Side by side with the work of organisation, a raging and tearing agitation was being carried on. It was a period of incessant meetings at factories, in the Modern and Ciniselli Circuses, in the clubs and barracks. The atmosphere at all these meetings was decidedly electric. Every mention of an insurrection was met with a storm of applause and cries of approval. The bourgeois press only intensified the general state of alarm. My order to the Sestroretsky Small Arms Factory about the issue of 5,000 rifles to the Red Guard called forth an indescribable panic in bourgeois circles. They talked and wrote constantly about a general massacre that was being prepared. This, of course, did not in the least prevent the workers of the Sestroretsky Factory from issuing arms to the Red Guards. The more furiously the bourgeois press slandered and execrated us, the more ardently did the masses respond to our call. It became more and more evident to both sides that the crisis was bound to come to a head in the course of the next few days. The Socialist Revolutionary and Menshevik press were frantically agitated: “The Revolution is in the greatest danger! A repetition of the July days is being prepared on an immensely greater scale and will therefore be bound to have still more ruinous results.”
Gorky, in his paper Novaya Zhizn (New Life), daily prophesied the coming collapse of the whole cultural life of the country. In general, the socialist red paint was vanishing with astonishing rapidity from the bourgeois intellectuals as the stern reign of the working-class dictatorship drew nearer. On the other hand, the soldiers, even of the more backward regiments, were greeting the commissioners of the Military Revolutionary Committee with enthusiasm. Delegates were arriving from Cossack troops and from the socialist minority amongst the Cadets, promising, in case of an open collision, to secure, at least, the neutrality of their men. It was evident that Kerensky’s government was simply hanging in the air, without any firm ground under its feet.
The military staff of the district entered into negotiations with us and proposed a compromise. In order to get an idea of the strength of resistance of our foe we entered into discussions. But the nerves of the staff were all on edge. Now they would admonish, then they would threaten us, and even declared that our commissioners were illegal – which ban, of course, did not in the least interfere with their work. The Central Executive Committee, in agreement with the military staff, appointed Staff Captain Malevsky to be Chief Commissioner for the Petrograd military district, and generously consented to recognise our commissioners, provided they were subordinated to their Chief Commissioner. This proposal was rejected and the negotiations were broken off.
Prominent Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries would come to us as mediators, reason with and threaten us, foretelling our doom and the doom of the Revolution.