famine, for Kerensky and his acolytes are only a bulwark for the defence of capitalist interests.
The clearest proof of this is shown by the dismissal of Piecheckonov, Minister of Food. Piecheckonov, we know, is one of the most moderate of democrats. But, in the organisation for feeding the people, he wished to work conscientiously in strict combination with the democratic organisations. And nevertheless, it is a fact most highly significant, that this ultra-moderate "populist," this member of the socialist popular party, ready to make every compromise with the bourgeoisie, has had to give up his post. For, to please the capitalists, the Kerensky government has doubled the retail price of cereals.
This is how, in the edition of September 2 of the Svobodnaia Zizn; M. Smith gives approval of this step:—
"Some days before the taxes were increased, the following scene took place at a meeting of the All-Russia Food Committee. The representative of the Right, Rokhovitch, a bitter defender of the rights of private trading and an intractable enemy of the monopoly of cereals and of State interference in the economic life of the people, declared with a triumphant smile that, in accordance with his recommendations, the taxes on corn were immediately to be raised.
"The representative of the Soviet of the workers and soldiers declared then that, as far as he knew, there could be no question of such a measure as long as the revolution lasted; and that in any case the government had no power without consulting the competent organs of democracy, the Economic Council and the All-Russia Food Committee. The representative of the Soviet of peasant deputies associated himself with this declaration.
"But, alas! the facts gave them a flat contradiction: it was the representative of the sections of qualified electors and not those of the democracy who turned out to be right. He was perfectly informed about the attack which was being launched against the rights of democracy when our representatives indignantly repelled the very idea of it."
And so the workers' and the peasants' representatives clearly declare their opinion in the name of the immense majority of the people and the Kerensky government does exactly opposite to what they demand, obviously to please the capitalists.
