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isaac-deutscher-the-prophet-armed-trotsky-1879-1921

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THE PROPHET ARMED<br />

districts to join in. That stimulus was provided by <strong>the</strong> Mensheviks,<br />

who would one day bitterly oppose <strong>the</strong> institution to which<br />

<strong>the</strong>y now acted as godfa<strong>the</strong>rs.<br />

The Soviet instantaneously gained an extraordinary authority.<br />

This was <strong>the</strong> first elective body which represented <strong>the</strong><br />

hi<strong>the</strong>rto disfranchised working classes. Under a government<br />

which held in supreme contempt <strong>the</strong> very principle of popular<br />

representation, <strong>the</strong> first institution embodying that principle at<br />

once tended morally to overshadow <strong>the</strong> existing administration.<br />

The Soviet at once became a revolutionary factor of <strong>the</strong> first<br />

magnitude.<br />

For <strong>the</strong> first time Trotsky appeared at <strong>the</strong> Soviet, assembled<br />

at <strong>the</strong> Technological Institute, on 15 October, <strong>the</strong> day of his<br />

return from Finland, or <strong>the</strong> day after. Deputies from several<br />

districts were present-about 200,000 people, nearly 50 per<br />

cent. of all workers in <strong>the</strong> capital, had taken part in <strong>the</strong> election.<br />

Later, after fur<strong>the</strong>r elections, <strong>the</strong> number of deputies grew and<br />

varied from 400 to 560. The Soviet had just decided to publish<br />

its own paper, 1::.vestya (Tidings); and it negotiated with <strong>the</strong><br />

municipal council for accommodation and facilities for work.<br />

In <strong>the</strong> halls and corridors of <strong>the</strong> Technological Institute <strong>the</strong>re<br />

was an air of feverish agitation: strikers were coming and going,<br />

deliberating and waiting for instructions-a foretaste of <strong>the</strong><br />

Soviet of 1917.<br />

The Socialist parties and groups, however, were not yet<br />

agreed in <strong>the</strong>ir attitude towards <strong>the</strong> Soviet. The Mensheviks<br />

and Social Revolutionaries had decided to send <strong>the</strong>ir representatives<br />

immediately. The Bolsheviks were reluctant to follow<br />

suit and demanded that <strong>the</strong> Soviet should accept <strong>the</strong> party's<br />

guidance beforehand-only <strong>the</strong>n were <strong>the</strong>y prepared to join.<br />

Trotsky, invited by Krasin to a meeting of <strong>the</strong> Bolshevik Central<br />

Committee, urged its members to join <strong>the</strong> Soviet without any<br />

preliminary condition. No party or group, he pleaded, could<br />

aspire to exclusive leadership. The Soviet should be a broad<br />

representative body embracing all shades of \vorking-class<br />

opinion, for only <strong>the</strong>n would it be able to provide a united<br />

leadership in <strong>the</strong> general strike and in <strong>the</strong> revolutionary situation<br />

that might develop from it.<br />

This wrangle was still on when on 1 7 October <strong>the</strong> Tsar,<br />

frightened by <strong>the</strong> general strike, issued a Manifesto promising a

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