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Index

Armenia

The Urartu Civilisation

Victory for Independence

Artashisian Dynasty on the Armenian Throne

Armenia caught between Rome and the Arsacids

The Acceptance of Christianity

Defending Christianity

Armenia Under the Bagratouni Dynasty

Cilicia - the New Armenia

Armenia Under Turanian Rule

The Renaissance or the Resurrection of Armenia

The Eastern Question

Russia in the Caucasus

The Armenian Question

Battle on Two Fronts

Tsarist Russia Against the Armenians

The Revolution of the Young Turks and the Armenian People on the Eve of World War I

The First World War

The Resurrection of Armenia

Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

- Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

Eastern Armenia

Western Armenia

"The Fateful Years" (1914-1917)

"Hopes and Emotions" (March-October, 1917)

The Bolshevik Revolution and Armenia

Transcaucasia Adrift (November, 1917

Dilemmas (March-April, 1918)

War and Independence (April-May, 1918)

The Republics of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia

The Suppliants (June-October, 1918)

In conclusion

Soviet Armenia

The Second Independent Republic of Armenia

Epilogue

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The Constituent Assembly

Elections in the Caucasus and along the Turkish front for delegates to the Assembly were conducted throughout November, 1917. Though incomplete and poorly organised, it was, nonetheless, the most representative and unhindered election in Transcaucasian history. More than two million voters cast ballots in the following manner: 9


Slate Nr. Party Votes
I Social Democrat (Menshevik) 10 661,934
II Constitutional Democrat (Kadet) 25,673
III Social Revolutionary 11 117,522
IV Dashnaktsoutiun 558,440
V Social Democrat (Bolshevik) 12 93,581
X Musavat 615,816
XI Moslem Social Democrat (Hummet) 84,748
XII Moslem Socialist Bloc 159,770
XIV Moslems of Russia (Ittihad) 13 66,504


On the basis of one delegate per sixty thousand votes, the Menshevik party was allotted eleven places; Musavat, ten; Dashnaktsoutiun, nine; Social Revolutionary party, two, and son on. 14 Chosen to travel to Petrograd by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation were Rostom Zorian, Mikael Hovhannisian, Hamo Ohandjanian, Hakob Zavriev, Kostia Hambartsoumian, Avetik Shahkhatouni, Hovhannes Kachaznouni, Sirakan Tigranian and Koriun Ghazarian. 15 Among them were two premiers and a foreign minister of the future Armenian Republic.

Many of the Transcaucasian delegates were still en route to the capital when the All-Russian Constituent Assembly convened on January 18, 1918. Because it was decidedly anti-Bolshevik in composition, the Assembly was doomed. 16 After the Sovnarkom had taken control of Petrograd, if felt too insecure to forbid the gathering, especially because Lenin's cries of prior months on behalf of the Assembly still echoed throughout the land. Unable to renege, the Bolsheviks nonetheless prepared for the likelihood of an antagonistic majority by announcing support for only a democratically represented Assembly. Clearly, an anti-Communist disposition would be non-representative. Thus, after only one day's existence, the Social Revolutionary-oriented Constituent Assembly was besieged and forcibly dispersed. The "grand illusions" of the provisional Government, the moderate socialist and liberal parties, as well as of most nationality groups, was no more. 17 The gap between Russia and Transcaucasia widened and deepened.