To make matters still worse, the Bolsheviks had on many occasions committed themselves to the convocation of the Assembly. Historically, the Constituent Assembly was identified with the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, which made it the centerpiece of its political program, confident that given its hold on the peasants it would enjoy in it an overwhelming majority: this the SRs intended to use to transform Russian into a republic of “toilers.” Had they been politically more astute, the SRs would have pressed the Provisional Government to hold elections as soon as possible. But they procrastinated like everyone else, which handed the Bolsheviks the opportunity to pose as the Assembly’s champions. From the late summer of 1917, the Bolsheviks accused the Provisional Government of deliberately delaying the elections in the hope that time would cool the people’s revolutionary ardor. In launching the slogan “All Power to the Soviets,” they argued that only the soviets could guarantee the Constituent Assembly. In September and October 1917 Bolshevik propaganda shouted loud and clear that the transfer of power to the soviets alone would save the Constituent Assembly.75 As they prepared to seize power, they sometimes sounded as if their main objective was to defend the Assembly from the designs of the “bourgeoisie” and other “counterrevolutionaries.” As late as October 27, Pravda told its readers that
the new revolutionary authority will permit no hesitations: under conditions of social hegemony of the interests of the broad popular masses, it alone is capable of leading the country to a Constituent Assembly.76
There could be no question, therefore, that Lenin and his party were committed to holding elections, convening it and submitting to the Assembly’s will. But since this Assembly was almost certain to sweep them from power, they had a problem on their hands. In the end, they gambled and won: and only after this triumph, on the ruins of the Constituent Assembly, could they feel confident of never again being challenged by democratic forces.
In assaulting the Constituent Assembly, they could find justification in Social-Democratic theory. The Social-Democratic program adopted in 1903 did call for the convocation of a Legislative Assembly, elected by the people on the basis of universal, equal, and direct voting; but neither the Bolsheviks nor the Mensheviks made a fetish of free elections. Long before the Revolution they were prepared to argue that the ballot box was not necessarily the best indicator of the people’s “true” interests. The founder of Russian Social-Democracy, Plekhanov, delivered at the Second Party Congress in 1903 some remarks on the subject, with which the Bolsheviks were later to taunt their opponents:
76. Voting for the Constituent Assembly: November 1917.
Every given democratic principle must be viewed not abstractly, on its own merits, but in its relationship to that principle which may be called the basic principle of democracy: salus populi suprema lex. Translated into the language of a revolutionary, this means that the success of the revolution is the supreme law. And if, for the sake of the revolution, it should become necessary temporarily to restrict the action of one or another democratic principle, then it would be criminal not to do so. As a personal opinion I shall state that one must view even the principle of the universal vote from the point of view of the above-mentioned fundamental principle of democracy. Hypothetically, one can conceive of a situation where we Social Democrats would oppose the universal vote.… If in an outburst of revolutionary enthusiasm the people would elect a very good parliament … then we should try to transform it into a Long Parliament; and if the elections turned out unfavorably, then we should try to disperse it—not in two years, but, if possible, in two weeks.*
Lenin shared these sentiments and in 1918 would quote them with evident relish.77
The Provisional Government had scheduled the elections for November 12, 1917, which happened to be two weeks after it fell from power. The Bolsheviks hesitated at first whether to adhere to this date, but in the end decided to do so, and issued a decree to this effect.78 But what to do next? While discussing the question among themselves, they interfered with the ability of their opponents to campaign. This was perhaps the principal intention behind the Press Decree and an ordinance issued by the Military-Revolutionary Committee on November 1 placing Petrograd under a state of siege: one of its provision forbade outdoor assemblies.79
77. Electoral poster of the Constitutional-Democrats: “Vote for the Party of National Freedom.”
In Petrograd, the voting for the Assembly began on November 12, and went on for three days. Moscow voted on November 19–21; the rest of the country, in the second half of November. Eligible, according to criteria set by the Provisional Government, were male as well as female citizens twenty years and over. Voting took place over the entire territory of what had been the Russian Empire except for areas under enemy occupation—that is, Poland and the provinces on Russia’s western and northwestern frontiers. In Central Asia the results were not tabulated; the same lapse occurred in a few remote regions. Voters turned out in impressive numbers: in Petrograd and Moscow some 70 percent of those eligible went to the polls, and in some rural areas the turnout reached 100 percent, the peasants often voting as one body for a single ticket, usually the Socialist-Revolutionary. According to the most reliable count, 44.4 million cast ballots. Here and there, observers noted minor irregularities: the garrison troops, who favored the Bolsheviks for their promises of a quick peace, sometimes intimidated candidates of the other parties. But by and large, especially if one considers the difficult conditions under which they were held, the elections justified expectations. Lenin, who had no interest in praising them, stated on December 1: “If one views the Constituent Assembly apart from the conditions of the class struggle, which verges on civil war, then as of now we know of no institution more perfect as a means of expressing the people’s will.”80
Voting was very complicated, given that many splinter parties put up candidates, sometimes in blocs with other parties: the configuration differed from region to region, becoming especially complex in such borderland areas as the Ukraine, where, alongside Russian parties, there were parties representing the local minorities.
Of the socialists, the Bolsheviks alone campaigned without a formal platform. They apparently counted on winning votes with broad appeals to workers, soldiers, and peasants, centered on the slogans “All Power to the Soviets,” and on promises of immediate peace and the confiscation of landlord properties. In electoral appeals they sought to broaden the class basis of their constituency, borrowing the SRs’ un-Marxist term “the toiling masses.” In evaluating the results of the elections, therefore, it must be borne in mind that many and perhaps even most of those who cast ballots for the Bolsheviks were expressing approval, not of the Bolshevik platform, of which they knew nothing because it did not even exist, let alone of the hidden Bolshevik agenda of a one-party dictatorship, never mentioned in Bolshevik pronouncements, but of the rule of soviets, an end to the war, and the abolition of private landholding in favor of communal redistribution, none of which figured among ultimate Bolshevik objectives.
Lenin, hoping against hope, for a while deluded himself that the Left SRs would tear the SR Party apart to such an extent as to give the Bolsheviks a victory.81 The strong showing which the Left SRs made at the Petrograd City Conference in November gave some substance to this hope.82 But in the end it proved unfounded: although the Bolsheviks made a strong showing, especially in the cities and among the military, they came in second place, trailing far behind the Socialists-Revolutionaries. This outcome sealed the fate of the Assembly.