Date: Mon, 30 Sep 1996 16:49:54 +0100
Subject: Dissolving the Constituent Assembly


This question of the Constituent Assembly, mentioned by Tony H, is interesting:

>Soon after the October revolution the bolsheviks decided to ignore the
>democratically elected constituent assembly (or whatever it was called) in
>favour of the Soviets, and they were right to do so. Liberal Democracy is
>not some IDEA that can be applied regardless of the reality of the
>situation.

"Ignore" isn't quite the right word. "Dissolve" is better. It was the
people that ignored it. No-one lifted a finger to help the assembled
right-wingers --except of course the ravening imperialist governments in
their wars of intervention, and we know how much they would have cared
about democratic niceties if they'd defeated the Bolsheviks. Just look at
Finland next door.


It's not that easy to find out about the Constituent Assembly. Lenin's
theses (Dec 11 or 12 (24 or 25) 1917) and his speech and draft decree (Jan
6 (19) 1918) are useful -- and can be found in vol 26 of the Collected
Works (Prog Pub 1964) and vol 3 of the Selected Works (PP63) p 525.

Among other things he makes the point that the party lists used to make up
the assembly were drawn up in mid-October before the revolution, and
reflected a completely different historical period. The split in the
Social-Revolutionaries between rightwing Kerenskyites and revolutionary
left SRs had not then taken place, so all the votes for that party were
completely void of meaning. The position (and the social weakness) of the
Mensheviks had also been so clarified by the events of October 25 that
their numbers were no true reflection of their role in the country.

Perhaps E.H.Carr goes into the business in detail -- I haven't got him to hand.

Has anybody got the dates of voting or the composition of the Assembly
available?

We know where a lot of the constituent assemblers went after the CA was
dissolved -- straight to the enemy.

On another tack, any ideas about the possible validity of Constituent
Assemblies as an instrument of *popular mobilization* against reaction
nowadays?

Cheers,

Hugh




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