The Provisional
Government takes steps to resolve the cabinet crisis precipitated by the
resignation of the bourgeois-liberal Cadet ministers on July 15 – July 2. Some
of the ministries that had belonged to the Cadets were given to right-socialist
members of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets. The Menshevik Tseretilli,
for example, was made Minister of the Interior; this put him in charge of what
to do about the Bolsheviks.
Kerensky was
rewarded, for his efforts if not his results, by being made Prime Minister. He
also retained the Ministries of War and the Marine. The reshuffled cabinet
(Trotsky designates it a “transitional government”) launched two lines of
policy: the right-socialist Compromisers, in the absence of the Cadets, wanted
to enact whatever parts of the program of the recent Soviet Congress they
could; Kerensky sought to gratify his friends further to the right by breaking
up centers of Bolshevik influence.
Meanwhile, a
decree subjecting Lenin to arrest had already been issued. Likewise Zinoviev. According
to Deutscher, Stalin’s biographer, Stalin took the leading role in the ensuing
intrigue. Lenin, says Deutscher, thought perhaps he should turn himself in, to
do otherwise would be considered an admission of guilt. Stalin pointed out to
him the risks of putting himself in the hands of the Provisional Government. Stalin
brought the matter to the Executive Committee, but found they were unable to
guarantee Lenin’s safety. Instead Lenin took refuge in the home of the workman
Alliluyev for a few days. There Stalin served as barber, removing Lenin’s
characteristic beard and moustache. A few days later Alliluyev and Stalin
guided Lenin to a suburban train station, whence he travelled under cover to suburban
villages and eventually to Finland. Alliluyev later became Stalin’s father in
law.
Trotsky omits
this, saying instead that from his hiding place, Lenin sent to the Inquiry
Commission of the Soviet to ask for a meeting. Lenin and Zinoviev waited all day
at the agreed place, but the Soviet’s representatives never appeared.
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