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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.
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9) D. Ananun, "Rousahayeri hasarakakan zargatsoume, III, 1901-1918" [The Social Development of the Russian Armenians: 1901-1918] (Venice, 1926), 672.
10) According to Oliver Henry Radkey, "The Election to the Russian Constituent Assembly of 1917" (Cambridge, Mass., 1950), Appendix, the Mensheviks received 569,362 of the 1,887,453 votes cast in Transcaucasia, whereas the total Menshevik vote for all Russia was only 1,364,826.
11) Wladimir Woytinsky, "La démocratie géorgienne" (Paris, 1921), p. 113, gives the Social Revolutionary party only 97,612. His figures for the other major slates are 660,216 for the Menshevik party; 419,887 for Dashnaktsoutyoun; 402,917 for the Musavat party; and 228,889 for other Moslem organisations combined.
12) The Bolshevik vote came primarily from the Russian soldiers in Transcaucasia. For example, of the 9,316 soldiers voting in Alexandrapol, 7,311 cast Bolshevik ballots. Consult "Hayastani Komunistakan partiayi patmoutian ourvagtzer" [Historical Outlines of the Communist Party of Armenia], ed. by Hr. Margarian, A. Mnatskanian, Kh. Barseghian (Yerevan, 1958), p. 232. L. A. Khurshudian, "Stepan Shahoumian: Petakan yev partiakan gortzenoutyoune 1917-1918 tvakannerin" [Stepan Shahoumian: Governmental and Party Activity, 1917-1918] (Yerevan, 1959), states that nearly 8,000 soldiers in Baku cast ballots for slate no. V.
13) The other slates, which received few votes, were no. VI, Georgian Social Federalist; no. VII, Armenian Populist; no. VIII, Georgian National Democrat; no. IX, Peoples Socialist; no. XIII, Transcaucasian Moslem; no. XV, Zionist.
14) D. Ananun, "Rousahayeri hasarakakan zargatsoume, III, 1901-1918" [The Social Development of the Russian Armenians: 1901-1918] (Venice, 1926), pp. 672-673. Oliver Henry Radkey, "The Election to the Russian Constituent Assembly of 1917" (Cambridge, Mass., 1950), pp. 19-20, seems to be mistaken in stating that Transcaucasia sent fourteen Mensheviks and ten Dashnakists to the Constituent Assembly.
15) S. Vratsian, "Hayastani Hanrapetoutyoun" [Republic of Armenia] (2nd ed., Beirut, 1958), p. 33.
16) Oliver Henry Radkey, "The Election to the Russian Constituent Assembly of 1917" (Cambridge, Mass., 1950), p. 21, states that there were 703 delegates, of whom 380 were Social Revolutionary; 39, Left Social Revolutionary; 168, Bolshevik; 18, Menshevik; 15, Kadet; and 77 from the nationality groups.
17) For preliminaries, proceedings, and dispersal of the Constituent Assembly, consult James Bunyan and H. H. Fisher, "The Bolshevik Revolution, 1917-1918: Documents and Materials" (Stanford, 1934), pp. 338-386; and M. V. Vishniak, "Vserossiiskoe Uchreditel'noe Sobranie" (Paris, 1932), pp. 98-116.
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