PARTISAN REVIEW
33
KREMER: Under these conditions it is impossible for the delegates of
the United Jewish Workers to take part in the debate.
KAMENEV: Put in the minutes: the delegates of the United Jewish
Workers leave the chamber.
KUCHIN: Political adventurers are here deciding over the life of the
nation. The soldiers in the trenches are not on your side.
Protests.
PETERSON,
a soldier, rises.
PETERSON: Whom are you speaking for, Kuchin?
KUCHIN: For our people at the front. We refuse to accept any respon–
sibility for the consequences of this gamble.
PETERS.ON: Enough hot air. You do
not
represent the front line. I've
just come from there. We're waiting impatiently for the soviets to
assume power. Delegates who haven't been sent here by anybody
should leave the Congress.
Applause.
KUCHIN
goes off. Some other delegates accompany him.
KAMENEV: What's your name, comrade?
PETERSON: Peterson. Soldier from Latvia.
KAMENEV: On the minutes. The delegates of the front line army com–
mittee leave the chamber. The group of Right Social Revolutionaries
leave the chamber.
Uproar. Applause. Whistling. A workers' delegation comes in.
WORKER 1: Comrades, you must do something about Kaledin. At once.
He's trying to cut off the coal mines in the Don basin and block the
food supplies.
WORKER
2:
Kerensky's in Gatchina. He's ordered a forced march on
Petrograd by the Cossack regiment.
TROTSKY
writes notes and gives them to messengers. He turns to
SHLYAPNIKOV
and
MRACHKOVSKY.
TROTSKY: Reinforcements for Miliutin. To the goods yard. To the
market.
SHLYAPNIKOV
and
MRACHKOVSKY
go off. A
SAILOR
comes in.
SAILOR
2:
The third bicycle batallion
has
come over to the side of the
revolution.
Cheers. A messenger gives
RYKOV
a telegram.
RYKov: Telegram from the Twelfth Army. Sends greetings to the Con–
gress. Reports formation of a military revolutionary committee to
watch over the northern front. Attempts by the provisional govern–
ment to summon armed help foiled by troop resistance. The com–
mander in chief of the northern front, General Cheremissov, has
agreed to subordinate himself to the committee.
Cheers. A group of soldiers
-
Cossacks
-
from the front enters.
SOLDIER: We represent the echelons sent by the provisional government