No. I was composed by a commission of the Petrograd Soviet headed by N. D. Sokolov. In the name of the "Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies," it ordered that committees of soldiers were to be formed in all military and naval units in Petrograd, and to send one representative each to the Taurida Palace next morning. In their political actions units were to be subject to their committees and to the Soviet. Orders of the military commission of the Duma were to be obeyed only when they did not contradict those of the Soviet. Arms were to be under the control of the committees and on no account to be given up if demanded by the officers. Strict discipline was to be preserved when on duty. Salutes, etc., when off duty were abolished. Special titles used in addressing officers, "Your excellency" and references to the officer's noble birth, were abolished. Officers were forbidden to use the second person singular in addressing soldiers.
Milyukov's note became known in Russia on May 2, the day succeeding that on which great demonstrations in celebration of Labour Day had been held all over Russia under the official recog nition of the Government and with the participation of the gar risons in the towns and of the regiments at the front. The mani festations of national unity which were the striking feature of that great day were now exchanged at the moment for the ugly mood of division and party passion. For two days Russia seemed to be on the brink of civil war, the outbreak of which was finally only prevented by the action of the Soviet, which prohibited all meetings and demonstrations for three days and ordered the garrisons to remain in the barracks. The strength and discipline shown by the masses at this time finally convinced the Soviet leaders that the real power was in their hands.
Some are in full possession of power without a shadow of re sponsibility; while those who are visibly in full possession of responsibility possess not a shadow of power." Resolved now to assume its share of responsibility and having solemnly engaged to give the Government its complete support the Soviet was allotted five portfolios in the reconstructed cabinet, those of Justice, Agriculture, Labour, Food Supplies and Post and Telegraphs. The last-mentioned ministry was created spe cially to make room for Tseretelli a Menshevik member of the second Duma who had been banished to Siberia and was now the most popular and powerful member of the Soviet. To this list of Soviet and Socialist ministers must be added the name of Kerensky, who, though nominally a member of the executive committee of the Soviet, had previously joined the Provisional Government on his own responsibility. He was now promoted from the Ministry of Justice to the all-important Ministry of War; while that wealthy ex-director of the imperial theatres, Tereshchenko, minister of finance in the first Provisional Govern ment, replaced Milyukov as minister for foreign affairs.
The fall of the first Provisional Government was due to two main reasons. The first was its assumption of responsibility with out the backing of power. The second was its equivocal foreign policy of balancing between the imperialist war-aims of the Allies, which involved an indefinite prolongation of the War, and the Soviet's policy of limiting the war to a "revolutionary defence" ("No annexations. No indemnities.") which was based on the idea that an honourable peace might at once be concluded. The new Government occupied a more favourable position, for it represented both the bourgeoisie and the masses and thus pos sessed not only responsibility but actual power. It was confronted however by formidable difficulties ; for not only had the crucial question of peace or war to be settled but the growing unrest in the villages and the dissolution of the Empire into separate national units called urgently for solutions which the Government was totally unable to furnish. The consequence was that the coali tion lasted only two months and was finally brought down by the resignation of the three Liberal (Kadet) ministers, who adopted this method of protesting against the concessions made to the Ukrainian and Finnish autonomist movement. The new Govern ment crisis coincided with the greatest crisis which the Revolu tion had so far had to face, the disastrous failure of the offensive in Galicia and the first Bolshevik rising in the capital.