The German Socialists did not respond to this appeal. And from that moment all danger of a separate peace between the Russian democracy and Germany was past, if danger it may be called. The real danger to the cause of the Allies and to Russia itself was the internal danger, the disorganization in army discipline which the radicalism of the revolution naturally spread among the soldiers, augmented, as it was, by every power and agency which the enemy could bring to bear. In the second week of April, 1917, a convention or congress of the Workingmen's and Soldiers' Council was held, all parts of Russia being represented. By a vote of 325 against 57 the continuance of the war was declared necessary. The council also issued various appeals to the soldiers, both in Petrograd and at the front, asking their support of the Provisional Government, which seemed at least to indicate that there were radical influences at work even too advanced for the council. In Petrograd General Kornilov, the famous Cossack commander, who had once been a prisoner of the Austrians and had escaped, and who had personally placed the czarina under arrest, was placed in command of the Petrograd garrison. His task was especially difficult, as his men were in closer contact with the demoralizing influences of the radical debating clubs of the capital. The Workingmen's and Soldiers' Council probably had no deliberate intention of undermining the military discipline necessary to maintain the efficiency of a body of troops, but it could not entirely give up its idea of "democratizing the army." The result of these efforts, as the members of the council themselves admitted, went far beyond anything they had intended. On the 1st of May a number of political demonstrations on the part of the soldiers took place in Petrograd. Socialistic in nature, some of them directed against policies of the Provisional Government. The council immediately disclaimed all responsibility for the demonstrations and appealed to the soldiers to remain in their barracks. This disintegration in army organization nevertheless made continual progress during the early part of May, 1917, and was fast precipitating a crisis. The fact was that the Provisional Government, though nominally at the head of affairs, had no material power behind it. This power, the army, was organized in the council and was self-conscious. Naturally it could not resist the temptation of attempting to exercise its judgment, though it realized that it was not fitted to assume the entire responsibility of government. It felt, too, a right to assert itself because the Duma, on account of the restrictive election laws which had created it years before during the old regime did not represent those classes to which the soldiers belonged.