32
PETER WEISS
TROTSKY: Kerensky has fled from the Winter Palace in an American
embassy car. He has left the capital. Some ministers have been arrest–
ed. Others will be arrested in the next few hours. We are about to
take the Winter Palace.
Applause. Uproar.
KHINCHUK: Take care of the palace. It mustn't be stormed.
VorCE: The Wmter Palace is in ruins.
SAILOR 1: There are no ruins. Only warning shots. That was enough.
Get on with your work, comrades.
MART.oV: You have decided the matter of power through a conspiracy.
The various .revolutionary parties are presented with a fait accompli.
The crisis can only be solved peacefully by setting up an authority
which can be recognized by all democratic forces.
SHLYAPNIKOV: Not a conspiracy, Martov. An armed rising of the work-
ers and soldiers of Petrograd.
MARTOV: The Congress cannot meet under threat of arms.
KHINCHUK: There must be talks with the provisional government.
ABRAMovICH: Abolish the constituent assembly and there'll be chaos.
Russia will be plunged into civil war.
TROTSKY: With whom are we to negotiate? I say, with whom? With
the people who are moving out? In this Congress millions of work–
ers and peasants are represented. Are these to negotiate on equal terms
with that miserable heap whom nobody in Russia supports?
ABRAM.ovICH: You don't represent the whole people.
RYKOV: We represent the people that matter. We Bolsheviks represent
the proletariat of both town and country.
MARTOV: We demand an immediate cease-fire on both sides. We demand
the setting up of a united democratic front.
Catcalls. Laughter. Applause.
VorCE: Are you Mensheviks still here?
LENIN:
If
there are any comrades here who don't accept our program,
they had better disappear with the other deserters and compromisers.
Let's get on. Next point.
MARTOV, ABRAMOVICH, KHINCHUK
spring to their feet.
MARTOV: This Congress
is
unconstitutional.
Laughter. Uproar. The right wing of the Mensheviks begin to with–
draw.
KAMENEV: Put in the minutes: Martov, Abramovich, Khinchuk leave
the chamber with the right-wing Mensheviks.
TROTSKY: You're bankrupt. Your role's played out.
Go
where you be–
long - into the rubbish bins of history.
Laughter. Applause. A few more delegates jump up.
