As the workers
and soldiers regather in the streets, ministers of the Provisional Government
meet with the Executive Committee of the Soviet. Neither side of the dual
government knew what to do about the demonstrations. Prince Lvov, President of
the Council of Ministers, thought maybe the Provisional Government should
withdraw. Chernov, Minister of Agriculture, said it might be sufficient for
Miliukov to exchange the Foreign Ministry for the portfolio of the Minister of
Public Education. Miliukov refused both that suggestion and the suggestion that
he write a new note. Some members of the Soviet would apparently have been
satisfied with a better explanation of the first one.
Meanwhile the
demonstrations, which had been announced by Bolshevik workers from Vyborg,
continued. The demonstrators ignored the plea of the President of the Petrograd
Soviet, Cheidze, to disperse. Counterdemonstrators, organized by the Cadet
Party, clashed with the workers. General Kornilov made good his threat to
mobilize cavalry and artillery against the workers. Some officers tried to seize one
of their banners. Gunfire was exchanged.
But the Soviet
ordered the revolutionary regiments to stay in their barracks, and Kornilov’s
to return there. The soldiers obeyed the Soviet’s orders; thereafter none of
the troops would march unless the orders were counter-signed by the Soviet.
For its part, the
Executive Committee would be satisfied with a verbal explanation of Miliukov’s
note; he was not compelled to resign. Having come so close to civil war in the
capital (and the situation was much the same in Moscow), the Soviet ordered
demonstrations to stop for two days. The Bolshevik Central Committee
subsequently agreed to the halt.
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