Iskomzap

(full name, Executive Committee of the Western Front). Composed of 75 members, Iskomzap was elected at the first congress of soldiers’ and workers’ deputies of the armies and the rear of the Western Front, which was held in Minsk on Apr. 7–16 (20–29), 1917.

The committee included ten Bolsheviks, two of whom became members of the Presidium of Iskomzap. The Bolshevik faction of Iskomzap, including A. F. Miasnikov (chairman), M. V. Frunze, V. V. Fomin, and N. I. Krivoshein, were very active among the soldiers of the front. During the October Revolution of 1917 the majority of Iskomzap took an openly counterrevolutionary stand and supported the so-called committee of salvation of the Western Front in Minsk. On November 2 (15) the Bolsheviks left Iskomzap and brought about the convocation of the second congress of the armies of the Western Front. On Nov. 20–24 (Dec. 3–7), 1917, the congress elected a new Iskomzap composed of 100 members, of whom 80 were Bolsheviks. On Nov. 26 (Dec. 9), 1917, Iskomzap merged with the Soviet of Zapadnaia Oblast into the unified Executive Committee of Zapadnaia Oblast and the Western Front.