Ten Days That Shook the World Part 17

EMPLOYEES OF THE STATE BANK.

From the Ministry of Supplies, the Ministry of Finance, from the Special Supply Committee, declarations that the Military Revolutionary Committee made it impossible for the employees to work, appeals to the population to support them against Smolny.... But the dominant worker and soldier did not believe them; it was firmly fixed in the popular mind that the employees were sabotaging, starving the Army, starving the people.... In the long bread lines, which as formerly stood in the iron winter streets, it was not _the Government_ which was blamed, as it had been under Kerensky, but the tchinovniki, the sabotageurs; for the Government was their Government, their Soviets-and the functionaries of the Ministries were against it....

At the centre of all this opposition was the Duma, and its militant organ, the Committee for Salvation, protesting against all the decrees of the Council of People's Commissars, voting again and again not to recognise the Soviet Government, openly cooperating with the new counter-revolutionary "Governments" set up at Moghilev.... On the 17th of November, for example, the Committee for Salvation addressed "all Munic.i.p.al Governments, Zemstvos, and all democratic and revolutionary organisations of peasants, workers, soldiers and other citizens," in these words: Do not recognise the Government of the Bolsheviki, and struggle against it.

Form local Committees for Salvation of Country and Revolution, who will unite all democratic forces, so as to aid the All-Russian Committee for Salvation in the tasks which it has set itself....

Meanwhile the elections for the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly in Petrograd (See App. XI, Sect. 15) gave an enormous plurality to the Bolsheviki; so that even the Mensheviki Internationalists pointed out that the Duma ought to be re-elected, as it no longer represented the political composition of the Petrograd population.... At the same time floods of resolutions from workers' organisations, from military units, even from the peasants in the surrounding country, poured in upon the Duma, calling it "counter-revolutionary, Kornilovitz," and demanding that it resign. The last days of the Duma were stormy with the bitter demands of the Munic.i.p.al workers for decent living wages, and the threat of strikes....

On the 23d a formal decree of the Military Revolutionary Committee dissolved the Committee for Salvation. On the 29th, the Council of People's Commissars ordered the dissolution and re-election of the Petrograd City Duma: In view of the fact that the Central Duma of Petrograd, elected September 2d, ... has definitely lost the right to represent the population of Petrograd, being in complete disaccord with its state of mind and its aspirations ... and in view of the fact that the personnel of the Duma majority, although having lost all political following, continues to make use of its prerogatives to resist in a counter-revolutionary manner the will of the workers, soldiers and peasants, to sabotage and obstruct the normal work of the Government-the Council of People's Commissars considers it its duty to invite the population of the capital to p.r.o.nounce judgment on the policy of the organ of Munic.i.p.al autonomy.

To this end the Council of People's Commissars resolves: (1) To dissolve the Munic.i.p.al Duma; the dissolution to take effect November 30th, 1917.

(2) All functionaries elected or appointed by the present Duma shall remain at their posts and fulfil the duties confided to them, until their places shall be filled by representatives of the new Duma.

(3) All Munic.i.p.al employees shall continue to fulfil their duties; those who leave the service of their own accord shall be considered discharged.

(4) The new elections for the Munic.i.p.al Duma of Petrograd are fixed for December 9th, 1917....

(5) The Munic.i.p.al Duma of Petrograd shall meet December 11th, 1917, at two o'clock.

(6) Those who disobey this decree, as well as those who intentionally harm or destroy the property of the Munic.i.p.ality, shall be immediately arrested and brought before the Revolutionary Tribunals....

The Duma met defiantly, pa.s.sing resolutions to the effect that it would "defend its position to the last drop of its blood," and appealing desperately to the population to save their "own elected City Government." But the population remained indifferent or hostile. On the 31st Mayor Schreider and several members were arrested, interrogated, and released. That day and the next the Duma continued to meet, interrupted frequently by Red Guards and sailors, who politely requested the a.s.sembly to disperse. At the meeting of December 2d, an officer and some sailors entered the Nicolai Hall while a member was speaking, and ordered the members to leave, or force would be used. They did so, protesting to the last, but finally "ceding to violence."

The new Duma, which was elected ten days later, and for which the "Moderate" Socialists refused to vote, was almost entirely Bolshevik....

There remained several centres of dangerous opposition, such as the "republics" of Ukraine and Finland, which were showing definitely anti-Soviet tendencies. Both at Helsingfors and at Kiev the Governments were gathering troops which could be depended upon, and entering upon campaigns of crushing Bolshevism, and of disarming and expelling Russian troops. The Ukrainean Rada had taken command of all southern Russia, and was furnishing Kaledin reinforcements and supplies. Both Finland and Ukraine were beginning secret negotiations with the Germans, and were promptly recognised by the Allied Governments, which loaned them huge sums of money, joining with the propertied cla.s.ses to create counter-revolutionary centres of attack upon Soviet Russia. In the end, when Bolshevism had conquered in both these countries, the defeated bourgeoisie called in the Germans to restore them to power....

But the most formidable menace to the Soviet Government was internal and two-headed-the Kaledin movement, and the Staff at Moghilev, where General Dukhonin had a.s.sumed command.

Graphic Page-287 Education Proclamation]

Proclamation of the Commission of Public Education attached to the City Duma, concerning the strike of school-teachers, just before the Christmas holidays. The Duma had been re-elected, and was composed almost entirely of Bolsheviki. For translation see App. XI, Sect. 17.

The ubiquitous Muraviov was appointed commander of the war against the Cossacks, and a Red Army was recruited from among the factory workers. Hundreds of propagandists were sent to the Don. The Council of People's Commissars issued a proclamation to the Cossacks, (See App. XI, Sect. 16) explaining what the Soviet Government was, how the propertied cla.s.ses, the tchin ovniki, landlords, bankers and their allies, the Cossack princes, land-owners and Generals, were trying to destroy the Revolution, and prevent the confiscation of their wealth by the people.

On November 27th a committee of Cossacks came to Smolny to see Trotzky and Lenin. They demanded if it were true that the Soviet Government did not intend to divide the Cossack lands among the peasants of Great Russia? "No," answered Trotzky. The Cossacks deliberated for a while. "Well," they asked, "does the Soviet Government intend to confiscate the estates of our great Cossack land-owners and divide them among the working Cossacks?" To this Lenin replied. "That," he said, "is for you to do. We shall support the working Cossacks in all their actions.... The best way to begin is to form Cossacks Soviets; you will be given representation in the Tsay-ee-kah, and then it will be your Government, too....

The Cossacks departed, thinking hard. Two weeks later General Kaledin received a deputation from his troops. "Will you," they asked, "promise to divide the great estates of the Cossack landlords among the working Cossacks?"

"Only over my dead body," responded Kaledin. A month later, seeing his army melt away before his eyes, Kaledin blew out his brains. And the Cossack movement was no more....

Meanwhile at Moghilev were gathered the old Tsay-ee-kah the "moderate" Socialist leaders-from Avksentiev to Tchernov-the active chiefs of the old Army Committees, and the reactionary officers. The Staff steadily refused to recognise the Council of People's Commissars. It had united about it the Death Battalions, the Knights of St. George, and the Cossacks of the Front, and was in close and secret touch with the Allied military attaches, and with the Kaledin movement and the Ukrainean Rada....

The Allied Governments had made no reply to the Peace decree of November 8th, in which the Congress of Soviets had asked for a general armistice.

On November 20th Trotzky addressed a note to the Allied Amba.s.sadors: (See App. XI, Sect. 18) I have the honour to inform you, Mr. Amba.s.sador, that the All-Russian Congress of Soviets... on November 8th const.i.tuted a new Government of the Russian Republic, in the form of the Council of People's Commissars. The President of this Government is Vladimir Ilyitch Lenin. The direction of Foreign Affairs has been entrusted to me, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs....

In drawing your attention to the text, approved by the All-Russian Congress, of the proposition for an armistice and a democratic peace without annexations or indemnities, based on the right of self-determination of peoples, I have the honour to request you to consider that doc.u.ment as a formal proposal of an immediate armistice on all fronts, and the opening of immediate peace negotiations; a proposal which the authorised Government of the Russian Republic addresses at the same time to all the belligerent peoples and their Governments.

Please accept, Mr. Amba.s.sador, the profound a.s.surance of the esteem of the Soviet Government toward your people, who cannot but wish for peace, like all the other peoples exhausted and drained by this unexampled butchery....

The same night the Council of People's Commissars telegraphed to General Dukhonin: ... The Council of People's Commissars considers it indispensable without delay to make a formal proposal of armistice to all the powers, both enemy and Allied. A declaration conforming to this decision has been sent by the Commissar for Foreign Affairs to the representatives of the Allied powers at Petrograd.

The Council of People's Commissars orders you, Citizen Commander,... to propose to the enemy military authorities immediately to cease hostilities, and enter into negotiations for peace.

In charging you with the conduct of these preliminary pourparlers, the Council of People's Commissars orders you: 1. To inform the Council by direct wire immediately of any and all steps in the pourparlers with the representatives of the enemy armies.

2. Not to sign the act of armistice until it has been pa.s.sed upon by the Council of People's Commissars.

The Allied Amba.s.sadors received Trotzky's note with contemptuous silence, accompanied by anonymous interviews in the newspapers, full of spite and ridicule. The order to Dukhonin was characterised openly as an act of treason....

As for Dukhonin, he gave no sign. On the night of November 22nd he was communicated with by telephone, and asked if he intended to obey the order. Dukhonin answered that he could not, unless it emanated from "a Government sustained by the Army and the country."

By telegraph he was immediately dismissed from the post of Supreme Commander, and Krylenko appointed in his place. Following his tactics of appealing to the ma.s.ses, Lenin sent a radio to all regimental, divisional and corps Committees, to all soldiers and sailors of the Army and the Fleet, acquainting them with Dukhonin's refusal, and ordering that "the regiments on the front shall elect delegates to begin negotiations with the enemy detachments opposite their positions...."

On the 23d, the military attaches of the Allied nations, acting on instructions from their Governments, presented a note to Dukhonin, in which he was solemnly warned not to "violate the conditions of the treaties concluded between the Powers of the Entente." The note went on to say that if a separate armistice with Germany were concluded, that act "would result in the most serious consequences" to Russia. This communication Dukhonin at once sent out to all the soldiers' Committees....

Next morning Trotzky made another appeal to the troops, characterising the note of the Allied representatives as a flagrant interference in the internal affairs of Russia, and a bald attempt "to force by threats the Russian Army and the Russian people to continue the war in execution of the treaties concluded by the Tsar...."

From Smolny poured out proclamation after proclamation, (See App. XI, Sect. 19) denouncing Dukhonin and the counter-revolutionary officers about him, denouncing the reactionary politicians gathered at Moghilev, rousing, from one end of the thousand-mile Front to the other, millions of angry, suspicious soldiers. And at the same time Krylenko, accompanied by three detachments of fanatical sailors, set out for the Stavka, breathing threats of vengeance, (See App. XI, Sect. 20) and received by the soldiers everywhere with tremendous ovations-a triumphal progress. The Central Army Committee issued a declaration in favour of Dukhonin; and at once ten thousand troops moved upon Moghilev....

On December 2d the garrison of Moghilev rose and seized the city, arresting Dukhonin and the Army Committee, and going out with victorious red banners to meet the new Supreme Commander. Krylenko entered Moghilev next morning, to find a howling mob gathered about the railway-car in which Dukhonin had been imprisoned. Krylenko made a speech in which he implored the soldiers not to harm Dukhonin, as he was to be taken to Petrograd and judged by the Revolutionary Tribunal. When he had finished, suddenly Dukhonin himself appeared at the window, as if to address the throng. But with a savage roar the people rushed the car, and falling upon the old General, dragged him out and beat him to death on the platform....

So ended the revolt of the Stavka....

Immensely strengthened by the collapse of the last important stronghold of hostile military power in Russia, the Soviet Government began with confidence the organisation of the state. Many of the old functionaries flocked to its banner, and many members of other parties entered the Government service. The financially ambitious, however, were checked by the decree on Salaries of Government Employees, fixing the salaries of the People's Commissars-the highest-at five hundred rubles (about fifty dollars) a month.... The strike of Government Employees, led by the Union of Unions, collapsed, deserted by the financial and commercial interests which had been backing it. The bank clerks returned to their jobs....

With the decree on the Nationalisation of Banks, the formation of the Supreme Council of People's Economy, the putting into practical operation of the Land decree in the villages, the democratic reorganisation of the Army, and the sweeping changes in all branches of the Government and of life,-with all these, effective only by the will of the ma.s.ses of workers, soldiers and peasants, slowly began, with many mistakes and hitches, the moulding of proletarian Russia.

Not by compromise with the propertied cla.s.ses, or with the other political leaders; not by conciliating the old Government mechanism, did the Bolsheviki conquer the power. Nor by the organized violence of a small clique. If the ma.s.ses all over Russia had not been ready for insurrection it must have failed. The only reason for Bolshevik success lay in their accomplishing the vast and simple desires of the most profound strata of the people, calling them to the work of tearing down and destroying the old, and afterward, in the smoke of falling ruins, cooperating with them to erect the frame-work of the new....

Chapter XII.

The Peasants' Congress.

IT was on November 18th that the snow came. In the morning we woke to window-ledges heaped white, and snowflakes falling so whirling thick that it was impossible to see ten feet ahead. The mud was gone; in a twinkling the gloomy city became white, dazzling. The droshki with their padded coachmen turned into sleights, bounding along the uneven street at headlong speed, their drivers' beards stiff and frozen.... In spite of Revolution, all Russia plunging dizzily into the unknown and terrible future, joy swept the city with the coming of the snow. Everybody was smiling; people ran into the streets, holding out their arms to the soft, falling flakes, laughing. Hidden was all the greyness; only the gold and coloured spires and cupolas, with heightened barbaric splendour, gleamed through the white snow.

Even the sun came out, pale and watery, at noon. The colds and rheumatism of the rainy months vanished. The life of the city grew gay, and the very Revolution ran swifter....

I sat one evening in a traktir-a kind of lower-cla.s.s inn-across the street from the gates of Smolny; a low-ceilinged, loud place called "Uncle Tom's Cabin," much frequented by Red Guards. They crowded it now, packed close around the little tables with their dirty table-cloths and enormous china tea-pots, filling the place with foul cigarette-smoke, while the hara.s.sed waiters ran about crying "Seicha.s.s! Seicha.s.s! In a minute! Right away!"

In one corner sat a man in the uniform of a captain, addressing the a.s.sembly, which interrupted him at every few words.

"You are no better than murderers!" he cried. "Shooting down your Russian brothers on the streets!"

"When did we do that?" asked a worker.

"Last Sunday you did it, when the yunkers--"

"Well, didn't they shoot us?" One man exhibited his arm in a sling. "Haven't I got something to remember them by, the devils?"

The captain shouted at the top of his voice. "You should remain neutral! You should remain neutral! Who are you to destroy the legal Government? Who is Lenin? A German--"

"Who are you? A counter-revolutionist! A provocator!" they bellowed at him.

When he could make himself heard the captain stood up. "All right!" said he. "You call yourselves the people of Russia. But you're not the people of Russia. The peasants are the people of Russia. Wait until the peasants--"

"Yes," they cried, "wait until the peasants speak. We know what the peasants will say.... Aren't they workingmen like ourselves?"

In the long run, everything depended upon the peasants. While the peasants had been politically backward, still they had their own peculiar ideas, and they const.i.tuted more than eighty per cent of the people of Russia. The Bolsheviki had a comparatively small following among the peasants; and a permanent dictatorship of Russia by the industrial workers was impossible.... The traditional peasant party was the Socialist Revolutionary party; of all the parties now supporting the Soviet Government, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries were the logical inheritors of peasant leadership-and the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, who were at the mercy of the organised city proletariat, desperately needed the backing of the peasants....

Meanwhile Smolny had not neglected the peasants. After the Land decree, one of the first actions of the new Tsay-ee-kah had been to call a Congress of Peasants, over the head of the Executive Committee of the Peasants' Soviets. A few days later was issued detailed Regulations for the Volost (Township) Land Committees, followed by Lenin's "Instruction to Peasants," (See App. XII, Sect. 1) which explained the Bolshevik revolution and the new Government in simple terms; and on November 16th, Lenin and Miliutin published the "Instructions to Provincial Emissaries," of whom thousands were sent by the Soviet Government into the villages.

1. Upon his arrival in the province to which he is accredited, the emissary should call a joint meeting of the Central Executive Committees of the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, to whom he should make a report on the agrarian laws, and then demand that a joint plenary session of the Soviets be summoned....

2. He must study the aspects of the agrarian problem in the province.

a. Has the land-owners' property been taken over, and if so, in what districts?

b. Who administers the confiscated land-the former proprietor, or the Land Committees?

c. What has been done with the agricultural machinery and with the farm-animals?

3. Has the ground cultivated by the peasants been augmented?

4. How much and in what respect does the amount of land now under cultivation differ from the amount fixed by the Government as an average minimum?

5. The emissary must insist that, after the peasants have received the land, it is imperative that they increase the amount of cultivated land as quickly as possible, and that they hasten the sending of grain to the cities, as the only means of avoiding famine.

6. What are the measures projected or put into effect for the transfer of land from the land-owners to the Land Committees and similar bodies appointed by the Soviets?

7. It is desirable that agricultural properties well appointed and well organised should be administered by Soviets composed of the regular employees of those properties, under the direction of competent agricultural scientists.

All through the villages a ferment of change was going on, caused not only by the electrifying action of the Land decree, but also by thousands of revolutionary-minded peasant-soldiers returning from the front.... These men, especially, welcomed the call to a Congress of Peasants.

Like the old Tsay-ee-kah in the matter of the second Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Soviets, the Executive Committee tried to prevent the Peasant Congress summoned by Smolny. And like the old Tsay-ee-kah, finding its resistance futile, the Executive Committee sent frantic telegrams ordering the election of Conservative delegates. Word was even spread among the peasants that the Congress would meet at Moghilev, and some delegates went there; but by November 23d about four hundred had gathered in Petrograd, and the party caucuses had begun....

The first session took place in the Alexander Hall of the Duma building, and the first vote showed that more than half of all the delegates were Left Socialist Revolutionaries, while the Bolsheviki controlled a bare fifth, the conservative Socialist Revolutionaries a quarter, and all the rest were united only in their opposition to the old Executive Committee, dominated by Avksentiev, Tchaikovsky and Peshekhonov....

The great hall was jammed with people and shaken with continual clamour; deep, stubborn bitterness divided the delegates into angry groups. To the right was a sprinkling of officers' epaulettes, and the patriarchal, bearded faces of the older, more substantial peasants; in the centre were a few peasants, non-commissioned officers, and some soldiers; and on the left almost all the delegates wore the uniforms of common soldiers. These last were the young generation, who had been serving in the army.... The galleries were thronged with workers-who, in Russia, still remember their peasant origin....

Unlike the old Tsay-ee-kah, the Executive Committee, in opening the session, did not recognise the Congress as official; the official Congress was called for December 13th; amid a hurricane of applause and angry cries, the speaker declared that this gathering was merely "Extraordinary Conference"... But the "Extraordinary Conference" soon showed its att.i.tude toward the Executive Committee by electing as presiding officer Maria Spiridonova, leader of the Left Socialist Revolution aries.

Most of the first day was taken up by a violent debate as to whether the representatives of Volost Soviets should be seated, or only delegates from the Provincial bodies; and just as in the Workers' and Soldiers' Congress, an overwhelming majority declared in favour of the widest possible representation. Whereupon the old Executive Committee left the hall....

Almost immediately it was evident that most of the delegates were hostile to the Government of the People's Commissars. Zinoviev, attempting to speak for the Bolsheviki, was hooted down, and as he left the platform, amid laughter, there were cries, "There's how a People's Commissar sits in a mudpuddle!"

"We Left Socialist Revolutionaries refuse," cried Nazariev, a delegate from the Provinces, "to recognise this so-called Workers' and Peasants' Government until the peasants are represented in it. At present it is nothing but a dictatorship of the workers.... We insist upon the formation of a new Government which will represent the entire democracy!"

The reactionary delegates shrewdly fostered this feeling, declaring, in the face of protests from the Bolshevik benches, that the Council of People's Commissars intended either to control the Congress or dissolve it by force of arms-an announcement which was received by the peasants with bursts of fury....

On the third day Lenin suddenly mounted the tribune; for ten minutes the room went mad. "Down with him!" they shrieked. "We will not listen to any of your People's Commissars! We don't recognise your Government!"

Lenin stood there quite calmly, gripping the desk with both hands, his little eyes thoughtfully surveying the tumult beneath. Finally, except for the right side of the hall, the demonstration wore itself out somewhat.

"I do not come here as a member of the Council of People's Commissars," said Lenin, and waited again for the noise to subside, "but as a member of the Bolshevik faction, duly elected to this Congress." And he held his credentials up to that all might see them.

"However," he went on, in an unmoved voice, "n.o.body will deny that the present Government of Russia has been formed by the Bolshevik party-" he had to wait a moment, "so that for all purposes it is the same thing...." Here the right benches broke into deafening clamour, but the centre and left were curious, and compelled silence.

Lenin's argument was simple. "Tell me frankly, you peasants, to whom we have given the lands of the pomieshtchiki; do you want now to prevent the workers from getting control of industry? This is cla.s.s war. The pomieshtchiki of course oppose the peasants, and the manufactures oppose the workers. Are you going to allow the ranks of the proletariat to be divided? Which side will you be on?

"We, the Bolsheviki, are the party of the proletariat-of the peasant proletariat as well as the industrial proletariat. We, the Bolsheviki, are the protectors of the Soviets-of the Peasants' Soviets as well as those of the Workers and Soldiers. The present Government is a Government of Soviets; we have not only invited the Peasants' Soviets to join that Government, but we have also invited representatives of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries to enter the Council of People's Commissars....

"The Soviets are the most perfect representatives of the people-of the workers in the factories and mines, of the workers in the fields. Anybody who attempts to destroy the Soviets is guilty of an anti-democratic and counter-revolutionary act. And I serve notice here on you, comrades Right Socialist Revolutionaries-and on you, Messrs. Cadets-that if the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly attempts to destroy the Soviets, we shall not permit the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly to do this thing!"

On the afternoon of November 25th Tchernov arrived in hot haste from Moghilev, summoned by the Executive Committee. Only two months before considered an extreme revolutionist, and very popular with the peasants, he was now called to check the dangerous drift of the Congress toward the Left. Upon his arrival Tchernov was arrested and taken to Smolny, where, after a short conversation, he was released.

His first act was to bitterly rebuke the Executive Committee for leaving the Congress. They agreed to return, and Tchernov entered the hall, welcomed with great applause by the majority, and the hoots and jeers of the Bolsheviki.

"Comrades! I have been away. I partic.i.p.ated in the Conference of the Twelfth Army on the question of calling a Congress of all the Peasant delegates of the armies of the Western Front, and I know very little about the insurrection which occurred here--"

Zinoviev rose in his seat, and shouted, "Yes, you were away-for a few minutes!" Fearful tumult. Cries, "Down with the Bolsheviki!"

Tchernov continued. "The accusation that I helped lead an army on Petrograd has no foundation, and is entirely false. Where does such an accusation come from? Show me the source!"

Zinoviev: "Izviestia and Dielo Naroda-your own paper -that's where it comes from!"

Tchernov's wide face, with the small eyes, waving hair and greyish beard, became red with wrath, but he controlled himself and went on. "I repeat, I know practically nothing about what has happened here, and I did not lead any army except this army, (he pointed to the peasant delegates), which I am largely responsible for bringing here!" Laughter, and shouts of "Bravo!"

"Upon my return I visited Smolny. No such accusation was made against me there.... After a brief conversation I left-and that's all! Let any one present make such an accusation!"

An uproar followed, in which the Bolsheviki and some of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries were on their feet all at once, shaking their fists and yelling, and the rest of the a.s.sembly tried to yell them down.

"This is an outrage, not a session!" cried Tchernov, and he left the hall; the meeting was adjourned because of the noise and disorder....

Meanwhile, the question of the status of the Executive Committee was agitating all minds. By declaring the a.s.sembly "Extraordinary Conference," it had been planned to block the reelection of the Executive Committee. But this worked both ways; the Left Socialist Revolutionists decided that if the Congress had no power over the Executive Committee, then the Executive Committee had no power over the Congress. On November 25th the a.s.sembly resolved that the powers of the Executive Committee be a.s.sumed by the Extraordinary Conference, in which only members of the Executive who had been elected as delegates might vote....

The next day, in spite of the bitter opposition of the Bolsheviki, the resolution was amended to give all the members of the Executive Committee, whether elected as delegates or not, voice and vote in the a.s.sembly.