The Peasants' Congress, meeting by districts and by governments, as well as
the local executive committees of Soviets which have chosen us, knew well
to which Congress they delegated us and had given us precise mandates,
expressing their confidence in the Constituent Assembly and their blame of
the Soviets and the Bolshevik organs that impede the work of the
Constituante and call the peasants to the Congress of January 12th. These
congresses and these committees have charged us to use all our efforts to
defend the Constituent Assembly, binding themselves, on their part, in case
our efforts were insufficient, to rise in a body for its defense.
By reason of the disorganization of postal and telegraphic communications,
and because in different localities the calls of the Committee were held up
by the Bolshevist organizations, the instructions concerning the Congress
fixed for the 8th of January were not received in many provinces until
after considerable delay.
Some minutes before the opening of the Conference, which was to take place
on the premises of the Committee (11 Kirillovskaia Street), where the
delegates on hand had lodged, there arrived a detachment of sailors and Red
Guards armed with guns and bombs, who surrounded the house, guarding all
the entrances, and occupied all the apartments.
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