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

THE DRAMA OF BREST LITOVSK 347
The Bolshevik peace propaganda, as an American observer put
it, 'was indeed urgent and active, but ... it was much the case
of a man blowing with his breath in the same direction with a
full grown natural tornado' . 1 Yet in their desire to avert
Russia's 'defection', the allied envoys almost persuaded themselves
that the tornado would die down if only the Bolsheviks
stopped blowing. Almost from the beginning of the February
Revolution the British and the French ambassadors urged
Prince Lvov, Miliukov, and Kerensky to suppress Lenin's
party. 2 The heads of their military missions hopefully encouraged
Kornilov to stage his coup against Kerensky and the Menshevik
Soviets. 3 Two days before the October insurrection, the
British Ambassador in quite undiplomatic language pressed the
Russian Ministers for Trotsky's immediate arrest. 4 Now when
the Bolsheviks were in power, their revolutionary appeals, their
disregard of diplomatic form, and their threat to publish and
declare null and void the secret treaties and to withdraw Russia
from the war, brought the hostility of the allies to a head. Their
envoys were so bewildered by the upheaval they had witnessed
and at such a loss to account for it that they were inclined to
accept any crime story purporting to offer an explanation. They
were half-convinced that Lenin and Trotsky were in fact Germany's
bought agents and that it was German officers who had
so efficiently and smoothly directed the October insurrection. 5
One consolation was left-that the Bolsheviks would soon be
overthrown; and that it was the duty of the allied powers to
speed up that momcnt. 6
only the lea