terests of the liberal and
democratic bourgeoisie, but shows a tendency to follow the right line,
in the declaration published by it in agreement with the representatives
of the Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' Deputies, therefore the
all-Russian Conference of Councils of Workmen's and Soldiers' Deputies,
while insisting on the need of constant pressure being brought to
bear on the Provisional Government to arouse it to the most energetic
struggle with the counter-revolutionary forces, and to decisive measures
in the direction of an immediate democratization of the entire Russian
life, nevertheless recognizes that political expediency dictates support
of the Provisional Government by the Council of Workmen's and Soldiers'
Deputies _so long_ as the Provisional Government, in agreement with the
Council, moves inflexibly toward the consolidation of the conquests of
the revolution and the extension of these conquests."

The expression "so long as," emphasized in the translation of the
resolution, has been one of the most far-reaching of the formulae
produced by the revolution. Around this phrase has centered the struggle
of these last months. The extremists decided from the very start that
the condition had not been fulfilled. The more moderate socialists took
an attitude of constant watchfulness, and latent distrust.

"Revolutionary Democracy" could not be organized in a week or a
month, so for the first period it was represented by the revolutionary
democracy of Petrograd, through the Petrograd Council of Workmen's and
Soldiers' Deputies, supplemented by delegates from similar councils of
other cities, and by representatives from the army at the front. It was
more difficult to organize the peasants scattered through the country,
and not concentrated in barracks or factories. The workmen and soldiers
of Petrograd therefore assumed to represent all revolutionary democracy,
and they had the physical force behind them. They were there on the
spot, at the administrative and political center inherited from the
old regime, ready to act without delay when they decided that the
Provisional Government should no longer be supported. And the workmen
and soldiers of Petrograd were being won over gradually to the
extremists, the Bolsheviki.

As the Provisional Government was aiming first of all to preserve
social peace, adopting a policy of conciliation, it did not oppose the
supervision exercised by the Council. In fact it realize