECTIONS

To all the Soviets of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates, to all
the Committees of the Army and of the Navy, to all the
organizations associated with the Soviets and Committees, to all
the members of the Socialist-Revolutionist and Menshevist Social
Democratic fractions who left the Second Congress of Soviets:

Comrades, workmen, and soldiers! Our cry of alarm is addressed to
all those to whom the work of the Soviets is dear. Know that a
traitorous blow threatens the revolutionary fatherland, the
Constituent Assembly, and even the work of the Soviets. Your duty
is to prepare yourselves for their defense.

The Central Executive Committee, nominated at the October
Congress, calls together for the 8th of January a Congress of
Soviets, destined to bungle the Constituent Assembly.

Comrades! The Second Congress of Soviets assembled at the end of
October, under conditions particularly unfavorable, at the time
that the Bolshevik party, won over by its leaders to a policy of
adventure, a plot unbecoming a class organization, executed at
Petrograd a _coup d'etat_ which gave it power; at a time when
certain groups with the same viewpoint disorganized even the
method of convocation of the Second Congress, thus openly aspiring
to falsify the results; at this same Congress the regular
representatives of the army were lacking (only two armies being
represented), and the Soviets of the provinces were very
insufficiently represented (only about 120 out of 900). Under
these conditions it is but natural that the Central Executive
Committee of the Soviets chosen at the first election would not
recognize the right of this Congress to decide the politics of the
Soviets.

However, in spite of the protestations, and even of the departure
of a great number of delegates (those of the Revolutionary
Socialist fraction, Mensheviki, and Populist-Socialists), a new
Executive Committee of the Soviets was elected. To consider this