III
1. Declaring its firm determination to make society free from the chaos of capitalism and imperialism, which has drenched the country in blood in this most criminal war of all wars, the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly accepts completely the policy of the Soviets, whose duty it is to publish all secret treaties, to organize the most extensive fraternization between the workers and peasants of warring armies, and by revolutionary methods to bring about a democratic peace among the belligerent nations without annexations and indemnities, on the basis of the free self-determination of nations--at any price.
2. For this purpose the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly declares its complete separation from the brutal policy of the bourgeoisie, which furthers the well-being of the exploiters in a few selected nations by enslaving hundreds of millions of the toiling peoples of the colonies and the small nations generally.
The Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly accepts the policy of the Council of People"s Commissars in giving complete independence to Finland, in beginning the withdrawal of troops from Persia, and in declaring for Armenia the right of self-determination.
A blow at international financial capital is the Soviet decree which annuls foreign loans made by the governments of the Czar, the landowners and the bourgeoisie. The Soviet government is to continue firmly on this road until the final victory from the yoke of capitalism is won through international workers" revolt.
As the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly was elected on the basis of lists of candidates nominated before the November Revolution, when the people as a whole could not yet rise against their exploiters, and did not know how powerful would be the strength of the exploiters in defending their privileges, and had not yet begun to create a Socialist society, the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly considers it, even from a formal point of view, unjust to oppose the Soviet power.
The Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly is of the opinion that at this moment, in the decisive hour of the struggle of the people against their exploiters, the exploiters must not have a seat in any government organization or inst.i.tution. The power completely and without exception belongs to the people and its authorized representatives--the workers", soldiers" and peasants" Soviets.
Supporting the Soviet rule and accepting the orders of the Council of People"s Commissars, the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly acknowledges its duty to outline a form for the reorganization of society.
Striving at the same time to organize a free and voluntary, and thereby also a complete and strong, union among the toiling cla.s.ses of all the Russian nations, the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly limits itself to outlining the basis of the federation of Russian Soviet Republics, leaving to the people, to the workers and soldiers, to decide for themselves, in their own Soviet meetings, if they are willing, and on what conditions they prefer, to join the federated government and other federations of Soviet enterprise. These general principles are to be published without delay, and the official representatives of the Soviets are required to read them at the opening of the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly.
The demand for the adoption of this declaration gave rise to a long and stormy debate. The leaders of the Socialist-Revolutionists and the Mensheviki stoutly contended that the adoption of the declaration would be virtually an abdication of the task for which the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly had been elected by the people, and, therefore, a betrayal of trust. They could not admit the impudent claim that an election held in November, based upon universal suffrage, on lists made up as recently as September, could in January be set aside as being "obsolete" and "unrepresentative." That a majority of the Bolshevik candidates put forward had been defeated, nullified, they argued, the claim of the Bolsheviki that the fact that the candidates had all been nominated before the November insurrection should be regarded as reason for acknowledging the Bolshevik Soviet as superior to the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly. They insisted upon the point, which the Bolshevik spokesmen did not attempt to controvert, that the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly represented the votes of many millions of men and women,[37] while the total actual membership represented by the Soviet power did not at the time number one hundred thousand!
As might have been expected, the proposal to adopt the declaration submitted to the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly in this arrogant fashion was rejected by an enormous majority. The Bolshevik members, who had tried to make the session a farce, thereupon withdrew after submitting a statement in which they charged the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly with being a counter-revolutionary body, and the Revolutionary-Socialist party with being a traitorous party "directing the fight of the bourgeoisie against the workers" revolution."
The statement said that the Bolshevik members withdrew "in order to permit the Soviet power to determine what relations it would hold with the counter-revolutionary section of the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly"--a threat which needed no interpretation.
After the withdrawal of the Bolshevik members, the majority very quickly adopted a declaration which had been carefully prepared by the Socialist-Revolutionists during the weeks which had elapsed since the elections in the preliminary conferences which had been held for that purpose. The declaration read as follows:
RUSSIA"S FORM OF GOVERNMENT
In the name of the peoples who compose the Russian state, the All-Russian Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly proclaims the Russian State to be the Russian Democratic Federated Republic, uniting indissolubly into one whole the peoples and territories which are sovereign within the limits prescribed by the Federal Const.i.tution.
LAWS REGARDING LAND OWNERSHIP
1. _The right to privately own land within the boundaries of the Russian Republic is hereby abolished forever._
2. All land within the boundaries of the Russian Republic, with all mines, forests, and waters, is hereby declared the property of the nation.
3. The republic has the right to control all land, with all the mines, forests, and waters thereof, through the central and local administration, in accordance with the regulation provided by the present law.
4. The autonomous provinces of the Russian Republic have t.i.tle to land on the basis of the present law and in accordance with the Federal Const.i.tution.
5. The tasks of the central and local governments as regards the use of lands, mines, forests, and waters are:
a. The creation of conditions conducive to the best possible utilization of the country"s natural resources and the highest possible development of its productive forces.
b. The fair distribution of all natural wealth among the people.
6. The rights of individuals and inst.i.tutions to land, mines, forests, and waters are restricted merely to utilization by said individuals and inst.i.tutions.
7. The use of all mines, forests, land, and waters is free to all citizens of the Russian Republic, regardless of nationality or creed. This includes all unions of citizens, also governmental and public inst.i.tutions.
8. The right to use the land is to be acquired and discontinued on the basis prescribed by this fundamental law.
9. _All t.i.tles to land at present held by the individuals, a.s.sociations, and inst.i.tutions are abolished in so far as they contradict this law._
10. All land, mines, forests, waters, at present owned by and otherwise in the possession of individuals, a.s.sociations, and inst.i.tutions, _are confiscated without compensation for the loss incurred._
DEMOCRATIC PEACE
In the name of the peoples of the Russian Republic, the All-Russian Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly expresses the firm will of the people to _immediately discontinue the war_ and conclude a just and general peace, appeals to the Allied countries proposing to define jointly the exact terms of the democratic peace acceptable to all the belligerent nations, in order to present these terms, in behalf of the Allies, to the governments fighting against the Russian Republic and her allies.
The Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly firmly believes that the attempts of the peoples of Russia to end the disastrous war will meet with a unanimous response on the part of the peoples and the governments of the Allied countries, and that by common efforts a speedy peace will be attained, which will safeguard the well-being and dignity of all the belligerent countries.
The Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly resolves to elect from its midst an authorized delegation which will carry on negotiations with the representatives of the Allied countries and which will present the appeal to jointly formulate terms upon which a speedy termination of the war will be possible, as well as for the purpose of carrying out the decisions of the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly regarding the question of peace negotiations with the countries fighting against us.
This delegation, which is to be under the guidance of the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly, is to immediately start fulfilling the duties imposed upon it.
Expressing, in the name of the peoples of Russia, its regret that the negotiations with Germany, which were started without preliminary agreement with the Allied countries, have a.s.sumed the character of negotiations for a separate peace, the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly, in the name of the peoples of the Federated Republic, _while continuing the armistice, accepts the further carrying on of the negotiations with the countries warring against us_ in order to work toward a general democratic peace which shall be in accordance "with the people"s will and protect Russia"s interests."
VI
Immediately following the dissolution of the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly a body of Red Guards shot the two Const.i.tutional Democrats, Kokoshkin and Shingariev, who were at the time confined as prisoners who were ill in the Naval Hospital. The reason for the brutal murder of these men was that they were bourgeoisie and, therefore, enemies of the working cla.s.s! It is only just to add that the foul deed was immediately condemned by the Bolshevik government and by the Soviet of Petrograd. "The working cla.s.s will never approve of any outrages upon our prisoners, whatever may have been their political offense against the people and their Revolution," the latter body declared, in a resolution on the subject of the a.s.sa.s.sinations. Two days after the dissolution of the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly twenty-three Socialist-Revolutionist members of that body, a.s.sembled at the office of their party, were arrested, and the premises occupied by Red Guards, the procedure being exactly as it used to be in the old days under the Czar.
There is a relentless logic of life and action from which there can be no escape. Czarism was a product of that inexorable process. All its oppression and brutality proceeded by an inevitable and irresistible sequence from the first determination and effort to realize the principle of autocracy. Any dictatorship, whether of a single man, a group or cla.s.s, must rest ultimately upon oppressive and coercive force. Believing that the means would be justified by the end, Lenine and Trotzky and their a.s.sociates had suppressed the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly, claiming that parliamentary government, based upon the equal and free suffrage of all cla.s.ses, was, during the transition period, dangerous to the proletariat; that in its stead a new type of government must be established--government by a.s.sociations of wage-earners, soldiers, and peasants, called Soviets.
But what if among these there should develop a purpose contrary to the purpose of the Bolsheviki? Would men who, starting out with a belief in the Const.i.tuante, and as its champions, used force to destroy and suppress it the moment it became evident that its purpose was not their purpose, hesitate to suppress and destroy any Soviet movement which adopted policies contrary to their own? What a.s.surance could there be, once their point of view, their initial principle, was granted, that the freedom denied to the Const.i.tuante would be a.s.sured to the Soviets? In the very nature of the case there could be no such a.s.surance. However honest and sincere the Bolsheviki themselves might be in their belief that there would be such a.s.surance, there could in fact be none, for the logic of life is stronger than any human will.
As was inevitable, the Bolsheviki soon found themselves in the position of suppressing Soviets which they could not control as freely and in the same manner as they had suppressed the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly. When, for example, the soldiers of the Preobrajenski Regiment--the very men who helped the Bolsheviki into power--became dissatisfied and organized, publishing their own organ, _The Soldier"s Cloak_, the paper was confiscated and the organization suppressed.[38] The forcible suppression of Soviets was common. The Central Executive Committee of the National Soviet of Peasants"
Delegates, together with the old Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workmen"s and Soldiers" Delegates (who had never acknowledged the October elections), convoked an extraordinary a.s.sembly of Soviets on January 8th, the same date as that on which the Bolshevik Congress of Soviets was convoked. Circ.u.mstances compelled the opening to be deferred until two days later, the 10th. This conference, called the Third All-Russian Congress of Peasants" Soviets, was suppressed by force, many of the 359 delegates and all the members of the Executive Committee being arrested. The following extract from a declaration of protest addressed by the outraged peasants to the Congress of Soviets of Workmen, Soldiers, and Peasants convoked by the Bolshevik government tells the story:
As soon as the Congress was opened, sailors and Red Guards, armed with guns and hand-grenades, broke into the premises (11 Kirillovskaia Street), surrounded the house, poured into the corridors and the session hall, and ordered all persons to leave.
"In whose name do you order us, who are Delegates to the Peasants"
Congress of All-Russia, to disperse?" asked the peasants.
"In the name of the Baltic fleet," the sailor"s replied.
The peasants refused; cries of protest were raised. One by one the peasants ascended the tribune to stigmatize the Bolsheviki in speeches full of indignation, and to express the hopes that they placed in the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly....
This session of the Congress presented a strange spectacle: disturbed by men who confessed that they did not know why they were there, the peasants sang revolutionary songs; the sailors, armed with guns and grenades, joined them. Then the peasants knelt down to sing a funeral hymn to the memory of Logvinov, whose coffin was even yesterday within the room. The soldiers, lowering their guns, knelt down also.
The Bolshevik authorities became excited; they did not expect such a turn of events. "Enough said," declared the chiefs; "we have come not to speak, but to act. If they do not want to go to Smolny, let them get out of here." And they set themselves to the task.
In groups of five the peasants were conducted down-stairs, trampled upon, and, on their refusal to go to Smolny, pushed out of doors during the night in the midst of the enormous city of which they knew nothing.
Members of the Executive Committee were arrested,[39] the premises occupied by sailors and Red Guards, the objects found therein stolen.
The peasants found shelter in the homes of the inhabitants of Petrograd, who, indignant, offered them hospitality. A certain number were lodged in the barracks of the Preobrajenski Regiment.
The sailors, who but a few minutes before had sung a funeral hymn to Logvinov, and wept when they saw that they had understood nothing, now became the docile executioners of the orders of the Bolsheviki. And when they were asked, "Why do you do this?" they answered, as in the time, still recent, of Czarism: "It is the order. No need to talk."[40]