impossible for me in
the present circumstances, when defeat without and disintegration within
are threatening the country, to withdraw from the heavy task which is now
intrusted to me, I regard this task as an express order of the country to
construct a strong revolutionary government in the shortest possible time
and in spite of all the obstacles which might arise."

For the second time Kerensky was Premier at the head of a Coalition
Ministry. No other government was possible for Russia except a strong
despotism. Theorists might debate the advisability of such coalition, but
the stern reality was that nothing else was possible. The leader of the
peasants, Chernov, returned to his old post as Minister of Agriculture and
the Constitutional Democrats took their share of the burden. There were six
parties and groups in the new Cabinet, four of them of various shades of
Socialism and two of them liberal bourgeoisie. Never before, perhaps, and
certainly only rarely, if ever, have men essayed a heavier or more
difficult task than that which this new Provisional Government undertook.

Heroically Kerensky sought to make successful the efforts of General
Kornilov, as commander-in-chief, to restore order and discipline in the
army, but it was too late. The disintegration had gone too far. The
measures which the Revolutionary Democracy had introduced into the army, in
the hope of realizing freedom, had reduced it to a wild mob. Officers were
butchered by their men; regiment after regiment deserted its post and, in
some instances, attempted to make a separate peace with the enemy, even
offering to pay indemnities. Moreover, the industrial organization of the
country had been utterly demoralized. The manufacture of army supplies had
fallen off more than 60 per cent., with the result that the state of
affairs was worse than in the most corrupt period of the old regime.

XI

It became evident to the Provisional Government that something big and
dramatic must be done, without waiting for the results of the Constituent
Assembly elections. Accordingly, it was decided to call together a great
extraordinary council, representing all classes and all parties, to
consider the situation and the best means of meeting it. The Extraordinary
National Conference, as it was called, was opened in Moscow, on August
26th, with more than fourteen hundred members in attendance. Some of these
members--principally those from the Soviets--had been elect