After three days of
debate, neither the right-socialist Compomisers nor the bourgeois Cadets can
pass a resolution on reforming the army and continuing the war. The votes were
symptomatic of general paralysis in the Pre-Parliament on every issue it
attempted to address. The American journalist Reed heard the Cadet Miliukov
give a speech denouncing Skobelov’s
instructions. But this decision had already been taken over Cadet
objections.
At about this
time, Kerensky renewed his dispute with the Baltic Fleet and the soviets of
Finland. The sailors sent a delegation to the Central Executive Committee
demanding removal of “a person who is disgracing…the revolution with his
shameless political chantage.” By this they meant Kerensky. The Regional
Committee of the Finnish Soviets, taking sovereign powers, held up some of the
government’s freight. Kerensky’s response, threats of arrest, left the soviets unimpressed.
Trotsky observes
that the fleet and Finnish soviets were already in a state of insurrection;
they had assumed state functions and administered them independently of the
Provisional Government. In another connection Trotsky observes that the Finnish
garrison and Baltic Fleet had become a dependable reserve for an insurrection
of workers and soldiers in Petrograd.
Meanwhile, the
Petrograd Soviet held elections for its delegates to the Congress of Soviets.
The Bolshevik slate – Trotsky, Kamenev, Volodarsky, Yurenev, and Lashevich –
received well over 400 votes. Just over 200 votes were cast for candidates from
the compromisist parties.
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