ABSTRACT
The erosion of trust in the authority and competence of the state had advanced so far in Russia that there was little hope and much fear of what a truly centralized and effective command of the home and military fronts might accomplish. The conservatives and liberals, generals and industrialists, who had accepted the revolution did so because they believed that freed of the incubus of the monarchy they might have a better chance of organizing and rallying the nation for victory. The revolutionary defencism of the Soviet's leaders, summed up in the formula 'peace without annexations or indemnities', was bound to clash with the official policies of the government as enunciated by its foreign minister. The 'April Theses' and the deepening of the revolution from which appeared to validate them also brought new recruits into the Bolshevik Party in large numbers.
