Map Close  
Person info Close  
Information Close  
Source reference Close  
  Svenska
 
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

Previous page Page 365 Next page Smaller font Larger font Print friednly version  
© 2008 ARMENICA.ORG Print  

The Ozakom

While local and regional soviets sprang up throughout Transcaucasia, Prince Lvov's Provisional Government acted to fill the administrative vacuum occasioned by the dismissal and departure of Viceroy Nicholas Romanov. The Osobyi Zakavkazsky Komitet (Special Transcaucasian Committee), better known by the abbreviation Ozakom, was created on March 22. The collegial body was entrusted with the civic administration of Transcaucasia as well as the occupied Ottoman territories. 34 In September the prerogatives of the Ozakom were clarified and limited by a directive bearing the signature of A. Kerensky, Minister-President of Russia, and V. Nabokov, Commissar for Caucasian Affairs. The Special Committee was


  1. to be directly subordinated to the Provisional Government;
  2. to constitute the supreme local administration;
  3. to exercise the powers of an executive, having no legislative initiative;
  4. to assume the right and duties of the former Viceroyalty, but without jurisdiction over the North Caucasus;
  5. to confer with the pertinent governmental ministers about the appointment of officials whose realm of activities included other regions in addition to Transcaucasia;
  6. to mange finances by the existing procedure and to petition the government for additional appropriations;
  7. to deny state support to party, professional, and other public organisations or to individuals, unless employed by the central government of the Ozakom. 35


Serving on the Ozakom were Chairman V. A. Kharlamov, Russian Kadet; A. I. Chkhenkeli, Georgian Menshevik; Prince Kita Abashidze, Georgian Social Federalist; 36 M. Iu. Jafarov, non-partisan Moslem; and M. I. Papadjanian, Armenian Kadet. 37 Chkhenkeli also acted as the Petrograd Soviet's envoy to the Caucasus and thus served as a liaison between the Ozakom and the socialist societies in Tiflis. 38

Even before its arrival in Transcaucasia, the Ozakom was criticized by the Executive Committee of the Tiflis Duma. Zhordania complained that nearly all Ozakom members, especially Kharlamov and Papadjanian, were ardent nationalists and that the time was inopportune to inflame passions with the nationality question. He recommended that the Executive Committee protest to the Petrograd government about the lack of common ground between the appointed body and the masses and Transcaucasia. The Duma's Executive Committee, continued Zhordania, expressed the will of the people much more realistically. 39 But while the Georgians were compensated by the appointment of Chkhenkeli and the Moslems by that of Jafarov, the Armenians, represented by Dashnaktsoutiun, were thoroughly dissatisfied with the choice of Papadjanian. A member of the small but influential Tiflis-Baku bourgeoisie, the Kadet party, and the Russian State Duma, he was thought unlikely to defend the interests of the Armenian peasants and workers. Moreover, when the Ozakom portfolios were distributed, Papadjanian received what Dashnaktsoutiun labelled an insignificant and non-strategic department, Judicial Affairs, while Chkhenkeli was awarded the highly influential Ministry of Interior and Jafarov the Ministry of Communications. 40

34) S. Vratsian, "Hayastani Hanrapetoutyoun" [Republic of Armenia] (2nd ed.; Beirut, 1958), pp. 17-18.

35) Robert Paul Browder and Alexander F. Kerensky, eds., "The Russian Provisional Government, 1917: Documents" (Stanford, 1961), p. 425.

36) The Georgian Social Federalist party was found in 1904. Opposed to the expansion of capitalism in Russia, the party advocated the distribution of the land to the peasantry and espoused general socialist principles. As its name implies, the organisation considered federation the solution to the nationality question in Russia. Consult Al. Stavrovsky, "Zakavkaz'e posle Oktiabria" (Moscow-Leningrad, [1925]), p. 6.

37) There is some discrepancy about the original composition of the Ozakom. A. M. Elchibekian, "Velikaia Oktiabr'skaia sotsialisticheskaia revoliutsiia I pobeda sovetskoi vlasti v Armenii" (Yerevan, 1957), p. 13 and Firuz Kazemzadeh, "The Struggle for Transcaucasia (1917-1921)" (New York and Oxford, [1951]), p.34, state that Pereverzev was a member. Elchibekian incorrectly adds that Chkhenkeli later replaced Abashidze, while Kazemzadeh is equally mistaken in stating that Chkheidze, Georgian Menshevik and leader of the Petrograd Soviet, subsequently was appointed. P. N. Pereverzev remained in Petrograd all the while and served as Minister of Justice in the Russian coalition government formed in May, while N. S. Chkheidze presided the Petrograd Soviet and had no position on the Ozakom. The composition of the Ozakom as stated in the text of this work corresponds, for example, with the findings of Ds. Aghayan, "Hoktemberian revoliutsian yev hai zhoghovrdi azatagroume" [The October Revolution and the Liberation of the Armenian People] (Yerevan, 1957), p. 35; and S. Vartanian, "Pobeda sovetskoi vlasti v Armenii" (Yerevan, 1951), p. 49.

38) G. I. Uratadze, "Obrazovanie konsolidatsiia Gruzinskoi Demokraticheskoi Respubliki" (Munich, 1956), p.20.

39) S. E. Sef, "Revoliutsiia 1917 goda v Zakavkaz'i (dokumenty, materialy)" (Tbilisi, 1927), pp. 57-63; Mamiia Orakhelashvili, "Zakavkazskie bol'shevikistskie organizatsii v 1917 godu" (Tbilisi, [1927]), pp. 78-80.

40) S. Vratsian, "Hayastani Hanrapetoutyoun" [Republic of Armenia] (2nd ed.; Beirut, 1958), p. 18.