Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly. Formation of the Soviet political system. Dispersal of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly by the Bolsheviks
The demonstration had a peculiar philistine character, but rumors about an impending armed uprising circulated around the city. The Bolsheviks were preparing to fight back. The Constituent Assembly was to meet in the Tauride Palace. A military headquarters was organized, in which Sverdlov the Revolutionary, Podvoisky, Proshyan, Uritsky, Bonch-Bruevich participated Editor at the Pravda newspaper, specialist in Russian religious sects and others. The city and the Smolninsky district were divided into sections, the workers took over the protection. To maintain order in the Taurida Palace itself, near it and in the adjacent quarters, a team was called from the cruiser "Aurora" and two companies from the battleship "Republic". The armed uprising, which was being prepared by the "Union for the Defense of the Constituent Assembly", did not work out, there was a philistine demonstration under the slogan "All power to the Constituent Assembly", which at the corner of Nevsky and Liteiny clashed with our workers' demonstration, marching under the slogan "Long live Soviet power". There was an armed clash, quickly liquidated.
Bonch-Bruevich bothered, called, ordered, furnished Vladimir Ilyich's move Leader of the Bolshevik Party from the Smolny to the Taurida Palace is extremely secretive. He was driving himself with Vladimir Ilyich in a car, they put me there with Maria Ilyinichnaya and Vera Mikhailovna Bonch-Bruevich. We drove up to the Tauride Palace from some lane. The gates were locked, but the car gave the agreed horn, the gates opened and, letting us in, closed again. The guard led us to special rooms reserved for Ilyich. They were somewhere on the right side of the main entrance, and you had to go to the meeting room along some kind of glassed-in corridor. Near the main entrance stood the tails of the delegates, a mass of spectators, and, of course, it was more convenient for Ilyich to go through a special passage, but he was a little annoyed by some kind of excessive mysterious theatricality.
We sat and drank tea, then one or the other comrades came in, I remember Kollontaybolshevik, Dybenko sailor, Bolshevik. I had to sit for quite a long time, there was a meeting, rather stormy, of the Bolshevik faction. Going to the meeting, Vladimir Ilyich remembered that he had left a revolver in his overcoat, went after him, but there was no revolver, although no strangers entered the hallway, apparently, someone from the guard pulled out the revolver. Ilyich began to reproach Dybenko and mock him that there was no discipline in the guards; Dybenko was worried. When Ilyich later returned from the meeting, Dybenko returned his revolver to him, the guards returned it.
After the choice of the chairman - Chernov - the debate began. Vladimir Ilyich did not speak. He sat on the steps of the podium, smiling mockingly, joking, taking notes, feeling somehow useless at this meeting.
The convocation and dissolution of the Constituent Assembly on January 5-6 (18-19), 1918 is one of the turning points in the development of the Great Russian Revolution. The forceful actions of the supporters of the Soviet government thwarted the possibility of forming a parliamentary democracy in Russia and carrying out social transformations based on the will of the majority of voters. The dispersal of the assembly was another step towards a large-scale civil war.
All participants in the February Revolution, including the Bolsheviks, recognized the Constituent Assembly as the final judge of party disputes. This was also believed by millions of Russian citizens, who believed that it was the will of the nationwide "gathering", the people's representatives, that could guarantee both the right to the Earth and the rules of political life by which the country would have to live. Forceful revision of the decisions of the Assembly at that moment was considered blasphemy, and that is why the subordination of all party leaders to the will of the Assembly could exclude a civil war and guarantee the democratic end of the revolution, the peaceful multi-party future of the country. However, preparations for the elections to the Constituent Assembly were delayed. A special meeting for the preparation of the draft Regulations on elections to the Constituent Assembly began work only on May 25. Work on the draft Regulations on elections to the Constituent Assembly was completed in August 1917. It was decided that it would be elected in general, equal, direct elections by secret ballot according to party lists nominated in the territorial districts.
On June 14, the Provisional Government scheduled the elections for September 17, and the convocation of the Constituent Assembly for September 30. However, due to the belated preparation of the regulation on elections and voter lists, on August 9, the Provisional Government decided to call the elections for November 12, and the convocation of the Constituent Assembly - for November 28, 1917.
But by this time, power was already in the hands of the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks promised that they would submit to the will of the Assembly and hoped to win by convincing the majority that they were right with the help of the first populist measures of the Council of People's Commissars. The elections to the Constituent Assembly, which were officially held on November 12 (individual deputies were elected in October-February), brought disappointment to the Bolsheviks - they won 23.5% of the vote and 180 deputy mandates out of 767. And the parties of supporters of democratic socialism (SRs, Social Democrats, Mensheviks and others) received 58.1%. The peasantry gave their votes to the Social Revolutionaries, and they formed the largest faction of 352 deputies. Another 128 seats were won by other socialist parties. In large cities and at the front, the Bolsheviks achieved great success, but Russia was predominantly a peasant country. The allies of the Bolsheviks, the Left SRs who broke away from the Socialist-Revolutionary Party and passed through the lists of the AKP, received only about 40 mandates, that is, about 5%, and could not turn the tide. In those districts where the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries decided to go on their own, in most cases they were defeated. 
The composition of the Constituent Assembly following the results of the elections of 1917
In large cities, the Kadets, who were irreconcilable opponents of the Bolsheviks, also achieved success, who got 14 seats. Another 95 seats were received by national parties (except socialists) and Cossacks. By the time the assembly opened, 715 deputies had been elected.
On November 26, the Council of People's Commissars decided that for the opening of the Constituent Assembly it was necessary that 400 deputies arrive in Petrograd, and before that the convocation of the Assembly was postponed.
The Bolsheviks and the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries together had about a third of the votes, and the Socialist-Revolutionaries were to become the leading center of the Assembly. The assembly could remove the Bolsheviks and the Left SRs from power.
The Union for the Defense of the Constituent Assembly held mass demonstrations in support of the speedy convocation of parliament, which was postponed by the Council of People's Commissars.
On November 28, the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree on the arrest of the leaders of the civil war (meaning anti-Bolshevik uprisings), on the basis of which several Kadets deputies were arrested, since their party supported the fight against Bolshevism. Along with the Cadets, some Socialist-Revolutionary deputies were also arrested. The principle of parliamentary immunity did not work. The arrival in the capital of deputies-opponents of the Bolsheviks was difficult.
On December 20, the Council of People's Commissars decided to open the work of the Assembly on January 5. On December 22, the decision of the Council of People's Commissars was approved by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. But in opposition to the Constituent Assembly, the Bolsheviks and the Left SRs were preparing the convocation of the Third Congress of Soviets.
After consultations with the Left SRs, the Bolshevik leadership decided to disperse the Constituent Assembly shortly after its convocation. The military superiority in Petrograd was on the side of the Bolsheviks, although many units were rather neutral. The Social Revolutionaries tried to organize military support for the Assembly, but, according to the convincing conclusion of the historian L.G. Protasov, "Socialist-Revolutionary conspiracies were clearly not enough to organize an armed counter-coup - they did not go beyond the necessary defense of the Constituent Assembly." But if this work had been done better, the Assembly could have been defended. However, the Bolsheviks again showed that in the matter of military conspiracies they were more efficient and resourceful. The armored cars prepared by the Social Revolutionaries were put out of action. The Socialist-Revolutionaries were afraid of marring the holiday of democracy by shooting, and abandoned the idea of an armed demonstration in support of the Assembly. His supporters were to take to the streets unarmed.
On January 5, the opening day of the Assembly, Bolshevik troops shot down a demonstration of workers and intellectuals in support of it. More than 20 people died.
By the opening of the meeting, 410 deputies arrived at the Tauride Palace. The quorum has been reached. The Bolsheviks and the Left SRs had 155 votes.
At the beginning of the meeting, there was a scuffle at the podium - the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Bolsheviks claimed the right to open the meeting, the Socialist-Revolutionaries insisted that this should be done by the oldest deputy (he was a Socialist-Revolutionary). The representative of the Bolsheviks, Ya. Sverdlov, made his way to the podium and read out a draft declaration written by Lenin, which said: “Supporting Soviet power and the decrees of the Council of People’s Commissars, the Constituent Assembly considers that its task is limited to establishing the fundamental foundations for the socialist reorganization of society.” In essence, these were terms of surrender, which would turn the Assembly into an appendage of the Soviet regime. No wonder the Constituent Assembly refused even to discuss such a declaration.
The Socialist-Revolutionary leader V. Chernov, who was elected Chairman of the Parliament, delivered a conceptual speech in which he outlined the Socialist-Revolutionary vision of the country's most important problems. Chernov considered it necessary to formalize the transfer of land to the peasants "into a concrete, precisely formalized reality by law." The chaotic land redistribution begun by the Bolsheviks and the Left SRs is not capable of providing the peasants with a lasting right to land: “the general transfer of land use ... is not done with one stroke of the pen ... The working village does not want the lease of state property, it wants the access of labor to the land itself was not subject to any tribute ... "
The agrarian reform was to become the foundation for the gradual construction of socialism with the help of trade unions, cooperatives and strong local self-government.
The policy of the Bolsheviks was criticized by the majority of speakers. The supporters of the Bolsheviks answered not only from the podium, but also from the gallery, which was packed with their supporters. Democrats were not allowed into the building. The crowd gathered at the top shouted and hooted. Armed men aimed from the gallery at the speakers. It took a lot of courage to work in such conditions. Seeing that the majority of the Assembly was not going to give up, the Bolsheviks, and then the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, left the Parliament. Formally, the quorum also disappeared with them. However, Parliament continued to work. In most of the world's parliaments, a quorum is necessary for the opening of parliament, and not for its current work. In the coming days, the arrival of deputies from the hinterland was expected.
The remaining deputies discussed and adopted 10 points of the Basic Land Law, which corresponded to the ideas of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. Having abolished the right of ownership of land without redemption, the law transferred it to the disposal of local self-government bodies.
The debate ended early in the morning on 6 January. The head of the guard, anarchist V. Zheleznyakov, referring to the member of the Council of People's Commissars P. Dybenko, told Chernov that "the guard was tired," and it was time to end the meeting. There was nothing special about this, but the speaker reacted irritably: we will disperse only if we are dispersed by force. In the end, they decided that the deputies would continue to work today until the main bills were adopted at least in an accelerated manner. Zheleznyakov no longer interfered in the work of the Assembly.
The deputies adopted the basis of the law on land, a resolution declaring Russia a democratic federal republic and a peace declaration condemning the separate negotiations of the Bolsheviks and demanding a general democratic peace. Then, at twenty to five in the morning, the chairman of the meeting, V. Chernov, closed the meeting, scheduling the next one for five in the evening. When, having slept a little, the deputies again gathered at the Tauride Palace, they found the doors closed - the Bolsheviks announced the dissolution of the Assembly and took away the premises from the supreme body of power. This was the act of dispersing the Constituent Assembly.
Outraged by yesterday's execution of a peaceful demonstration, the workers of the Semyannikovsky plant supported the elected representatives of Russia and invited the deputies to sit on the territory of their enterprise. The strike grew in the city, soon involving more than 50 enterprises.
Despite the fact that V. Chernov suggested accepting the proposal of the workers, the majority of the socialist deputies opposed the continuation of the meetings, fearing that the Bolsheviks might shell the plant from ships. It is not known what would have happened if the Bolsheviks had ordered the sailors to shoot at the plant - in 1921, the very fact of a strike in Petrograd caused the Kronstadt sailors to act against the Bolsheviks. But in January 1918, the Socialist-Revolutionary leaders stopped before the specter of civil war. The deputies were leaving the capital, fearing arrests. On January 10, 1918, the Third Congress of Workers', Soldiers', Peasants' and Cossacks' Deputies met and proclaimed itself the highest authority in the country.
Russia's first freely elected parliament was dispersed. Democracy has failed. Now the contradictions between the various social strata of Russia could no longer be resolved through peaceful discussions in parliament. The Bolsheviks took another step towards civil war.
ELECTIONS TO THE "FOUNDER"
The convocation of the Constituent Assembly as an organ of supreme democratic power was the demand of all socialist parties in pre-revolutionary Russia, from the Popular Socialists to the Bolsheviks. Elections to the Constituent Assembly were held at the end of 1917. The overwhelming majority of voters participating in the elections, about 90%, voted for the socialist parties, the socialists made up 90% of all deputies (the Bolsheviks received only 24% of the votes). But the Bolsheviks came to power under the slogan "All power to the Soviets!" They could maintain their autocracy, obtained at the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, only by relying on the Soviets, opposing them to the Constituent Assembly. At the Second Congress of Soviets, the Bolsheviks promised to convene the Constituent Assembly and recognize it as the authority on which "the solution of all major issues depends," but they were not going to fulfill this promise. On December 3, at the Congress of Soviets of Peasant Deputies, Lenin, despite the protest of a number of delegates, declared: “The Soviets are higher than any parliaments, any Constituent Assemblies. The Bolshevik Party has always said that the highest body is the Soviets. The Bolsheviks considered the Constituent Assembly their main rival in the struggle for power. Immediately after the election, Lenin warned that the Constituent Assembly would "doom itself to political death" if it opposed Soviet power.
Lenin used the bitter struggle within the Socialist-Revolutionary Party and entered into a political bloc with the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries. Despite disagreements with them on the issues of a multi-party system and the dictatorship of the proletariat, a separate world, freedom of the press, the Bolsheviks received the support they needed to stay in power. The Central Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, believing in the unconditional prestige and invulnerability of the Constituent Assembly, did not take real steps to protect it.
Encyclopedia "Round the World"
FIRST AND LAST MEETING
The positions have been determined. Circumstances forced the S.-R. faction. play a leading and leading role. This was due to the numerical superiority of the faction. This was also caused by the fact that members of the Constituent Assembly of a more moderate persuasion, elected among 64, did not dare, with isolated exceptions, to appear at the meeting. The Cadets were officially recognized as "enemies of the people" and some of them were imprisoned.
Our faction was also "decapitated" in a certain sense. Avksentiev was still in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Kerensky, on whom the Bolshevik slander and fury was concentrated, was also absent. He was searched everywhere and everywhere, night and day. He was in Petrograd, and it took a lot of effort to convince him to give up the crazy idea of coming to the Tauride Palace to declare that he was resigning power before a legally elected and authorized assembly. To the point of recklessness, the brave Gotz nevertheless appeared at the meeting, despite the arrest order for participation in the Junker uprising. Guarded by close friends, he was constrained even in movement and could not be active. Such was the position of Rudnev, who led Moscow's broken resistance to the Bolshevik takeover. And V. M. Chernov, who was scheduled to be the chairman of the meeting, thereby also dropped out of the number of possible leaders of the faction. There was not a single person who could be entrusted with leadership. And the faction entrusted its political fate and honor to the team - the five: V.V. Rudnev, M.Ya. Gendelman, E.M. Timofeev, I.N. Kovarsky and A.B. Elyashevich.<...>
Chernov's candidacy for the chairmanship was opposed by the candidacy of Spiridonova. When running, Chernov received 244 white balls against 151 blacks. Upon the announcement of the results, Chernov took the monumental chairman's chair on the stage, which towered over the oratory. There was a great distance between him and the hall. And the welcoming, fundamental speech of the chairman not only did not overcome the resulting "dead space" - it even increased the distance separating him from the meeting. In the most "shocking" places of Chernov's speech, a clear chill ran through the right sector. The speech caused dissatisfaction among the leaders of the faction and a simple-hearted misunderstanding of this dissatisfaction on the part of the speaker himself.<...>
Long and wearisome hours passed before the assembly was freed from the hostile factions that hindered its work. The electricity has been on for a long time. The tense atmosphere of the military camp grew and seemed to be looking for a way out. From my secretary's chair on the podium, I saw how, after the Bolsheviks left, the armed people began to throw up their rifles more and more often and take on those on the podium or those sitting in the audience. The shining bald head of O.S. Minor was an attractive target for the soldiers and sailors who whiled away the time. Shotguns and revolvers threatened every minute "themselves" to be discharged, hand bombs and grenades "themselves" to explode.<...>
Descending from the platform, I went to see what was being done in the choir stalls. In the semicircular hall, grenades and cartridge bags are stacked in the corners, guns are made up. Not a hall, but a camp. The Constituent Assembly is not surrounded by enemies, it is in the enemy camp, in the very lair of the beast. Separate groups continue to "rally", to argue. Some of the deputies are trying to convince the soldiers of the rightness of the meeting and the criminality of the Bolsheviks. Sweeps:
And a bullet to Lenin if he deceives!
The room reserved for our faction has already been taken over by the sailors. The commandant's office obligingly reports that it does not guarantee the immunity of the deputies - they can be shot even at the meeting itself. Anguish and grief are aggravated by the consciousness of complete impotence. Sacrificial readiness finds no way out. What they do, let them do it soon!
In the meeting room, the sailors and Red Army soldiers had completely ceased to be shy. They jump over the barriers of the boxes, click the bolts of their rifles on the move, rush through the choir stalls like a whirlwind. Of the Bolshevik faction, only the more prominent left the Tauride Palace. The less well-known ones have only moved from the delegate chairs to the choirs and aisles of the hall, and from there they watch and give remarks. The audience in the choirs is in alarm, almost in a panic. The local deputies are motionless, tragically silent. We are isolated from the world, as the Tauride Palace is isolated from Petrograd and Petrograd from Russia. There is noise all around, and we are, as if in the desert, given over to the will of a triumphant enemy, in order to drink a bitter cup for the people and for Russia.
It is reported that carriages and cars have been sent to the Tauride Palace to take away the arrested. There was even something reassuring in this - after all, some certainty. Some people start hastily destroying incriminating documents. We pass on something to our loved ones - in the public and in the box of journalists. Among the documents they handed over the "Report to the All-Russian Constituent Assembly of the members of the Provisional Government" who were at large. The prison carriages, however, do not come. New rumor - electricity will be turned off. A few minutes later, A.N. Sletova had already obtained dozens of candles.
It was five o'clock in the morning. They announced and voted the prepared land law. An unknown sailor climbed onto the podium - one of many who loitered all day and night in the corridors and aisles. Approaching the chairman's chair, busy with the voting procedure, the sailor stood for some time as if in thought and, seeing that they were not paying attention to him, decided that the time had come to "go down in history." The owner of the now famous name, Zheleznyakov, touched the chairman by the sleeve and announced that, according to the instructions he had received from the commissar (Dybenka), those present should leave the hall.
An altercation began between V.M. The real power, alas, was on the side of the anarchist-communist, and it was not Viktor Chernov who won, but Anatoly Zheleznyakov.
We quickly hear a number of extraordinary statements and, in order of haste, adopt the first ten articles of the basic law on land, an appeal to the Allied Powers rejecting separate negotiations with the Central Powers, and a decree on the federal structure of the Russian democratic republic. At 4 hours 40 minutes. morning the first meeting of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly is closed.
M. Vishnyak. Convocation and dispersal of the Constituent Assembly // October revolution. Revolution of 1917 through the eyes of its leaders. Memoirs of Russian politicians and commentary of a Western historian. M., 1991.
"GUARD IS TIRED"
Sailor citizen. I have received instructions to bring to your attention that all present leave the meeting room because the guard is tired. (Voices: We don't need guards.)
Chairman. What instruction? From whom?
Sailor citizen. I am the head of the security of the Tauride Palace and have instructions from Commissar Dybenka.
Chairman. All members of the Constituent Assembly are also very tired, but no amount of fatigue can interrupt the pronouncement of the land law that Russia is waiting for. (Terrible noise. Cries: enough! enough!) The Constituent Assembly can only disperse if force is used. (Noise. Voices: down with Chernov.)
Sailor citizen. (Inaudible) ... I ask you to leave the meeting room immediately.
Chairman. From the faction of Ukrainians on this issue that unexpectedly broke into our meeting, the floor asks for an extraordinary statement ...
I.V. Streltsov. I have the honor to make an extraordinary statement from the group of the Left S.R. Ukrainians of the following content: standing on the point of view of resolving the question of peace and land, as it is resolved by all the working peasantry, workers and soldiers, and as it is set forth in the declaration of the Central Executive Committee, a group of Left S.-R. Ukrainians, however, taking into account the current situation, joins the declaration of the party of the Ukrainian S.-R., with all the ensuing consequences. (Applause.)
Chairman. The following proposal has been made. To end the meeting of this Assembly by adopting without debate the read part of the basic law on land, and the rest to transfer to the commission for submission within seven days. (Ballot.) The proposal is accepted. A proposal was made to cancel the roll-call vote in view of the current situation to hold an open vote. (ballot.) Accepted. The announced basic provisions of the law on land are put to the vote. (Ballot.) And so, citizens, members of the Constituent Assembly, you have adopted the basic provisions that I have announced on the land question.
There is a proposal to elect a land commission, which would consider all the remaining unannounced clauses of the land law within seven days. (ballot.) Accepted. (Inaudible ... Noise.) Proposals were made to adopt the announced statements: an appeal to the allies, to convene an international socialist peace conference, to take over the Constituent Assembly for peace negotiations with the belligerent powers, and to elect a plenipotentiary delegation. (Is reading.)
"In the name of the peoples of the Russian Republic, the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, expressing the adamant will of the people to immediately end the war and conclude a just universal peace, appeals to the powers allied with Russia with a proposal to begin jointly determining the exact conditions of a democratic peace acceptable to all the belligerent peoples in order to present these conditions on behalf of the entire coalition to the states waging war with the Russian Republic and its allies.
The Constituent Assembly is filled with unshakable confidence that the striving of the peoples of Russia to end the disastrous war will meet with a unanimous response among the peoples and governments of the allied states, and that by common efforts a speedy peace will be achieved, ensuring the good and dignity of all the warring peoples.
Expressing, on behalf of the peoples of Russia, regret that the negotiations with Germany begun without prior agreement with the allied democracies have acquired the character of negotiations on a separate peace, the Constituent Assembly, in the name of the peoples of the Russian Federal Republic, continuing the established truce, assumes further negotiations with the powers at war with us, in order, defending the interests of Russia, to achieve, in accordance with the will of the people, a universal democratic peace"
"The Constituent Assembly declares that it will render all possible assistance to the undertakings of the socialist parties of the Russian Republic in the immediate convening of an international socialist conference in order to achieve universal democratic peace."
"The Constituent Assembly decides to elect from among its members a delegation authorized to conduct negotiations with representatives of the Allied Powers and to hand over to them an appeal for a joint determination of the conditions for the speedy end of the war, as well as to implement the decision of the Constituent Assembly on the question of peace negotiations with the powers waging war against us. .
This delegation has the authority, under the leadership of the Constituent Assembly, to immediately begin to fulfill the duties assigned to it."
It is proposed to elect representatives of various factions to the delegation on a proportional basis.
(Ballot.) So, all proposals are accepted. A proposal has been made to adopt the following resolution on the state structure of Russia:
"In the name of the peoples, the state of the Russian constituents, the All-Russian Constituent Assembly decides: the Russian state is proclaimed the Russian Democratic Federative Republic, uniting in an inseparable union peoples and regions within the limits established by the federal constitution, sovereign."
(Ballot.) Accepted. (It is proposed to schedule the next meeting of the Constituent Assembly for tomorrow at 12 noon. There is another proposal - to schedule a meeting not at 12, but at 5. (Voting.) For - 12, a minority. So, Tomorrow the meeting is scheduled for 5 pm (Voices: today.) My attention is drawn to the fact that it will be today.So, today the meeting of the Constituent Assembly is declared closed, and the next meeting is scheduled for today at 5 pm.
From the transcript of the meeting of the Constituent Assembly
Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly
The Constituent Assembly, elected from lists drawn up before the October Revolution, was an expression of the old correlation of political forces, when the Compromisers and the Cadets were in power.
The people could not then, voting for the candidates of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, make a choice between the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, supporters of the bourgeoisie, and the Left, supporters of socialism. Thus, this Constituent Assembly, which was supposed to be the crown of the bourgeois-parliamentary republic, could not but stand in the way of the October Revolution and Soviet power. The October Revolution, having given power to the Soviets and through the Soviets to the working and exploited classes, aroused the desperate resistance of the exploiters, and in the suppression of this resistance fully revealed itself as the beginning of the socialist revolution.
The working classes have had to experience that the old bourgeois parliamentarism has outlived itself, that it is completely incompatible with the tasks of realizing socialism, that not national, but only class institutions (such as the Soviets) are capable of defeating the resistance of the propertied classes and laying the foundations of a socialist society.
In the last years of the monarchy, the Russian people demanded reforms. But most of all, he was waiting for the creation of a democratic state body that would take into account his rights and interests. The idea of creating a democratic constituent assembly has become a rallying point for all representatives of society: both reformists and radicals. It was also widely supported by revolutionary groups. The Octobrists, the Cadets, the Socialist-Revolutionaries, the Mensheviks, even the moderates, all supported the constituent assembly.
It seemed that the Russian people were more thirsty for democracy and self-government than they were. The formation of the Duma in 1906, its betrayal of the tsar and the inefficient administration of the country during the February Revolution only strengthened the people's desire for a constituent assembly. During the turmoil of 1917, the plan to establish a constituent assembly became a light of hope for the future, but the Bolshevik revolution in October 1917 brought the constituent assembly into question. Would the Bolsheviks share their power with a newly elected state body represented by non-Bolshevik forces?
The answer to this question was received in January 1918. The Constituent Assembly lasted exactly one day, and after that it was closed. Russia's hopes for democracy were lost.
provisional government
It was formed in March 1917 and had two main functions: to organize elections to the Constituent Assembly and to ensure the provisional administration of the state until the assembly came into force. But it took more than one month for the provisional government to call a meeting and organize elections, although it is fair to say that the delay was not the fault of the provisional government. Russia did not have an electoral base for holding all-Russian elections based on universal suffrage and secret ballot. These processes had to be built from scratch, while the empire was destroyed by war and unrest.
In March 1917, members of the government promised to organize elections "as soon as possible." In June, a meeting of the election commission began. The following month, Alexander Kerensky announced that elections would take place at the end of September, but they were delayed until November 25 because the provincial districts were not physically ready to hold elections.
Such delays contributed to a decrease in popular support for the Provisional Government, not to mention rumors and theories that the government intended to abolish the Constituent Assembly. The radical Bolsheviks accused Kerensky of sabotaging the elections and insisted that the responsibility for holding the elections should pass into the hands of the Soviets. For their part, the Bolsheviks promised to support the meeting on the condition that it take the "correct" decision on some key issues.
The Bolsheviks demanded that the Constituent Assembly carry out land reform and protect the working class from exploitation. On October 27, after seizing power, Lenin announced that the elections would be postponed to November 12. Lenin was wary of the "illusions of the constitution" of the Constituent Assembly, warning that too much hope for an elected parliament created the risk of liberal-bourgeois counter-revolution.
Elections to the Constituent Assembly
Elections continued until the end of November, but showed no Bolshevik superiority. The Social Revolutionaries, the Land Reform Party, achieved a majority, winning 370 out of 715 seats. The Bolsheviks, on the other hand, won 175 seats, a little less than a quarter of the entire assembly.
The vote statistics show a clear picture of electoral support for the Bolsheviks. They were the most popular political force in such large cities as Petrograd (43%) and Moscow (46%). The Bolsheviks also enjoyed support among the soldiers, but outside the army and major cities, support for the Bolsheviks plummeted. In many villages and villages, the percentage of their support after the vote did not even show a double-digit number.
The results of the elections became decisive in determining the position of the Bolsheviks in relation to the Constituent Assembly. A few weeks ago, the Bolsheviks defended and promoted the idea of democratic elections, but after the elections they began to question the legitimacy of this body. Lenin condemned the assembly as a party of the SR, he carried out fierce propaganda against it, trying to reduce its influence and increase the number of his seats in parliament.
Two weeks remained before the next stage of the elections, and the Bolsheviks went into action. They arrested the members of the election commission and replaced them with their man, Uritsky. A few days before the scheduled start of voting, the Bolsheviks stationed a naval garrison in Kronstadt.
It became obvious that military suppression of the Constituent Assembly was inevitable. On the morning of November 28, the Council of People's Commissars ordered the arrest of the Cadet deputies at the meeting and the postponement of the first meeting of the Assembly until the beginning of 1918, citing poor preparation.
Bolshevik dictatorship
The Constituent Assembly was convened on January 5, 1918, despite the Bolshevik agitation. First of all, it elected a chairman, the leader of the SR, Viktor Chernov, a staunch opponent of Lenin and his followers. The Assembly also considered the issue of ratifying the Soviet decrees on peace and land. In the end, Chernov refused to approve these decrees and replaced them with SR decrees.
The next day, the Tauride Palace was barricaded and captured by the Red Guards. They said that by order of the Soviets the assembly would be dissolved. On the same day, Lenin said that the Soviets had taken all power into their own hands and that the Constituent Assembly, being the expression of the political ideals of bourgeois society, was no longer needed by the socialist state.
Public outrage at the closing of the Constituent Assembly was quelled. Some of the former deputies urged the people to rise up and defend the assembly, but the working people seemed content with the situation. The participants in the meeting made several more attempts to secretly form a ruling body, but soon it became too dangerous and the attempts stopped. Russia has entered a new era of Bolshevik dictatorship.
In accordance with the resolution of the II Congress of Soviets, the government formed by him was of a temporary nature - until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly. It was it that had to finally and legally resolve the issue of state power in Russia and the future development of the country. Under pressure from broad sections of society, the Bolsheviks were forced to allow the holding of popular elections to the Constituent Assembly and, as we know, they lost: over 60% of the seats were won by the socialist parties (of which 55% were Socialist-Revolutionaries of all shades), 17% - bourgeois parties. Immediately after this, the Bolsheviks took a number of preventive measures designed to, if not completely eliminate, then at least mitigate the political defeat they had suffered. At the end of November 1917, the Council of People's Commissars approved a decree declaring the Cadets party "the party of enemies of the people." Thus, the mandates received in the elections to the Constituent Assembly by this party, influential among the propertied sections of the population, the intelligentsia, and students, were actually annulled. A number of prominent cadets were arrested. The Left Social Revolutionaries tried to stand up for the liberals, but the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars was adamant: “You cannot separate the class struggle from the political enemy. The Cadet Central Committee is the political headquarters of the bourgeois class. The Cadets have absorbed all the propertied classes... They all support the Cadet Party.” Even earlier, by a decree of October 27, the press organs were “temporarily” closed, “poisoning the minds and bringing confusion to the consciousness of the masses” (about 150 leading opposition newspapers and magazines). In mid-December 1917, the Pravda newspaper published Lenin's Theses on the Constituent Assembly. They contained an undisguised threat: if the Constituent Assembly did not make an "unconditional declaration on the recognition of Soviet power", then the constitutional crisis that had arisen "can be resolved only by revolutionary means." The All-Russian Constituent Assembly opened in Petrograd in the Tauride Palace on January 5, 1918. By the will of the majority of deputies, the leader of the Right Social Revolutionaries V. M. Chernov became its chairman. Central to the many hours of heated discussion was the question of who should hold power in the country. In the very first minutes of the meeting, the Bolsheviks proposed to adopt the Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People, prepared by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and thereby sanction the October coup and Soviet decrees. “At this moment, when the whole world will burn with the glow of a revolutionary fire, if not today, then tomorrow,” the head of the RSDLP (b) faction, N. I. Bukharin, from this chair we are proclaiming mortal war on the bourgeois-parliamentary republic. We Communists, the workers' party, are striving first of all to create in Russia a great Soviet republic of working people. We proclaim the slogan that was put forward half a century ago by Marx. Let the ruling classes and their hangers-on tremble before the communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose in it, except their chains, but they will gain the whole world!” Moderate socialists, in turn, ardently advocated "the restoration of the unity of the forces of Russian democracy", split "by the self-serving actions of extremists from the revolution." Only in this way, in their opinion, it was possible to save the country from anarchy and civil war. In other words, they tried to breathe a second life into the idea of a "homogeneous socialist government", this time reflecting the alignment of party forces in the Constituent Assembly. The socio-political base of the projected government was to be made up of a pre-prepared package of bills on land, peace and the state structure of Russia. It must be said that their content largely echoed the decrees of the Second Congress of Soviets and the Declaration of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. They provided for: the gratuitous conversion of all land into public property on the basis of egalitarian distribution and labor use; the immediate commencement of negotiations to "determine the exact terms of a democratic peace acceptable to all warring peoples"; the proclamation of the "Russian Democratic Federal Republic, uniting peoples and regions in an inseparable alliance, sovereign within the limits established by the federal constitution." But this time the Bolsheviks felt confident and did not need even the appearance of verbiage on the question of a "socialist government." After the SR-Menshevik majority refused to discuss the Declaration of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee as a priority document, they left the Tauride Palace. A little later, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries also followed them. The Constituent Assembly, having lost the quorum, nevertheless approved the draft laws, read out in a hurry by V. M. Chernov. On the morning of January 6, the deputies dispersed, urged on by the head of the palace security, anarchist A. G. Zheleznyakov, whose words went down in history: “I ask you to leave the hall immediately, the guard is tired!” On the afternoon of January 6, the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee arrived in time to dissolve the Constituent Assembly, accused of being "incompatible with the tasks of implementing socialism." The few demonstrations in his defense in Petrograd and some other cities were dispersed with weapons.
