28
PETER WEISS
is in danger. Counterrevolutionary J:ioters, junkers and assault troops
are preparing an offensive. Take up action stations and await further
instructions. Disobedience or delay in carrying out orders will be re–
garded as betrayal of the revolutionary cause.
POZNANSKY
gives the written order to a soldier, who goes off with it.
LENIN: Control of the press. The idea of dispensing with that comes
from the same sort of people who think a coalition with the Menshe–
viks and the Social Revolutionaries still possible. What nonsense these
democrats talk, even the most left-wing ones, about the freedom of
the press. Why do the liberals want a free press? So they can slander
us. The right to speak is less important than the J:ight to live. First
thing is to establish proletarian dictatorship over the press. The press
is a weapon in the revolutionary struggle. All moral considerations
must take second place.
SMffiNOV: In the city center, right beside the palace, people are out
taking walks. It's unbelievable. The trams are running as usual, the
restaurants are open, and the cinemas and theaters. I've just come
from the Moyka. Walking around among the officers, coachmen, ladies
dressed up in their finery, it made me feel like a dwarf trying to
move a mountain. And on my way here I had my coat stolen. I
thought at first it was a patrol. It was just a few youngsters.
TROTSKY: Where was that, Smirnov?
SMffiNOV: Here, just outside Smolny. They came up to me and said,
Comrade, take your fur coat off, it's warmed you long enough, we're
freezing. Quick, they said, off with it. I had to give it them.
Laughter.
TROTSKY: Poznansky, get this out immediately. All people creating
disorder, looting, knifing or shooting in the streets of Petrograd will
be tried by court martial and, if found guilty, summarily executed.
DZERZHINSKY: Just look at us. Gray faces. Unshaven. We'll lose the
revolution if we don't get some sleep. Oh, for a bath, a clean shirt.
A
FEMALE WORKER
in a soldier's greatcoat brings in a bowl of
water and puts it down before
DZERZHINSKY.
He washes his face,
fills his mouth with water, gargles, spits it out.
LENIN
rises, walks
to and fro.
LENIN: So soon after persecution, exile - power. It makes one giddy.
(He makes a circular movement with a hand around his head)
We
must form a government. What shall we call ourselves? Not on any
account ministers. Vile word.
SVERDLOV: Commissars, perhaps? But there are too many commissars al–
ready.
SMffiNOV: Chief commissars. Or People's Commissars.
