The Position of Georgian, Armenian, and Moslem Parties
Not only the soviets but also the dominant political parties in the Caucasus affirmed their loyalty to the central government and their dedication to mutual cooperation. Noi Zhordania, as the Menshevik spokesman, condemned those who wished to raise controversial international and interracial issues. He charged that nationalism was a weapon of the bourgeoisie, which desired to seize control of the administration, and of the aristocracy, which was struggling to dispel the threats to its social and governmental monopoly. Furthermore, the welfare of the workers and peasants did not necessitate national self-rule, which the former classes coveted, but only cultural autonomy. Radically divergent from the postulations he was to assert several months later, Zhordania now rejected federation as a solution to the nationality question, for it corresponded to neither the economic not the administrative needs of the Transcaucasians. There should be, instead, one united Russian republic based on cultural and regional autonomy. 11
Opposing Zhordania, the weaker Georgian National Democrats demanded national political autonomy. They advocated the convocation of an assembly, elected on the basis of direct, equal, secret suffrage, with proportional representation, to draft a constitution for Georgia, which should be independent in all matters except war and peace, foreign relations, and the general budget. 12 Fascinating for the student of the Georgian Mensheviks is the process that gradually transformed these international socialists into champions of the policies outlined by their National Democrat rivals. That metamorphosis was completed in May, 1918, when the Mensheviks declared the independence of the Republic of Georgia.
The national consciousness of the Moslems of Transcaucasia was just beginning to stir. The Musavat ("Equality") party, composed mainly of intellectuals, was most representative of this developing political thought. 13 Organised during the Balkan wars when the tenets of Pan-Turanism spread rapidly throughout the Turkic-Islamic world, the organisation adopted the slogan, "Turkism, Islamism, and Modernism." 14 The Moslem Democratic Party Musavat, in an introduction to its program, decried the decadence and oppression which Moslems were now subjected, after having in bygone years dominated the expanse from the Pacific to the Atlantic oceans. The Musavatists, vowing on the Holy Koran, pledged themselves to the resurrection and unity of the Islamic World. Important points in the party's platform called for
- unification of all Moslems, regardless of nationality or sect, to defend their mutual interests;
- revival of subjected Moslem states and assistance to those peoples struggling for independence;
- maintenance of liaison with societies dedicated to the progress of Moslems and all humanity;
- improvement and development of the economic life of Moslems;
- extension of the organisation and program to all parts of Russia. 15
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