ABSTRACT
Stories soon came to Emmeline’s ears about massive desertions from the army of one of Britain’s allies, Russia, and of a growing demand from the Russian people for peace. Such moves were supported by the Bolsheviks, an uncompromising, Marxist revolutionary group who had opposed the war from the beginning; they argued that the war exploited the poorest sections of society and served capitalist interests, thus sharpening rather than abolishing class differences. The call to peace was contrary to the policy of Alexander Kerensky, head of the Provisional Government, who was pledged to continue in the war despite the fact that, since its outbreak, the Russians had suffered five and a half million casualties. Kerensky was a Socialist Revolutionary, a member of a more moderate socialist grouping that grew out of the populist tradition in Russia and was identified mainly with the peasantry.
