After the Kornilov conspiracy and the disintegration of the government, after the breakdown of the conspiracy and the formation of the Kerensky-Kishkin cabinet, after the “new” crisis and the “new” Tsereteli-Gotz negotiations with this same Kerensky, we have at last a “new” (brand new!) five-man government.

A “Directory” of five: Kerensky, Tereshchenko, Verkhovsky, Verderevsky and Nikitin—such is the “new” government, “chosen” by Kerensky, endorsed by Kerensky, responsible to Kerensky, and independent of the workers, peasants and soldiers.

It is said that this government is independent, too, of the Cadets. But that is sheer nonsense, for the fact that there are no official representatives of the Cadets in the government is merely a camouflage for its complete dependence on the Cadets.

Ostensibly, Kerensky the Socialist-Revolutionary is Supreme Commander. Actually, the General Staff, i.e., complete control of the front, has been put in the hands of General Alexeyev, a placeman of the Cadets.

Ostensibly, the “Left” Directory is independent (no joke!) of the Cadets. Actually, the directors of the Ministries, the men who really administer all the affairs of state, are placemen of the Cadets. Professedly, a rupture with the Cadets. In reality, an agreement with placemen of the Cadets in the rear and at the front.

The Directory as a camouflage for an alliance with the Cadets, the dictatorship of Kerensky as a shield to protect the dictatorship of the landlords and capitalists from the anger of the people—such is the picture today. And ahead lies another conference of representatives of the “virile forces,” at which Messieurs the Tseretelis and Avksentyevs, those inveterate compromisers, will strive to convert yesterday’s secret compromise with the Cadets into an open and explicit compromise, to the glee of the enemies of the workers and peasants.

In the past six months our country has witnessed three acute crises of power. On each occasion the crisis was resolved by a compromise with the bourgeoisie, and on each occasion the workers and peasants were fooled. Why?

Because on each occasion the petty-bourgeois parties, the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, intervened in the struggle for power, sided with the landlords and capitalists and decided the issue in favour of the Cadets.

The Kornilov conspiracy thoroughly exposed the counter-revolutionary nature of the Cadets. For three days the defencists clamoured about the treachery of the Cadets; for three days they clamoured about the impracticability of a coalition which fell to pieces at the very first clash with the counter-revolution. And what do we find? After all this they could think of nothing better to do than to accept a camouflaged coalition with the very Cadets whom they had been abusing.

Only yesterday the defencist majority in the Central Executive Committee voted to “support” the five-man Directory, the product of backstage compromises with the Cadets to the detriment of the fundamental interests of the workers and peasants.

That day, when the crisis of power had become acute, when, with the smashing of Kornilov, the struggle for power had become intense, the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries once again helped the landlords and capitalists to retain power, once again helped the counter-revolutionary Cadets to fool the workers and peasants.

That, and that alone, is the political import of yesterday’s voting in the Central Executive Committee.

Let the workers know this, let the peasants know it, and let them draw the appropriate conclusions.

Today’s masked coalition is just as unstable as yesterday’s open coalitions: there can be no stable agreement between landlord and peasant, between capitalist and worker. And because of this the struggle for power, far from being ended, grows ever more intense and acute.

Let the workers know that in this struggle they will inevitably suffer defeat so long as the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks enjoy influence with the masses.

Let the workers remember that in order to take power the peasant and soldier masses must be wrested from the compromisers, the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, and rallied around the revolutionary proletariat.

Let them remember that, and let them open the eyes of the peasants and soldiers by exposing the treachery of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks. An implacable struggle must be waged against the influence of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks on the masses, work must be carried on tirelessly to rally the peasants and soldiers around the banner of the party of the proletariat—such is the lesson to be drawn from this recent crisis.

Rabochy Put, No. 1,

September 3, 1917

Editorial