At the corner of the Morskaya and the Nevsky, squads of soldiers with fixed bayonets were stopping all private automobiles, turning out the occupants, and ordering them toward the Winter Palace. A large crowd had gathered to watch them. Nobody knew whether the soldiers belonged to the Government or the Military Revolutionary Committee. Up in front of the Kazan Cathedral the same thing was happening, machines being directed back up the Nevsky. Five or six sailors with rifles came along, laughing excitedly, and fell into conversation with two of the soldiers. On the sailors’ hat bands were _Avrora_ and _Zaria Svobody,_—the names of the leading Bolshevik cruisers of the Baltic Fleet. One of them said, “Cronstadt is coming!”… It was as if, in 1792, on the streets of Paris, some one had said: “The Marseillais are coming!” For at Cronstadt were twenty-five thousand sailors, convinced Bolsheviki and not afraid to die…. _Rabotchi i Soldat_ was just out, all its front page one huge proclamation: SOLDIERS! WORKERS! CITIZENS! The enemies of the people passed last night to the offensive. The Kornilovists of the Staff are trying to draw in from the suburbs _yunkers_ and volunteer battalions. The Oranienbaum _yunkers_ and the Tsarskoye Selo volunteers refused to come out. A stroke of high treason is being contemplated against the Petrograd Soviet…. The campaign of the counter-revolutionists is being directed against the All-Russian Congress of Soviets on the eve of its opening, against the Constituent Assembly, against the people. The Petrograd Soviet is guarding the Revolution. The Military Revolutionary Committee is directing the repulse of the conspirators’ attack. The entire garrison and proletariat of Petrograd are ready to deal the enemy of the people a crushing blow. The Military Revolutionary Committee decrees: 1. All regimental, division and battle-ship Committees, together with the Soviet Commissars, and all revolutionary organisations, shall meet in continuous session, concentrating in their hands all information about the plans of the conspirators. 2. Not one soldier shall leave his division without permission of the Committee. 3. To send to Smolny at once two delegates from each military unit and five from each Ward Soviet. 4. All members of the Petrograd Soviet and all delegates to the All-Russian Congress are invited immediately to Smolny for an extraordinary meeting. Counter-revolution has raised its criminal head. A great danger threatens all the conquests and hopes of the soldiers and workers. But the forces of the Revolution by far exceed those of its enemies. The cause of the People is in strong hands. The conspirators will be crushed. No hesitation or doubts! Firmness, steadfastness, discipline, determination! Long live the Revolution! _The Military Revolutionary Committee._