or the 8th of January
is dictated by the desire to provoke a conflict between the
Soviets and the Constituante, and thus botch this last. Anxious
for the fate of the country, the Executive Committee chosen at the
first elections decides to convoke at Petrograd for the 8th of
January an extraordinary assembly of _all the Soviets, all the
Committees of the Army and the Navy, all the fractions of the
Soviets and military committees, all the organizations that
cluster around the Soviets and the Committees that are standing
upon the ground of the defense of the Constituante._ The following
are the Orders of the Day:

1. The power of the Constituent Assembly.
2. The fight for the general democratic peace and the re-establishment
of the International.
3. The immediate problems of the policy of the Soviets.

Comrades! Assure for this extraordinary assembly of Soviets the
most complete representation of all the organizations of workmen
and soldiers. Establish at once election centers. We have a fight
to uphold.

In the name of the Revolution, all the reason and all the energy
ought to be thrown into the balance.

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

_25 December, 1917._

IX

_The Manifestation of January 5th at Petrograd_

From eleven o'clock in the morning corteges, composed principally of
working-men bearing red flags and placards with inscriptions such as
"Proletarians of All Countries, Unite!" "Land and Liberty!" "Long Live the
Constituent Assembly!" etc., set out from different parts of the city. The
members of the Executive Committee of the Soviet of Peasants' Delegates
had agreed to meet at the Field, of Mars where a procession coming from the
Petrogradsky quarter was due to arrive. It was soon learned that a part of
the participants, coming from the Viborg quarter, had been assailed at the
Liteiny bridge by gunfire from the Red Guards and were obliged to turn
back. But that did not check the other parades. The peasant participants,
united with the workers from Petrogradsky quarter, came to the Field of
Mars; after having lowered their flags before the tombs of the Revolution
of February and sung a funeral hymn to their memory, they installed
themselves on Liteinaia Street. New manifestants came to join them and the
street was crowded with peo