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for the greater part of provincial representatives and more especially of peasant representatives.
This Congress elected about 100 members to the Central Rada, and these latter were the core of the Revolutionary Parliament which governed the whole of the Ukraine for a year.
Later on the Rada was increased through the introduction of the delegates from the Congress of Peasants, the Congress of Soldiers, and the Congress of Workmen.
The Congress of Peasants was convened on May 30 by the Ukrainian as well as the Russian political parties. The system of election was based on the social and territorial principle;[1] the national principle was put aside. But when the Congress had its first gathering it showed more national ardour than had been shown even at the National Congress of April 8.
The Congress of Peasants showed forcefully its desire immediately to construct a State either founded on federation or on independence.
The Ukrainian statesmen tried to calm the effervescence of spirits, and it was through the energetic insistence of the Ukrainian Socialists that the Congress agreed to listen to Russian Social Revolutionaries.
The same enthusiasm reigned in the Congress of Soldiers, which included some 2,000 soldiers elected by the groups of Ukrainian soldiers scattered along the front and in all the Russian towns. There were more than two million military electors.
The Central Rada, which in June comprised some 600 Ukrainians, was at this time accorded a tremendous popularity throughout the country.
Every day the President of the Rada received numerous deputations and hundreds of telegrams and letters. In all the towns, boroughs, and villages of the country special congresses of every kind gathered together and unanimously demanded the reconstitution of
- ↑ Each of the 105 districts of the Ukraine having to elect 20 delegates, the Congress of Peasants comprised more than 2,000 delegates.
