The situation did not evolve as the Left SR leadership had expected. Instead of fueling a new conflagration with Germany, Lenin used Mirbach's assassination as a pretext for the suppression of the Left SR organization: the terrorist attack was immediately portrayed as a straightforward uprising against Soviet power, and troops rapidly isolated the army units supporting their former allies. Spiridonova rushed to the Bolshoi Theatre to take the floor before the ongoing 5th Congress of Soviets: she intended to explain and justify the Left SRs' political goals and plead for support, but found that the Congress had been suspended in the aftermath of the assassination and more than 400 Left SR delegates had been detained. Spiridonova and many other Left SR leaders were imprisoned in Moscow, her Peasant Section of the VTsIK was dissolved, and an undisclosed number of other party members (over 200 according to Spiridonova herself) were summarily shot.