Despite the misgivings of the major political parties, many people regarded the arrival of the Ozakom on March 31 as a symbol of the new era. It was to heal the wounds inflicted by the old regime, relieve the critical shortage of food, dispel national antagonisms, reinforce the military front, and foster a new and just administration. But the expectations were too great, for the Ozakom had not the means, the will, or the support to undertake such a comprehensive program. Not only was the Special Committee restricted in operational latitude by the Petrograd government but it also was scrutinized closely by the suspicious revolutionary organizations. An uneasy truce with the soviets endured throughout the spring and summer of 1917, but by autumn the Social Democrats demanded the replacement of the Ozakom's "counterrevolutionary" members by socialists. The liberal parties could be trusted no longer. 41
On arriving in Tiflis, where it occupied the residence of the former viceroy, the Ozakom appealed to the peoples of Transcaucasia for support and outlined its objectives:
- to guarantee the freedom of religion;
- to organize municipal self-government;
- to institute the zemstvo system with broad local jurisdiction;
- to provide for election of judges;
- to improve routes of transportation and means of communication as well as to protect the populace from brigands;
- to study the problems of education, military service, and other vital issues. 42
Avoiding commitments on the crucial land reform and redistribution question, the Ozakom assured the peasantry the forthcoming Constituent Assembly would satisfy their needs, but that until that time they should desist from seizing the fields, should combat anarchy, and should perform all previously established obligations, including the payment of taxes. 43 In April, the Ozakom appointed the Temporary Committee for Land Affairs to "plan the liquidation of the last vestiges of serfdom," but in July it again warned the peasantry to respect the inviolability of the land until a final solution had been adopted, for the legal government of Russia would recognize no sequestering. 44 The unheeding villagers of Transcaucasia, like those of all Russia, refused to await the decrees of the still un-convened Constituent Assembly. As tillers of the soil, they reasoned that the land and the right to confiscate it from the parasitic gentry were theirs. In its logic and spontaneity, the peasantry of Russia was unconditionally supported only by the Bolshevik party. 45
Not only the agrarian but also the administrative measures of the Ozakom were deemed inadequate by most of the citizenry of Transcaucasia. In April, regional branches of the Special Committee were formed, but the entrenched tsarist mechanism of government was difficult to supplant. 46 From Bayazid in Western Armenia came complaints that former Romanov officials continued to oppress and disarm the populace, while Kurdish tribesmen went unhindered in their raids upon Christian villagers. 47 Other Armenian peasants repeatedly petitioned for the return of their property deeds, confiscated by order of general Ianushkevich in 1916. Both Moslems and Christians of the Daralagiaz district of Yerevan protested the appointment of a former tsarist agent, Vekilov, to the post of uezd commissar. 48 From Shushi and Elisavetpol it was reported that the Revolution had brought no administrative changes except in the highest echelons and that the food crisis was assuming dangerous proportions. 49 Conversely, landlords and even the authorities of the Armenian Church complained bitterly to the Ozakom about the anarchy of the peasantry and the illegal seizure of land. 50 Papadjanian, alarmed by such reports, requested the governor of Yerevan and the commissar of Lori to take decisive measures against the lawless villagers. 51 However, neither the Provisional Government, the Ozakom, nor even the soviets could keep pace with the demands of rural Russia so aptly expressed in the adopted Bolshevik slogan, "Peace and Land."
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