Affairs in Russia have gone from bad to worse. The
Anarchist gang in Petrograd, styling themselves the "Commissioners of the People," threaten to abolish the Constituent Assembly if, as seems probable, the electors have not returned an Anarchist majority. They have declared that all mandates are revocable ; that is to say, the elections of anti-Anarchist Deputies will be annulled, and an Elections Commissioner has been appointed to purge the Assem- bly. The Anarchists, like their Prussian friends, have no liking for democracy. H. Chemoff, the peasant leader, made a speech at the Peasants' Congress denouncing Lenin and Trotsky for their refusal to co-operate with other parties, but the attitude of the peasantry towards the Anarchist " Government " is still undefined. Lenin has sought to propitiate them by decrees abolishing private property in land and sweeping away all the Courts of Law.
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