Page:Michael Farbman - Russia & the Struggle for Peace (1918).djvu/186

It was necessary to stop the war, which was threatening to destroy the gains of the Revolution as it had destroyed the Tsardom. "If the war was not to kill the Revolution, the Revolution must kill the war:" such was the cry of all democratic Russia. The propertied classes, who had been trusted to accomplish this chief and greatest task of the Revolution, were reluctant and unable to fulfil it. The democracy could not trust them any longer. Miliukov's attempt to revive the imperialistic aims of the old regime had for the time being- destroyed the power of the bourgeoisie in Russia. A new power had to be created, one which would be able to fulfil the aims of the Revolution. But of what elements was this new power to consist? The left wing of the revolutionary democracy decided without hesitation that it should consist purely of the Soviet elements: "All power to the Soviets!" But the overwhelming majority of the Soviet (the Bolsheviks at that time were in a minority of less than one in ten) definitely rejected the idea of a Soviet Government and decided for a coalition. To-day, after the event, there can be little doubt that the decision of the Soviet was by no means the best. A Soviet Government at that time would have been a blessing for Russia, and probably for the world as well. The decision to form a purely democratic and Socialist Government could not at that time have led to civil war, as it did six months later, when the Bolsheviks took the power of the State into their hands. In the first place, a Soviet Government at that time would have aimed, not at the realisation of a Socialist State, but at the fulfilment of the general aims of the Revolution. Secondly, the Soviet at that time united not only the workers, peasants, and soldiers, but also large circles of radical and intellectual liberalism. The popularity of the Soviet was so great and so extensive that no one class would have dared to stand out in open opposition to a Soviet Government. Undoubtedly a Soviet Government would have known how to adopt a suitable tone in its negotiations with the Allies, and the question of the