ted in the
Cabinet by the Minister of Agriculture, Tschernow. This is,
perhaps, the strongest of all the Russian parties, having
succeeded in leading the whole of the peasant movement into its
course--at the Pan-Russian Congress the great majority of the
peasants' deputies were Social Revolutionaries, and no Social
Democrat was elected to the executive committee of the Peasants'
Deputies' Council. A section of this party, and, it would seem,
the greater and more influential portion, is definitely opposed to
any offensive. This is plainly stated in the leading organs of the
party, _Delo Naroda_ and _Zemlja i Wolja_. Only a small and
apparently uninfluential portion, grouped round the organ _Volja
Naroda_, faces the bourgeois Press with unconditional demands for
an offensive to relieve the Allies, as does the Plechanow group.
Kerenski's party, the Trudoviks, as also the related People's
Socialists, represented in the Cabinet by the Minister of Food,
Peschechonow, are still undecided whether to follow Kerenski here
or not. Verbal information, and utterances in the Russian Press,
as, for instance, the _Retch_, assert that Kerenski's health gives
grounds for fearing a fatal catastrophe in a short time. The
official organ of the Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies' Council,
the _Isvestia_, on the other hand, frequently asserts with great
emphasis that an offensive must unquestionably be made. It is
characteristic that a speech made by the Minister of Agriculture,
Tschernow, to the Peasants' Congress, was interpreted as meaning
that he was opposed to the offensive, so that he was obliged to
justify himself to his colleagues in the Ministry and deny that
such had been his meaning.

While, then, people at home are seriously divided on the question
of an offensive, the men at the front appear but little inclined
to undertake any offensive. This is stated by all parties in the
Russian Press, the symptoms being regarded either with
satisfaction or with regret. The infantry in particular are
against the offensive; the only enthusiasm is to be found among
the officers, in the cavalry or a part of it, and the artillery.
It is characteristic also that the Cossacks are in favour of war.
These, at any rate, have an ulterior motive, in that they hope by
success at the front to be able ultimately to overthrow the
revolutionary regime. For there is this to be borne in