CHAPTER TWENTY
THE COALITION GOVERNMENT
THE conflict on Miliukov's note, which led to such a sharp crisis, at the same time revealed the true spirit of the Revolution. In the first place, it showed that in two months the political education of the masses had made gigantic strides. Petrograd, which reacted so strongly to the convulsions of imperialism, was in no way isolated from the rest of Russia in its fight against imperialism. Throughout Russia the ill-intentioned note of the Foreign Office gave rise to the most lively dissatisfaction. On all sides it was understood as an attempt of the provisional Government to return to the policy of conquest and annexation which had been repudiated and condemned by the nation. But the conflict had a deeper significance. It revealed an approaching split between the revolutionary democracy and the liberal and bourgeois elements.
The workers, the peasants, and the army throughout Russia loudly and decisively expressed their adherence to the Soviet. The propertied classes no less definitely revealed their readiness to support the Provisional Government. And it is a most remarkable thing that the split took place, not on any question of internal politics, but on the question of the war. The war became the centre, the key to future developments. Russia was in the grip of the most awful financial crisis and economic exhaustion. The difficulties of transport led to an absolute breakdown, and famine was threatening. There could be no successful struggle with these evils while the war lasted. On the contrary, with every day that the war continued the financial and economic exhaustion increased, and the country came nearer and nearer to the abyss. The will to peace alone had the power to save the country and its hard-won freedom.
