.. But the "Extraordinary
Conference" soon showed its attitude 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.
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