pon themselves
the powers of government. Someone proclaimed that now the Russian
people should have peace, and when Prof. Milioukoff, foreign minister
for the new government, assured France and England that Russia would
stick by them to the last, a howling crowd of workingmen threatened to
mob him. "No annexations and no indemnities," was the cry of the
socialists. "Let us go back to conditions as they were before the war.
Let each nation bear the burden of its own losses and let us have
peace." After a stormy session, the new government agreed to include
in its numbers several representatives of the soldiers and workingmen.
Prof. Milioukoff resigned and Alexander Kerensky, a radical young
lawyer, became the real leader of the Russian government.

[Illustration: Kerensky (standing in automobile) reviewing Russian
troops]

Germany and Austria, meanwhile, had eagerly seized the advantage
offered by Russia's internal troubles. Their troops were ordered to
make friends with the Russians in the trenches opposite. They played
eagerly upon the new Russian feeling of the brotherhood of man and
freedom and equality, to do away with fighting on the east, thus being
able to transfer to the western front some of their best regiments. As
a result the French and English, after driving the Germans back for
many miles in northern France were at last brought to a standstill.
The burden of carrying the whole war seemed about to fall more heavily
than ever upon the armies in the west. Talk of a separate peace
between Russia and the central powers grew stronger and stronger. The
Russian troops felt that they had been fighting the battles of the
Czar and the grand dukes and they saw no reason why they should go on
shooting their brother workingmen in Germany.

At this point Kerensky, who had been made minister of war, set out to
visit the armies in the field. Arriving at the battle grounds of
eastern Galicia he made rousing speeches to the soldiers and actually
led them in person toward the German trenches. The result was a
vigorous attack all along the line under Generals Brusiloff and
Korniloff which swept the Germans and Austrians back for many miles,
and threatened for a time to recapture Lemberg. German spies, however,
and agents of the peace party were busy among the Russian soldiers.
They soon persuaded a certain division to stop fighting and retreat.
The movement to the rear, begun by these troops, carried others with
it, and fo