At the same time the Ukrainian soldiers in the army began to demand that they be reorganized as Ukrainian regiments with their own commanders, their own flag, and their own units. To enforce their demands they held a military council in Kiev at which there were representatives of approximately one million men on April 5/18 and a month later there was held a still larger meeting at which appeared delegates of 1,736,000 Ukrainian soldiers from all over the Russian Empire. This was the more remarkable inasmuch as Alexander Kerensky, the Minister of War of the Provisional Government, definitely forbade its holding and gave orders that the delegates should not be allowed to go to Kiev. However, by this time the army was paying less and less attention to the Provisional Government, which could only threaten and bluster without accomplishing anything constructive for the country. At the same time the task of organizing a Ukrainian press was overwhelming. There were almost no Ukrainian newspapers before the Revolution and under the disturbed conditions, the task of founding and developing them and of securing their circulation in the disordered rural areas was almost insoluble, the more so as there were scattered Russian groups and organizations throughout the entire country which were bitterly opposed to the new efforts. All through the spring there went on this agitation with the Ukrainian army and the new regiments demanding that the Rada take more definite action, and the Russian authorities both in Petrograd and in Kiev complaining that already too much had been done. Yet at a Convention of the Ukrainian Soldiers and Peasants held on June 2–10 there were insistent demands that the Council arrange for a definite Ukrainian autonomy. On June 10/23 the Council acted and issued the First Universal which was read by Volodymyr Vynnychenko and concluded that “From this day on, we ourselves will create our own life.” By this act the Rada had definitely set forth its claims to be the government of Ukraine and it created the Council of General Secretaries with Vynnychenko acting as Prime Minister. Yet it is noticeable that the great majority of the Council still thought in terms of Ukraine as a state in a Russian federation. The news created a bombshell in Petrograd and three of the socialist ministers, Kerensky, Tsereteli and Tereshchenko, came down to Kiev for a conference with the Ukrainian Council. This was on the eve of the last offensive of the old Russian army and Kerensky and his friends were desirous of smoothing out conditions in Ukraine before the offensive was launched. At the same time, the more conservative members of the Provisional Government objected even to these negotiations and as soon as word reached the capital, they definitely resigned from the cabinet.