ABSTRACT
After the outbreak of the revolution in Saint Petersburg, Paris newspapers gave priority to the question of whether the new forces would be able to stabilize the conditions of the interior while energetically continuing the war. In the light of the longing for peace prevalent at all levels of Russian society, the balance of power and the behaviour of activist groupings were observed with great concern. On 21 March, L’Humanité reported with a certain satisfaction, ‘Under the pressure of the moderate elements, the extremists have consented to taking up the tram service once again’8 and to remove the damages that had been caused. The majority of workers were willing to return to normal. Early on, liberal observers saw the Bolsheviks as the advocates of dangerous
extremistic positions. George Buchanan (1854-1924), the English ambassador in Saint Petersburg, considered the designations ‘Bolsheviks’ (majority socialists) and ‘Mensheviks’ (minority socialists), which derived from the party meeting of the Russian socialists in London (1903), as misleading. Instead, it was more suitable to differentiate between ‘extremists’ and ‘moderates’.9
