indeed a military _coup d'etat. The city hall, where sat
the Socialists, who were elected by equal, direct, and secret
universal suffrage, was surrounded by soldiers; machine-guns were
placed in front and the bombardment began. This lasted a whole
night; some were wounded, some killed_. The municipal judges were
arrested. Soon after a Manifesto solemnly announced to the
population that the "enemies of the people," the
"counter-revolutionaries," were overthrown; that the power of
Saratov was going to pass into the hands of the Soviet
(Bolshevist) of the Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates.

As soon as the overthrow of the existing authorities was effected and the
Bolsheviki, through their Red Guards and other means, were in a position to
exert their authority, they resorted to every method of oppression and
repression known to the old autocratic regime. They suppressed the papers
of the Socialist parties and groups opposed to them, and in some instances
confiscated the plants, turned out the editors, and used the papers
themselves. In one of his "Letters to the Comrades," published in the
_Rabochiy Put_, a few days before the insurrection, Lenine had confessed
that Kerensky had maintained freedom of the press and of assemblage. The
passage is worth quoting, not only for the information it contains
concerning the Kerensky regime, but also because it affords a standard by
which to judge the Bolsheviki. Lenine wrote:

The Germans have only one Liebknecht, no newspapers, no freedom of
assemblage, no councils; they are working against the intense
hostility of all classes of the population, including the wealthy
peasants--with the imperialist bourgeoisie splendidly
organized--and yet the Germans are making some attempt at
agitation; _while we, with tens of papers, with freedom of
assemblage, with the majority of the Council with us, we, the best
situated of all the proletarian internationalists, can we refuse
to support the German revolutionists in organizing a revolt?_

That it was not the "German revolutionists" who in November, 1917, wanted
the Russians to revolt against the Kerensky government, but the Majority
Socialists, upon whom Lenine had poured his contempt, on the one hand, and
the German General Staff, on the other hand, is a mere detail. The
important thing is that Lenine admitted that under the Kerensky government
the Russian workers, includi