The bureaucratic divestiture for the benefit of organizations proceeded irreversibly. Representation was set by virtue of adherence to an organization, not by virtue of elections, which existed only for show. Yet nothing indicates that these democrats meant consciously to violate or parody democratic procedures. No protest or discussion disturbed the atmosphere of unanimity, except over the number of representatives who were to be admitted and the choice of organizations defined as “representative.” Over this, there developed a veritable political struggle. The Bolshevik proposal was intended to double the number of their representatives, to assure them of a surplus of votes through the addition of Latvian Bolsheviks. The representatives of the other organizations did not object: all in all, this procedure assured the non-Bolsheviks in equal measure of an even more consistent surplus of those elected. In that manner, every tendency and every subtendency of Social Democracy or of the SRs had a right to two representatives in the bureau, even if behind it stood no more than a handful of activists. Conversely, the thousands of soldiers and workers who had really made February, disappeared] forever from the scene. Henceforth, the “representatives” [spoke] in their name.78
41. Executive Committee (Ispolkom) of the Petrograd Soviet. In front, holding briefcase, N. D. Sokolov. On his left, leaning forward, N. S. Chkheidze.
Surprisingly, the gatherings of the Ispolkom, although involving small numbers of politically literate persons, were not much more orderly than those of the Soviet at large—at any rate, in the first weeks of its existence. As described by the representative of the Trudoviki, V. B. Stankevich, they also were a madhouse:
At this time, the Ispolkom carried extraordinary weight and importance. Formally it represented only Petrograd, but in fact it was the revolutionary organ of all Russia, the highest authoritative institution which was everywhere listened to with intense attention as the guide and leader of the insurgent people. But this was complete illusion. There was no leadership and there could not have been any.…
The meetings took place daily beginning at 1 p.m., sometimes earlier, and ran late into the night, except when the Soviet was in session and the Ispolkom, usually in a body, went over to join it. The agenda was usually set by the “commune” [
The most important decisions were often reached by completely accidental majorities. There was no time to think matters over, because everything was done in haste, after many sleepless nights, in confusion. Everyone was physically exhausted. Sleepless nights. Endless meetings. The lack of proper food: people lived on bread and tea, and only occasionally got a soldier’s meal, served without forks or knives.79
In this initial period, according to Stankevich, “one could always have one’s way with the Ispolkom if one insisted stubbornly enough.” Under these conditions, rhetoric substituted for analysis and good intentions for reality. Later, toward the end of March, when Irakli Tsereteli, a leading Georgian Menshevik, returned from Siberian exile and took over the chairmanship, the sessions of the Ispolkom acquired a somewhat more orderly appearance, in good measure because its decisions were predetermined at caucuses of the socialist parties.
Thus, in no time, the Petrograd Soviet acquired a split personality: on top, speaking on behalf of the Soviet, a body of socialist intellectuals organized as the Executive Committee; below, an unruly village assembly. Except for its intelligentsia spokesmen, the Soviet was a rural body wedged into the most cosmopolitan city of the Empire. And no wonder: Petrograd had been a predominantly peasant city even before the war, when peasants had formed 70 percent of its population. This rural mass was augmented during the war with 200,000 workers brought in from the countryside to staff the defense industries and 160,000 recruits and reservists, mostly of the same origin.
