54 55 THE CLASS STRUGGLE THE PROLETARIAN REVOLUTIAN their minds. And that is essential for the state. These words epitomize the utter failure, immediately, of the Moscow Conference. But reaction had scored.
And then Kerensky returned to Petrograd, and secretly plotted drastic action against the Revolution. The masses of Petrograd were again restive; the Bolsheviki were dominant, and Kerensky secretly agreed that Korniloff should march on Petrograd, the centre of the proletarian revolution, and crush and disarm the workers completely. The agreement was made, and Korniloff started his march upon Petrograd. But the Council, learning of the agreement, intervened, and the weakling Kerensky, broke his agreement with Korniloff, issuing an order for his arrest. Korniloff refused to submit, and continued his march upon Petrograd, determined to overthrow simultaneously Kerensky and the Council. The Provisional Government was alarmed, and issued an order to the Soldiers Committees in the army, which it had previously ordered to disband, to arrest all officers in sympathy with Korniloff; the work done, a decree was again issued ordering the committees to disband! Moreover, Kerensky released from prison the workers and Bolsheviki imprisoned after the July uprising, who marched out to fight Korniloff and defeated him. Korniloff was beaten, Kerensky and the moderates in the Councils completely discredited. The aftermath was swift and certain. The Bolsheviki everywhere became ascendant.
Kerensky tried a last futile move, and convened a Democratic Congress in Petrograd, which was to constitute a Preliminary Parliament prior to the convening of the Constituent Assembly.
Trotzky was elected president of the Petrograd Council of Soldiers and Workers. Tschiedse, Skobeleff and Tsrettelli resigned from the Council. Trotzky appeared before the Democratic Congress and issued a declaration of civil war in the event the government opposed lodging all power in the Councils. The period of compromise was definitely at an end.
But the moderates, who still dominated the Central Committee of the Councils of All Russia, attempted a last maneuvre. They adopted a series of peace terms, specifying concretely the meaning of no indemnities and no annexations, and which included a demand for the neutralization of the Panama Canal. The Central Committee, which still placed more emphasis on diplomacy than on revolutionary action, delegated Skobeleff to present these terms as its delegate to the Conference of the Allies at Paris. But the Provisional Government secretly advised the Allies against Skobeleff, and Jules Cambon, of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, declared that the Allied governments will absolutely refuse to consent to Skobeleff taking part in the deliberations. The rebuff destroyed the influence of the moderates completely. It became clear to the Revolution that the Allies conspired in the interests of Imperialism; that not through diplomatic means, and certainly not through direct and indirect imperialistic conferences at Paris or Stockholm, could a revolutionary peace be assured. The class struggle, nationally and internationally, the struggle against all imperialistic governments and for the Social Revolution, alone is the straight and sure way to a proletarian peace. The use of diplomacy hampers the development of revolutionary action. The allies of revolutionary Russia are not the governments of the Entente, but the proletariat of all nations, united in the uncompromising struggle against Imperialism and for a revolutionary peace. The Bolshevist uprising of November 6, which annihilated the Kerensky government, and organized a revolutionary proletarian government of the Councils, with Lenine as Premier and Trotzky as Commissary of Foreign Affairs, was the affirmation of a fact made amply mandatory by the logic of events and of revolutionary Socialism. On October 29, Terreschenko, the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Kerensky government, sent a secret telegram (published by the Bolshevist government) to the Russian Ambassador in London, reading in part as follows: With regard to your conversation with Balfour, deem it important to confirm that in our opinion the forthcoming Allied Conference shall have for its problem an appraisal of the present situation and establishment of full solidarity of the views of the Allies with regard to the same. At the same time the Conference should determine the means of further conduct of the war and mutual assistance which the Allies must show to each other. With regard to the participation at the Conference of a person Skobeleff) having the confidence of our democracy, it is important to bear in mind that this person will be one of the personnel of the Russian government delegation, in whose name only its head will speak officially. This is ample proof that the Provisional Government conspired with imperialistic governments to continue the war and intrigued against the revolutionary democracy.