Ten Days That Shook The World by John Reed Page A

that happens in the district under charge to the Staff of the Petrograd Military District.
     
    I call upon all Army Committees and organizations to afford their help to the commanders in fulfillment of the duties with which they are charged.
     
    In the Council of the Republic Kerensky declared that the Government was fully aware of the Bolshevik preparations, and had sufficient force to cope with any demonstration. (See App. III, Sect. 5) He accused Novaya Rus and Robotchi Put of both doing the same kind of subversive work. "But owing to the absolute freedom of the press," he added, "the Government is not in a position to combat printed lies. [*]...." Declaring that these were two aspects of the same [* This was not quite candid.  The Provisional Government had suppressed Bolshevik papers before, in July, and was planning to do so again.]
    propaganda, which had for its object the counter-revolution, so ardently desired by the Dark Forces, he went on:
     
    "I am a doomed man, it doesn't matter what happens to me, and I have the audacity to say that the other enigmatic part is that of the unbelievable provocation created in the city by the Bolsheviki!"
     
    On November 2nd only fifteen delegates to the Congress of Soviets had arrived. Next day there were a hundred, and the morning after that a hundred and seventy-five, of whom one hundred and three were Bolsheviki.... Four hundred constituted a quorum, and the Congress was only three days off....
     
    I spent a great deal of time at Smolny. It was no longer easy to get in. Double rows of sentries guarded the outer gates, and once inside the front door there was a long line of people waiting to be let in, four at a time, to be questioned as to their identity and their business. Passes were given out, and the pass system was changed every few hours; for spies continually sneaked through....
     
    [Graphic page-49  Russian Pass to Reed, translation follows]
     
    Pass to Smolny Institute, issued by the Military Revolutionary Committee, giving me the right of entry at any time. (Translation)
     
    Military Revolutionary Committee
               attached to the
    Petrograd Soviet of W. & S. D.
            Commandant's office
    16th November, 1917
                   No. 955
               Smolny Institute
     
                  PASS
     
    Is given by the present to John Reed, correspondent of the American Socialist press, until December 1, the right of free entry into Smolny Institute. Commandant
                                   Adjutant
     
    One day as I came up to the outer gate I saw Trotsky and his wife just ahead of me. They were halted by a soldier. Trotsky searched through his pockets, but could find no pass.
     
    "Never mind," he said finally. "You know me. My name is Trotsky."
     
    "You haven't got a pass," answered the soldier stubbornly.
     
    "You cannot go in. Names don't mean anything to me."
     
    "But I am the president of the Petrograd Soviet."
     
    "Well," replied the soldier, "if you're as important a fellow as that you must at least have one little paper."
     
    Trotsky was very patient. "Let me see the Commandant," he said. The soldier hesitated, grumbling something about not wanting to disturb the Commandant for every devil that came along. He beckoned finally to the soldier in command of the guard. Trotsky explained matters to him. "My name is Trotsky," he repeated.
     
    "Trotsky?" The other soldier scratched his head. "I've heard the name somewhere," he said at length. "I guess it's all right. You can go on in, comrade...."
     
    In the corridor I met Karakhan, member of the Bolshevik Central Committee, who explained to me what the new Government would be like.
     
    "A loose organization, sensitive to the popular will as expressed through the Soviets, allowing local forces full play. At present the Provisional Government obstructs the action of the local democratic will, just as the Tsar's