earing, not allowing itself to be disturbed by any
provocation. The correspondents of foreign newspapers congratulated the
members and said to them that in this session to which the Bolsheviki had
wished to give the character of "any-old-kind-of-a-meeting" all the
fractions maintained a truly parliamentary attitude.

The Bolshevik terror became rife. _All the newspapers that tried to open
the eyes of the people as to what was happening were confiscated_. Every
attempt to circulate the _Dielo Naroda_ or other newspapers of the
opposition was severely punished. The volunteer venders of these papers
were arrested, cruelly struck down by rifle butts, and sometimes even shot.
The population, indignant, gathered in groups on the streets, but the Red
Guards dispersed all assemblages.

XI

_The Dissolution of the Third All-Russian Peasants' Congress_

This is the course of the events which followed the dissolution of the
Constituante. On the 8th of January the members of the Constituante
assembled at Bolotnaia; two were arrested; the premises of the fraction
were occupied by the Red Guards. On the 9th of January took place the
funeral of the victims, in which all Petrograd took part. The Bolsheviki
this time did not dare to shoot into the magnificent procession preceded by
a long line of coffins. The 10th of January they dispersed the Third
All-Russian Congress of Peasants which had placed itself on the side of the
Constituent Assembly. The Congress had been at first arranged for the 8th
of January (the same day as the Bolshevik Congress of the Soviets), but,
because of the events, it was postponed to the 10th. The peasants who had
come to this Congress knew perfectly well that they would have a fight to
uphold, perhaps even to give their lives. Their neighbors, their
co-villagers, wept when they saw them set out, as if it were a question of
men condemned to death. That alone suffices to show to what degree were
conscious these peasants who had come from all corners of the country to
prepare themselves for the defense of the Constituent Assembly.

As soon as the Congress was opened sailors and Red Guards, armed with guns
and hand-grenades, broke into the premises (11 Kirillovskaia Street),
surrounded the house, poured into the corridors and the session hall, and
ordered all persons to leave.

"In whose name do you order us, who are Delegates to the Peasants' Congress
of All-Russia, to disperse?" asked the peasants.