Soviet center. There were also some "pogrom" elements, black-hundred
elements, and obviously mercenary elements, seeking to utilize the
occasion for instigating pogroms and chaos. From among the sundry
elements came the demands for the arrest of Chernoff and Tseretelli, for
the dispersal of the Executive Committee, etc. An attempt was even made
to arrest Chernoff. Subsequently, at Kresty, I identified one of the
sailors who had participated in this attempt; he was a criminal,
imprisoned at Kresty for robbery. But the bourgeois and the coalitionist
press represented this movement as a pogromist, counter-revolutionary
affair, and, at the same time, as a Bolshevist crusade, the immediate
object of which was to seize the reins of Government by the use of armed
force against the Central Executive Committee.

The movement of July 3rd-5th had already disclosed with perfect
clearness that a complete impotence reigned within the ruling Soviet
parties at Petrograd. The garrison was far from being all on our side.
There were still some wavering, undecided, passive elements. But if we
should ignore the junkers, there were no regiments at all which were
ready to fight us in the defense of the Government or the leading Soviet
parties. It was necessary to summon troops from the front. The entire
strategy of Tseretelli, Chernoff, and others on the 3rd of July resolved
itself into this: to gain time in order to give Kerensky an opportunity
to bring up his "loyal" regiments. One deputation after another entered
the hall of the Taurida Palace, which was surrounded by armed crowds,
and demanded a complete separation from the bourgeoisie, positive social
reforms, and the opening of peace negotiations.

We, the Bolsheviki, met every new company of disgruntled troops gathered
in the yards and streets, with speeches, in which we called upon them to
be calm and assured them that, in view of the present temper of the