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personal interests, would not shrink from the criminal idea of thrusting their unfortunate country into an odious civil war—it is not from those that we have anything to hope for. I have seen enough of them in order to know. Only with the aid of the people of these new democratic elements, which have just come to the front, our natural friends and allies, can we hope to maintain the eastern front, and drive back the German invasion of Russia“. And with what evident pleasure Gabriel Bertrand stayed behind in his Diplomatic box, now almost vacant (for since the appearance of the „candidate for dictatorship“, the Assembly „offered no further interest“), to watch the voting take place, which was to give the moral authority to the Provisional Government to introduce a republican form of the new Russian regime! This voting brought about an apparent reconciliation between the two halves of the Assembly and dissipated,—or at least I was so convinced at the time,—the horrible spectre of Civil War which had been so clearly apparent during the firstpart of the Assembly.
Nevertheless, the diplomats did not consider themselves defeated altogether and anxiously gathered together all the „reliable information“ that began to present itself from „all sides“: namely, to the effect that the dramatic occurences at Moscow signified nothing further than a temporary delay, and that very shortly events bearing a definite character were likely to take place. As far as I was concerned,—and it was here that I made my mistake,—it seemed to me that salvation was to be found only in Kerensky, and forgetting ail about the „Soviets“, and for
