revolutionary work with all its might, to develop its struggle for peace, only by depending on you, knowing that you will not allow the military destruction of Russia.

    Comrades—­soldiers, the workers and peasants, not only of Russia,
    but of the whole world, look to you with confidence and hope.

    Soldiers of the Revolution, you will prove worthy of this faith,
    for you know that your military tasks serve the cause of peace.

    In the name of the happiness and freedom of Revolutionary Russia,
    in the name of the coming brotherhood of nations, you will fulfil
    your military duties with unconquerable strength.

Again and again Tseretelli was interrupted with cheers as he read this Appeal to the Army.  He was cheered, too, when he explained that the Soviet had decided to support the reconstructed Provisional Government and called upon the soldiers to do likewise.  There was a storm of applause when he said:  “We well realize the necessity of having a strong power in Russia; however, the strength of this power must rely upon its progressive and revolutionary policy.  Our government must adopt the revolutionary slogans of democracy.  It must grant the demands of the revolutionary people.  It must turn over all land to the laboring peasantry.  It must safeguard the interests of the working class, enacting improved social legislation for the protection of labor.  It must lead Russia to a speedy and lasting peace worthy of a great people.”

When Plechanov was introduced to the convention as “the veteran of the Russian Revolution” he received an ovation such as few men have ever been accorded.  The great Socialist theorist plunged into a keen and forceful attack upon the theories of the Bolsheviki.  He was frequently interrupted by angry cries and by impatient questionings, which he answered with rapier-like sentences.  He was asked what a “democratic” government should be, and replied: 

“I am asked, ’What should a democratic government be?  My answer is:  It should be a government enjoying the people’s full confidence and sufficiently strong to prevent any possibility of anarchy.  Under what condition, then, can such a strong, democratic government be established?  In my opinion it is necessary, for this purpose, that the government be composed of representatives of all those parts of the population that are not interested in the restoration of the old order.  What is called a coalition Ministry is necessary.  Our comrades, the Socialists, acknowledging the necessity of entering the government, can and should set forth definite conditions, definite demands. But there should be no demands that would be unacceptable to the representatives of other classes, to the spokesmen of other parts of the population.”