Decrees of 1918. Decrees of the Soviet power

Immediately after the coup on October 24-25, 1917, the Bolsheviks began to adopt new, Soviet, laws - they were called "Decrees". The first Soviet decrees are interesting to study because they show how the young government tried step by step to form a new state. Let's study the decrees of the first 4 days of Soviet power (October 26-29).

These are decrees that were adopted from 26 to 29 October. Even from the names it is clear that they pursued 2 goals: the formation of a power structure and gaining recognition from the people, by introducing popular measures, the topics of which were often raised in society. Now let's look at the main points of each Decree in order to reliably understand what happened in the USSR in the first days after the October Revolution.

A world without annexation and contebution

The first decree of the Soviet government was the Decree on Peace, adopted on October 26, 1917. This document is often praised by historians, but here you need to understand a number of nuances:

1. The Soviet side did not sign a peace treaty with anyone.
2. It was a way out of the war unilaterally

The decree stated that the Soviet state called on everyone to conclude peace without annexations (seizure of foreign territory) and indemnities (material or monetary payments). The document talks a lot about democracy, the proletariat, the world revolution and so on. But the point is The Bolsheviks unilaterally withdrew from the First World War. There is a war going on, the troops are on the front line, and then one of the parties simply says: “But we are not fighting a big one.” The Germans were in shock. They and their "Ordnung" could not understand this.

The Decree of the Soviet government "On Peace" had no practical significance. The Soviet country has driven itself into a vise with this decision: it is fighting and not fighting at the same time. That is, Lenin provided other countries with great opportunities for maneuver. As a result, Russia formally ended up among the countries of the winners in the First World War, but actually lost a significant territory, that is, it was among the losers

Army revolutionary committees

The decree prescribed 3 things:

1. Revolutionary committees are being set up in all armies.
2. These committees are responsible for the situation at the front.
3. The commanders-in-chief of the armies are obliged to submit to the committee.

Soviet historians presented this as an attempt to subordinate the army to the new government. But imagine the chaos that led to. There was an active tsarist army, which was conducting combat battles, and in which the system of command and subordination was built. The Bolsheviks come and set up Army Revolutionary Committees, which only soldiers can join. These soldiers must obey the generals. These soldiers approve or reject any decisions of the army headquarters. Soldiers may not give a military salute to a senior in rank, they have the right not to follow orders. In general, the army decomposed.

All the earth to the people

If the first decrees of the Soviet government dealt with the military topic, then on October 28 “civilian” issues began to be resolved. The main problem of any agrarian country is land. Therefore, the third Decree was called "On the Land." Its main details:

• All land is confiscated in favor of the state. Estates, estates, church and monastery lands are also confiscated. All property must be rewritten and transferred to the ownership of the revolutionary government. Damage to any property was punishable by death.
• The lands of ordinary peasants and Cossacks were not subject to confiscation.
• All land issues are resolved in accordance with the Peasant Order on Land.

The Decree "On Land" also adopted the Peasant Order on Land (KNZ). The essence of this document: all land, natural resources, farms, livestock and stud farms, inventory, and so on - everything was transferred to the ownership of the state or community (which was the same state). KNZ abolished the concept of private ownership of land and prohibited wage labor. All land was divided in equal measure among the workers on it.

The right to land under the Decree was given to all able-bodied citizens without distinction by gender. Land allotments periodically need to be divided with an increase in population. Land is assigned to a person as long as he is able to cultivate it. After that, the land plot is confiscated, and the disabled person receives a pension.

History reference

What does all this mean? Externally, everything is very beautiful: land to the people. In fact, the principles of land division were not prescribed. But more importantly, the land was periodically divided. There was no point in developing the economy - at any moment the Chairman could come and ask for a piece of land for the "new" applicant. Therefore, it is important to clearly understand that the Bolsheviks did not solve the land issue. This question will have to be solved in the first five-year plans, by driving people into collective farms.

The Council of People's Commissars was created to govern the country. The decree established that this body had full power and was subordinate only to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets.

• Chairman - Lenin V.I.
• On the affairs of the army and navy - Dybenko F.M., Antonov A.A., Krylenko N.V.
• Public education - Lunacharsky A.V.
• Trade and industry - Nogin V.P.
• For foreign affairs - Bronstein L.D. (Trotsky)
• Food - Teodorovich I.A.
• Justice - Lomov G.I.
• On the affairs of nationalities - Dzhugashvili I.V. (Stalin)
• Post and telegraph - Glebov N.P.
• For railway affairs - temporarily vacant post

Independence of cities in the food business

The directive "On the expansion of the rights of city governments in the food business" completely undermined the remnants of entrepreneurship and created a socially dangerous situation in the cities. The main points of this Decree are listed below:

• All food shipments are confiscated in favor of the city government. Parcels passing through the city, aid from the Red Cross and other organizations were all confiscated.
• The city has the right to arrange labor service for high school students and for students.
• The city administration has the right to take control of any enterprise. Representatives of the city could come to any private shop, say that now it serves the interests of the city, the city begins to recruit staff for this shop, form a pricing policy, and so on. They could subjugate cities from shops to entire industrial complexes.
• The right to equal food for all residents of cities is determined.
• City self-government has the right to confiscate any premises for the needs of the food business.

In fact, the city self-government received unlimited power. Anything could be done under the guise of a "food business".

Abolition of the death penalty

The Decree "On the Abolition of the Death Penalty" was adopted on October 28, 1917. An amendment must be made here immediately - Soviet Russia abolished the death penalty only at the fronts. The decree itself consisted of two provisions:

• The death penalty is prohibited on the fronts.
• All soldiers and officers under arrest are immediately released.

About the media

The first decrees of the Soviet government covered all the main spheres of the life of the state. The Decree “On the Press” noted that the establishment of control, including in the form of closing certain media outlets, was a forced measure after the October coup in order to combat the counter-revolution. Any publications that:

• directly or indirectly call for resistance to the new Government.
• distort the facts and engage in slander
• call for criminal activity

The ban and closure of the press was possible only after the decision of the Council of People's Commissars.

In other words, any dissent was suppressed. Only Soviet newspapers remained. Remember the dialogue from the Heart of a Dog "And don't read Soviet newspapers before dinner" "So there are no others" "Don't read any."

8 hour working day

When we talk about the first decrees of the Bolsheviks and the Soviet government, then all decisions alternated: political and social in nature. The Decree "On the Eight-Hour Working Day" was of an exclusively social nature. In fact, it was the labor code of the new country. Therefore, the document turned out to be extensive. It makes no sense to give it in full (in the archives, anyone can do this), let's take only the main points:

• Working hours are limited to 8 hours a day and 48 hours a week. That is, 6 days out of 7 were working.
• Workers should be given time for a lunch break (no more than 1 hour) and days off on holidays.
• Employment of persons under the age of 14 is prohibited. When hiring persons under the age of 18, the length of the working day is set at 6 hours.
• official days off: January 1 and 6, February 27, March 25, May 1, August 15, September 14, December 25 and 26.
• By decision of the workers, all rules can be changed for each enterprise separately.
• For breaking the law - up to 1 year in prison.

In general, the Decree established clear rules for the labor market, but the reality was still changing. This Decree was a temporary solution.

* - the article was compiled based on the materials of the State Archive of Russia and on the actual texts of the first Decrees, which were approved by the Bolsheviks.

Establishment of Soviet power

The process of creating a new state covered the period from October 1917, the time of the beginning of the October Revolution, to the summer of 1818, when the Soviet statehood was enshrined in the Constitution. The central thesis of the new government was the idea of ​​exporting the world revolution and the creation of a socialist state. As part of this idea, the slogan "Proletarians of all countries, unite!" was put forward. The main task of the Bolsheviks was the issue of power, so the focus was not on socio-economic transformations, but on strengthening the central and regional authorities. On October 25, 1917, the Second Congress of Soviets adopted the Decree on Power, declaring the transfer of all power to the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies. The arrest of the Provisional Government, the local liquidation of zemstvo and city governments were the first steps towards the destruction of the administration created by the former government. On October 27, 1917, it was decided to form a Soviet government - the Council of People's Commissars (S/W), which should act until the election of the Constituent Assembly. It included 62 Bolsheviks, 29 Left Social Revolutionaries. More than 20 People's Commissariats (People's Commissariats) were created instead of ministries. The Congress of Soviets, headed by Lenin, became the supreme legislative body. Between its meetings, legislative functions were carried out by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK), headed by L. Kamenev and M. Sverdlov. To combat counter-revolution and sabotage, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK), headed by F. Dzerzhinsky, was formed. Revolutionary courts were created for the same purpose. These bodies played a big role in establishing Soviet power and the dictatorship of the proletariat. In November-December 1917, elections to the Constituent Assembly were held, during which the Social Revolutionaries received 40% of the vote, the Bolsheviks - 24%, the Mensheviks - 2%. Thus, the Bolsheviks did not receive a majority and, realizing the threat to the sole rule, were forced to disperse the Constituent Assembly. On November 28, a blow was dealt to the Cadet Party - members of the Constituent Assembly, who were members of the Central Committee of the Cadet Party, P. Dolgorukov, F. Kokoshkin, V. Stepanov, A. Shingarev and others were arrested. At the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly, which opened on January 5, 1918 In the Taurida Palace, the Bolsheviks and the Left SRs who supported them were in the minority. Most of the delegates refused to recognize the Council of People's Commissars as the government and demanded that all power be transferred to the Constituent Assembly. Therefore, on the night of January 6-7, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee approved a decree dissolving the Constituent Assembly. Demonstrations in his support were dispersed. Thus, the last democratically elected body collapsed. The repressions that began with the Kadets showed that the Bolsheviks were striving for dictatorship and one-man rule. Civil war became inevitable. As early as November 10, 1917, the Council of People's Commissars decided to start a gradual reduction of the incapacitated Russian army. On December 16, the election of commanding officers and officials was introduced, all ranks and ranks were abolished, all power in the army was transferred to the soldiers' committees and Soviets. , and on January 29 - the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Fleet. By April 1918, the first stage of the construction of the Red Army was partially completed by creating a volunteer army of about 195 thousand people. In addition to representatives of various nationalities of Russia, it also included people from other countries, which corresponded to the course of the Bolsheviks to support the world revolution in the future. At the beginning of March 1918, the Supreme Military Council, chaired by L. Trotsky, was created to manage all military operations. In April 1918, compulsory military training for workers and the peasant poor was introduced. The institution of military commissars was approved. In an attempt to legitimize (that is, legitimize, from Latin lex - law), the power of the Bolsheviks at the V Congress of Soviets in Moscow in July 1918 adopted the Constitution, which consolidated the victories of the Soviets as an organ of the dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry. Russia was proclaimed a federal republic and was now called the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). The ultimate goal was to create a "socialist society" in which there would be neither division into classes nor state power. The workers received an advantage in the election of delegates to the congress - 1 deputy from 25 thousand people, peasants - from 125 thousand. Voting was open, voters elected delegates not at the congress, but through volost, district and provincial congresses. Thus, suffrage was indirect, unequal, not universal. The constitution had a clearly defined class character. After the signing of the enslaving peace of Brest-Litovsk, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, who until then had been the only party supporting the Bolsheviks, came out with criticism. This was the reason for the establishment of a one-party system. The Left SRs were defeated, and the Bolshevik Party became the sole ruler of the country.

First Decrees:

The Decree on Peace is one of the first decrees of the Soviet government, a programmatic foreign policy document that was prepared by V.I. Lenin and adopted by the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets on October 26 (November 8), 1917 unanimously. He expressed the peaceful, humanistic nature of the new social order. The October Revolution was victorious in the context of the ongoing World War I. The question of getting out of it was the most important for many millions of people. The decree contained a proposal to all belligerent peoples and governments to immediately begin negotiations on the conclusion of a just, democratic peace - without annexations and indemnities. The decree proceeded from the possibility of peaceful coexistence with the capitalist countries. For the first time in history, new principles of the international policy of peace and peaceful cooperation, proletarian internationalism, recognition of the full equality of all peoples, respect for their national and state independence, and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries were proclaimed. The decree recognized the legitimacy and justice of the liberation struggle of the oppressed peoples and condemned the shameful colonial system.

The decree begins with a call (proposal) to all warring countries to begin negotiations on a just, democratic peace. It means, first of all, an immediate peace without annexations and indemnities. The Government of Russia proposes to conclude such a peace immediately to all the belligerent peoples and expresses its readiness to take all decisive steps to establish peace. By annexation, Lenin means any accession to a large or strong state of a small or weak nationality without its consent. It should be noted that Lenin's definition of annexation is somewhat different from its modern understanding. The difference is that, in the modern sense, annexation is the forcible annexation by a state of the territory of another state, and in Lenin's understanding, it is the forcible annexation of a nationality, i.e. historical community of people.

The government believes that the continuation of the war is the greatest crime against humanity, and also expresses its readiness to sign peace conditions on equally fair terms for all. The decree draws special attention to the fact that these peace conditions are by no means an ultimatum.

Secret diplomacy was abolished, the government's firm intention was expressed to conduct all negotiations openly in front of all the people. The government expressed its readiness to negotiate in any way, and to facilitate them, appointed its plenipotentiaries to neutral countries. The decree puts forward a proposal to the warring countries to conclude a truce for a period not less than for three months, during which, through negotiations, it was possible to finally approve all the conditions of the peace. The decree ends with a specific appeal to England, France and Germany with a call to end the war. The ruling circles of the imperialist countries of the Entente greeted the Soviet peace proposals with hostility. The decree was enthusiastically received by the masses of Russia and foreign countries. On November 9, 1917, Lenin turned on the radio to the soldiers and sailors with an appeal to choose representatives and enter into negotiations with the enemy about a truce. The so-called "soldier's worlds" began to be concluded at the fronts. In Great Britain, France, and the United States, a wave of demonstrations and rallies demanded peace and support for Soviet Russia. After the rejection of Soviet peace proposals by the Entente powers
The Soviet government was forced to start negotiations with Germany, which resulted in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918. The Peace Decree laid the foundations for Soviet foreign policy.

The Decree on Land was also one of the first decrees of the Soviet power.
It was prepared by V. I. Lenin. Was adopted by the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets
October 26 (November 8), 1917 at 2 am, i.e. actually October 27
(November 9). When working on the decree, Lenin used the mandate drawn up by the editors of the Izvestia of the All-Russian Council of Peasant Deputies, based on 242 local peasant mandates (his section "On the Land" was entirely included in the text of the decree). The decree abolished landlord ownership of land immediately without any redemption and transferred landlord, appanage, monastic, church lands with all inventory and buildings at the disposal of volost land committees and county Soviets of peasant deputies, which were entrusted with the duty of the strictest observance of order during the confiscation of landlord estates. At the same time, any damage to the confiscated property, which now belongs to the whole people, was declared a serious crime. Such crimes were punished by a revolutionary court (tribunal), which consisted of a chairman and 6 regular assessors elected by provincial and city councils. Uyezd Soviets of Peasants' Deputies had to take all the necessary measures to comply with the strictest order during the confiscation of landowners' estates. The decree on land included in the decree (Article 4) determined the new principles of land ownership and land use; the right of private ownership of land was abolished, it was forbidden to sell land, lease it and pledge it, all land turned into public property (that is, it became state property, which meant the nationalization of land). All minerals (ore, oil, coal, salt, etc.), as well as forests and waters, were transferred to the use of the state. Land plots with highly cultivated farms, nurseries, stud farms, etc., as well as the entire household inventory of confiscated lands, were transferred to the exclusive use of the state or communities; All citizens received the right to use land, provided that it was cultivated by their own labor, family or partnership without the use of hired labor, on the basis of egalitarian land use with a free choice of forms of land use, including the artel. Farmers who lost the opportunity to cultivate land due to old age or disability lost the right to use it and received pensions from the state. The confiscation of inventory did not concern small-land peasants; it was also established that the lands of ordinary peasants and ordinary Cossacks were not confiscated. Upon expropriation, the land entered the land fund, which periodically had to be redistributed depending on demographic changes and raising the productivity and culture of agriculture. The text of the decree says that the issue of land in its entirety, as well as issues of redemption, can only be resolved by the all-people Constituent Assembly, and the provisions of the decree are, as it were, parting words, i.e. as good as it should be. The state assumed the obligation to organize the resettlement and cover the costs associated with it, as well as the costs of supplying inventory.

The decree ends with the provision that this document is only temporary. It will be carried out until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly. By decree, the peasants of Russia received over 150 million acres of land free of charge, were exempted from paying 700 million rubles in gold annually for land rent and from debts for land that had reached 3 billion rubles by that time .Decree ensured the support of the Soviet government on the part of the working peasantry, laid the economic foundation for strengthening the alliance of workers and peasants.

Decree on Court No. 1 was adopted by the Council of People's Commissars on November 22, 1917 (in other sources, November 24, 1917). He abolished all existing judicial institutions: district courts, judicial chambers and the governing senate with all departments, all military and naval courts, replacing them with courts formed on the basis of democratic elections. The decree suspended the operation of the existing institute of magistrates. Local judges now had to be elected on the basis of direct democratic elections, and before the appointment of such elections - by district and volost (county and city) Councils. Moreover, those who previously held the position of justices of the peace were not deprived of the right to be elected to local judges both temporarily and finally in democratic elections.

The decree determined the competence of local courts. They had to resolve all civil cases with a claim value of no more than 3,000 rubles and criminal cases, the punishment for which could be no more than 2 years in prison. The sentences and decisions of the local courts were final and not subject to appeal. In certain cases, a request for cassation was allowed.
The cassation commission in such cases was the county, and in the capitals - the capital congress of local judges.

The institutions of judicial investigators, prosecutorial supervision, jury and private advocacy were also abolished, and preliminary investigation in criminal cases was assigned to local judges alone until the entire judicial order was transformed. Local courts decide cases in the name of the Russian Republic and are guided in their decisions and sentences by the laws of overthrown governments only insofar as they are not abolished by the revolution and do not contradict revolutionary conscience and revolutionary legal consciousness. All laws that contradicted the decrees of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of workers, soldiers, and the cross were recognized as repealed. deputies and the Workers' and Peasants' Government, as well as the minimum programs of the RSDLP (the minimum program: the establishment of a bourgeois republic, the abolition of all redemption payments, 8 hours a day, self-determination of all nations) and the party of the SR (the implementation by the working people of the revolution in order to establish socialism, the socialization of all lands, namely, the transfer of land without redemption for communal use, and the communities had to divide the land according to the equalizing labor principle. Prohibition of the purchase and sale of land). To fight against counter-revolutionary forces in the form of taking measures to protect the revolution and its struggle against looting and predation, sabotage and other abuses, workers' and peasants' Revolutionary Tribunals are established, consisting of one chairman and six regular assessors elected by provincial or city soviets. Special investigative commissions are formed under the same Soviets for the production of the same cases of preliminary investigation.

• The subject of the history of state and law of Russia and its place in the system of legal sciences
  • The subject and methods of the history of the state and law of Russia
  • Problems of periodization of the history of the domestic state and law
  • The place of the history of the state and law of Russia in the system of legal sciences
  • Problems of historiography of the history of state and law in Russia
• Old Russian state and law (IX-XII centuries)
  • The emergence of statehood among the Eastern Slavs
  • Formation of the Old Russian state. Norman and anti-Norman theories of the origin of the Old Russian state
  • The social and political system of the Old Russian state
  • Formation of Old Russian law
  • Russkaya Pravda - the largest monument of the law of Kievan Rus
• Feudal states and law in the period of political fragmentation (XII-XIV centuries)
  • Causes of the feudal fragmentation of Russia
  • Galicia-Volyn and Rostov-Suzdal principalities
  • Novgorod and Pskov feudal republics
  • Development of feudal Russian law
• Formation of a single Russian (Moscow) centralized state (XIV-XV centuries)
  • Formation of the Russian centralized state
  • The social system of the Russian centralized state
  • State system of the Russian centralized state
  • Sudebnik 1497
• The state and law of Russia in the period of estate-representative monarchy (XVI-XVII centuries)
  • State reforms of the middle of the XVI century.
  • The social and state structure of the estate-representative monarchy
  • Church and ecclesiastical law
  • Sudebnik 1550
  • Cathedral Code of 1649
• The rise of absolutism in Russia. Reforms of Peter I
  • Prerequisites for the formation of absolutism in Russia. The social composition of the population
  • Estate reforms of Peter I
  • Reforms of the central state apparatus under Peter I
  • Reforms of local government under Peter I
  • Military, financial and church reforms of Peter I
  • Proclamation of Russia as an empire
  • Formation of a new system of law under Peter I

After the Kornilov revolt, the Bolsheviks won a majority in the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets, although the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks still dominated the VNIK. As the soldiers were arbitrarily demobilized and returned home, the problem of lack of land became more acute, peasant unrest and the seizure of landlord lands became more frequent, and this led to the discrediting of the bourgeois parties that did nothing to improve the situation of the peasants, and to the growth of sympathy for the Bolsheviks. Conditions were brewing that V.I. Lenin foresaw in the "April Theses" and which confirmed the expediency of the transition to the second stage of the revolution.

First of all, the Bolshevik Party returned to the slogan "All power to the Soviets!". In September 1917 L.D. Trotsky was elected Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, which became the main fighting center of the Bolsheviks. But among the Bolsheviks there was no unity of views on the way to take power. On the one hand, Lenin and his like-minded people in the Central Committee of the party saw him in the seizure of power by the Soviets through an armed uprising and the unconditional establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. But there was another opinion - there are no conditions for a victorious uprising, the struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat is premature, and power must be taken exclusively by peaceful means. The most consistent supporters of this point of view in the leadership of the Bolsheviks were L.B. Kamenev and G.E. Zinoviev.

However, in the end, the point of view of supporters of an armed uprising prevailed (maybe it also won because world history did not know a single peaceful transfer of power into the hands of proletarian parties, but the experience of armed uprisings was well studied - starting with the French Revolution, revolutions 1848-1849 and, most importantly, the experience of the Paris Commune and the first Russian revolution of 1905-1907). On October 9, 1917, the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party decided to begin preparations for an armed uprising and appoint a Political Bureau to implement this decision (it included V.I. Lenin, G.E. Zinoviev, L.B. Kamenev, L.D. Trotsky, I. V. Stalin, G. Ya. Sokolnikov and A. S. Bubnov). Guided by the decision of the Central Committee on the course towards an armed uprising, on October 12, 1917, the executive committee of the Petrograd Soviet created the Military Revolutionary Committee (chairman - L.D. Trotsky, deputy N.I. Podvoisky), which actually carried out military preparations for the revolution.

On October 16, 1917, at a meeting of the Central Committee, the Military Revolutionary Center was elected, consisting of Ya.M. Sverdlov. A.S. Bubnova, M.S. Uritsky and F.E. Dzerzhinsky (I.V. Stalin joined it only on October 31). The center was to become part of the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet 1 This is a curious example of the unification of the party and the Soviet institutions at an early stage of the revolution. By the way, there is no further mention of the Center in the documents: it was probably created more as a contact group than as a separate body..

On October 20, 1917, at a meeting of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party (in the absence of V.I. Lenin), it was decided to strike a decisive blow before the start of the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which was to open on the evening of October 25.

At a meeting of the Central Committee on October 24, 1917, Trotsky proposed that members of the Central Committee be attached to the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet to control the means of postal, telegraph and railway communications, as well as the actions of the Provisional Government. F.E. Dzerzhinsky was instructed to control the railways, A.S. Bubnov - postal and telegraph communications, to Ya.M. Sverdlov was entrusted with the supervision of the Provisional Government, run by V.P. Milyutin had food supplies. This is how the administrative apparatus of the future Soviet state was born.

On the morning of October 25, 1917, key positions were taken in Petrograd; members of the Provisional Government were arrested or fled. In the afternoon, at a meeting of the Petrograd Soviet, Lenin announced the victory of the "workers' and peasants' revolution", and in the evening the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies opened, proclaiming the transfer of power throughout Russia into the hands of the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies (the corresponding appeal was adopted by the "Workers' and Peasants' Deputies"). , soldiers and peasants").

The Second Congress of Soviets had a multi-party composition of delegates: of the 649 delegates who showed up for the opening of the Congress, 390 were Bolsheviks. 160 - Socialist-Revolutionaries, 72 - Mensheviks, etc. However, the Mensheviks and Right SRs immediately obstructed the congress, bombarding it with declarations demanding the creation of a "single democratic government", and about 50 of them defiantly left the meeting room. The congress responded to this with the resolution “Down with the Compromisers! Down with the servants of the bourgeoisie! Long live the victorious uprising of soldiers, workers and peasants!

On the evening of October 26, 1917, the second (and last) meeting of the congress took place: (1) the death penalty was abolished, restored by the Provisional Government in July 1917; (2) it was proposed to immediately release from custody all soldiers and officers arrested by the Provisional Government for revolutionary activities; (3) a decision was made on the immediate release from custody of the arrested members of the land committees; (4) a resolution was passed on the transfer of all local power to the Soviets (which meant the removal of the commissars of the Provisional Government; the chairmen of the Soviets were asked to communicate directly with the revolutionary government).

The central questions at this session of the congress were the questions of peace, land, and the establishment of a Soviet government.

The first decrees of the Soviet government. The congress adopted decrees on peace and land. The Decree on Peace began with the proposal of the Soviet state "to all belligerent peoples and their governments to begin immediately negotiations on a just democratic peace", while defining a democratic peace as a world without annexations (that is, without seizing foreign lands, without the forcible annexation of foreign nationalities) and without indemnities . The Decree on Peace proclaimed the right of every nation, regardless of its size, economic and cultural development, to determine its own destiny, thereby for the first time the right of nations to self-determination, up to secession and the formation of an independent state, was enshrined in law. The decree declared the imperialist war the greatest crime against humanity. It outlined the program of the struggle for peace and formulated the principles of the foreign policy of the Soviet state - the equality of all peoples, non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, the struggle for peace and friendship between peoples, their peaceful coexistence and good neighborly relations. Lenin's idea of ​​the peaceful coexistence of states with different social systems was formulated.

The Decree on Land, abolishing (without any redemption) landowners' ownership of land, announced that landowners' estates, appanage, monastic and church lands with all their belongings are transferred to the disposal of volost land committees and district Soviets of peasant deputies, until the Constituent Assembly. Established that local Soviets and land committees, until the final decision of the Constituent Assembly, should be guided in practice Peasant order about the land, compiled on the basis of the orders of 242 peasant Soviets and land committees, published in August 1917 by the editors of the Izvestia newspaper.

The peasant mandate on land, having established that the question of land, in its entirety, can be resolved only by the Constituent Assembly, saw the resolution of the land question in the following:

1. the right to private ownership of land is abolished forever; land may not be sold, bought, leased or pledged, or alienated in any other way. All land: state, appanage, office, monastery, church, possession, majorate, privately owned, public, peasant, etc. - it is alienated free of charge, turned into the property of the whole people and transferred to the use of all workers on it (although the decree itself specifically stipulated that the lands of ordinary peasants and ordinary Cossacks would not be confiscated);
2. all bowels of the earth, as well as forests and waters of national importance, are transferred to the exclusive use of the state. All small rivers, lakes, forests and others pass into the use of communities, provided that they are managed by local self-government bodies;
3. the right to use the land is given to all citizens (without distinction of sex) who wish to cultivate it by their own labour, with the help of their family or in a partnership. Hired labor is not allowed;
4. land use should be egalitarian;
5. all land goes to the nationwide land fund, the distribution of which is managed by local and central self-government bodies. The land fund is subject to periodic redistribution depending on population growth and raising the productivity and culture of agriculture.

Although the opinion was firmly established in Soviet literature that the Decree on Land implemented the Bolshevik program of land nationalization (turning them into state property), in fact, it consolidated the Socialist-Revolutionary program of land socialization (including the abolition of all ownership of land, egalitarian land use and periodic redistribution of the land fund). But since such a program was put forward by the multi-million peasantry itself (and supported by the Left Social Revolutionaries, with whom the Bolsheviks counted on an alliance during this period), it was enshrined in the Decree on Land (the first normative act of Soviet land law).

As a result of agrarian reforms carried out on the basis of the Decree on Land, the peasants received over 150 million hectares of land for free use, and were also freed from annual expenses in the amount of 700 million rubles. gold as rent and from the cost of acquiring new land. In addition, the debt of the agricultural population to the Peasants' Bank (about 1.5 billion rubles) was liquidated, and the landowners' agricultural implements with a total value of about 300 million rubles were transferred to the peasants. At the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets, the highest authority was elected in the period between the All-Russian Congresses of Soviets - All-Russian Central Executive Committee(All-Russian Central Executive Committee) Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. It consisted of 62 Bolsheviks, 29 Left Social Revolutionaries, six Menshevik Internationalists, three Ukrainian Socialists and one Maximalist. L.B. was elected Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Kamenev (he held this post for only two weeks).

Also, the II Congress of Soviets formed the first Soviet government - Council of People's Commissars(SNK), which was officially called (according to the decree of the congress) the Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government, exercising power until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly. It consisted of only Bolsheviks (the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, who were invited to participate in it, refused to send their representatives): Chairman - V.I. Lenin, People's Commissar for Internal Affairs - A.I. Rykov, People's Commissar for Agriculture - V.P. Milyutin, People's Commissar of Labor - A.G. Shlyapnikov, People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs - a committee composed of V.A. Antonova-Ovseenko, N.V. Krylenko, P.E. Dybenko, People's Commissar for Trade and Industry - V.P. Nogin, People's Commissar of Public Education - A.V. Lunacharsky, People's Commissar for Finance - I.I. Stepanov-Skvortsov, foreign affairs park - L.D. Trotsky, People's Commissar of Justice - G.I. Lomov-Oppokov, People's Commissar for Food Affairs - I.A. Teodorovich, People's Commissar of Posts and Telegraphs - N.P. Avilov (Glebov), Chairman of the Affairs of Nationalities - I.V. Stalin, the post of People's Commissar for Railway Affairs was temporarily left unfilled.

On October 27, 1917, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a resolution on holding elections to the Constituent Assembly at the appointed time (the Provisional Government also set this deadline - November 12 (25), 1917).

On November 2, 1917, the Council of People's Commissars adopted the very first normative act of the Soviet national policy - Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia. The Declaration proclaimed a complete break of the Soviet state with the policy of the tsarist and Provisional governments on the national question. The Declaration established the following basic principles of the Soviet national policy: (1) equality and sovereignty of the peoples of Russia; (2) the right of the peoples of Russia to free self-determination, up to secession and formation of an independent state; (3) the abolition of all and any national and national-religious privileges and restrictions; (4) free development of national minorities and ethnographic groups inhabiting the territory of Russia.

Realizing these basic principles, the Soviet government on December 18, 1917 recognized the independence of Finland, and also in a special appeal “To all the working Muslims of Russia and the East” of November 20, 1917, solemnly proclaimed the right of numerous nationalities of Siberia, Central Asia, the Caucasus and Transcaucasia to freely and freely arrange their lives, create their own national and cultural institutions, etc.

November 11, 1917 VNIK and SNK adopted Decree on the destruction of estates and civil ranks.

It should be noted that when studying the documents of the early stage of the October Revolution, you pay attention to how rarely the words "socialism" and "socialist" appeared in them. More often, and in the main places, there are words derived from the word "democracy" (equally acceptable to supporters of both bourgeois and socialist revolution). Thus, the most important first steps of the new government were made not under the banner of socialism, but under the banner of democracy. A little later, the epithet "democratic" began to be used to characterize the system of elections to the Soviets and the Constituent Assembly, the principle of electing judges, etc. The emphasis on democracy was combined with the proclamation of socialism as the ultimate goal.

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Establishment of Soviet power

The process of creating a new state covered the period from October 1917, the time of the beginning of the October Revolution, to the summer of 1818, when the Soviet statehood was enshrined in the Constitution. The central thesis of the new government was the idea of ​​exporting the world revolution and the creation of a socialist state. As part of this idea, the slogan "Proletarians of all countries, unite!" was put forward. The main task of the Bolsheviks was the issue of power, so the focus was not on socio-economic transformations, but on strengthening the central and regional authorities.

On October 25, 1917, the Second Congress of Soviets adopted the Decree on Power, declaring the transfer of all power to the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies. The arrest of the Provisional Government, the local liquidation of zemstvo and city governments were the first steps towards the destruction of the administration created by the former government. On October 27, 1917, it was decided to form the Soviet government - Council of People's Commissars(S/F), which must be valid until the election of the Constituent Assembly. It included 62 Bolsheviks, 29 Left Social Revolutionaries. More than 20 ministries were created instead People's Commissariats (People's Commissariats). The supreme legislative body was Congress of Soviets headed by Lenin. During the breaks between its meetings, legislative functions were carried out by All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK), headed by L. Kamenev and M. Sverdlov. To combat counter-revolution and sabotage was formed All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK), headed by F. Dzerzhinsky. Revolutionary courts were created for the same purpose. These bodies played a big role in establishing Soviet power and the dictatorship of the proletariat.

In November-December 1917, elections to the Constituent Assembly were held, during which the Social Revolutionaries received 40% of the vote, the Bolsheviks - 24%, the Mensheviks - 2%. Thus, the Bolsheviks did not receive a majority and, realizing the threat to the sole rule, were forced to disperse the Constituent Assembly. On November 28, a blow was dealt to the Cadet Party - members of the Constituent Assembly, who were members of the Central Committee of the Cadet Party, P. Dolgorukov, F. Kokoshkin, V. Stepanov, A. Shingarev and others were arrested. At the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly, which opened on January 5, 1918 In the Taurida Palace, the Bolsheviks and the Left SRs who supported them were in the minority. Most of the delegates refused to recognize the Council of People's Commissars as the government and demanded that all power be transferred to the Constituent Assembly. Therefore, on the night of January 6-7, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee approved a decree on dissolution of the Constituent Assembly. Demonstrations in his support were dispersed. Thus, the last democratically elected body collapsed. The repressions that began with the Kadets showed that the Bolsheviks were striving for dictatorship and one-man rule. Civil war became inevitable.

As early as November 10, 1917, the Council of People's Commissars decided to start a gradual reduction of the incapacitated Russian army. On December 16, the election of commanding officers and officials was introduced, all ranks and ranks were abolished, all power in the army was transferred to the soldiers' committees and Soviets. , and on January 29 - the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Fleet. By April 1918, the first stage of the construction of the Red Army was partially completed by creating a volunteer army of about 195 thousand people. In addition to representatives of various nationalities of Russia, it also included people from other countries, which corresponded to the course of the Bolsheviks to support the world revolution in the future. At the beginning of March 1918, the Supreme Military Council, chaired by L. Trotsky, was created to manage all military operations. In April 1918, compulsory military training for workers and the peasant poor was introduced. The institution of military commissars was approved.

In an attempt to legitimize (that is, legalize, from Latin lex - law), the power of the Bolsheviks at the V Congress of Soviets in Moscow in July 1918 was adopted Constitution, in which the victories of the Soviets as an organ of the dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry were consolidated. Russia was proclaimed a federal republic and was now called the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). The ultimate goal was to create a "socialist society" in which there would be neither division into classes nor state power. The workers received an advantage in the election of delegates to the congress - 1 deputy from 25 thousand people, peasants - from 125 thousand. Voting was open, voters elected delegates not at the congress, but through volost, district and provincial congresses. Thus, suffrage was indirect, unequal, not universal. The constitution had a clearly defined class character. After the signing of the enslaving peace of Brest-Litovsk, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, who until then had been the only party supporting the Bolsheviks, came out with criticism. This was the reason for the establishment of a one-party system. The Left SRs were defeated, and the Bolshevik Party became the sole ruler of the country.

The first decrees of the Soviet power The Decree on Peace. The Decree on Peace is one of the first decrees of the Soviet government, a programmatic foreign policy document that was prepared by V.I. Lenin and adopted by the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets on October 26 (November 8), 1917 unanimously. He expressed the peaceful, humanistic nature of the new social order. The October Revolution was victorious in the context of the ongoing World War I. The question of getting out of it was the most important for many millions of people. The decree contained a proposal to all belligerent peoples and governments to immediately begin negotiations on the conclusion of a just, democratic peace - without annexations and indemnities. The decree proceeded from the possibility of peaceful coexistence with the capitalist countries. For the first time in history, new principles of the international policy of peace and peaceful cooperation, proletarian internationalism, recognition of the full equality of all peoples, respect for their national and state independence, and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries were proclaimed. The decree recognized the legitimacy and justice of the liberation struggle of the oppressed peoples and condemned the shameful colonial system. The decree begins with a call (proposal) to all warring countries to begin negotiations on a just, democratic peace. It means, first of all, an immediate peace without annexations and indemnities. The Government of Russia proposes to conclude such a peace immediately to all the belligerent peoples and expresses its readiness to take all decisive steps to establish peace. By annexation, Lenin means any accession to a large or strong state of a small or weak nationality without its consent. It should be noted that Lenin's definition of annexation is somewhat different from its modern understanding. The difference is that, in the modern sense, annexation is the forcible annexation by a state of the territory of another state, and in Lenin's understanding, it is the forcible annexation of a nationality, i.e. historical community of people. The government believes that the continuation of the war is the greatest crime against humanity, and also expresses its readiness to sign peace conditions on equally fair terms for all. The decree draws special attention to the fact that these peace conditions are by no means an ultimatum. Secret diplomacy was abolished, and the government's firm intention was expressed to conduct all negotiations openly before the whole people. The government expressed its readiness to negotiate in any way, and to facilitate them, appointed its plenipotentiaries to neutral countries. The decree puts forward a proposal to the belligerent countries to conclude a truce for a period of not less than three months, during which, through negotiations, it was possible to finally approve all the conditions for peace. The decree ends with a specific appeal to England, France and Germany with a call to end the war. The ruling circles of the imperialist countries of the Entente greeted the Soviet peace proposals with hostility. The decree was enthusiastically received by the masses of Russia and foreign countries. On November 9, 1917, Lenin turned on the radio to the soldiers and sailors with an appeal to choose representatives and enter into negotiations with the enemy about a truce. The so-called "soldier's worlds" began to be concluded at the fronts. In Great Britain, France, and the United States, a wave of demonstrations and rallies demanded peace and support for Soviet Russia. After the rejection of the Soviet peace proposals by the powers of the Entente, the Soviet government was forced to start negotiations with Germany, the result of which was the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918. The Decree on Peace laid the foundations for Soviet foreign policy. Land Decree. The Decree on Land was also one of the first decrees of the Soviet power. It was prepared by V. I. Lenin. It was adopted by the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets on October 26 (November 8), 1917 at 2 am, i.e. actually October 27 (November 9). When working on the decree, Lenin used the mandate drawn up by the editors of the Izvestia of the All-Russian Council of Peasant Deputies, based on 242 local peasant mandates (his section "On the Land" was entirely included in the text of the decree). The decree abolished landlord ownership of land immediately without any redemption and transferred landlord, appanage, monastic, church lands with all inventory and buildings at the disposal of volost land committees and county Soviets of peasant deputies, which were entrusted with the duty of the strictest observance of order during the confiscation of landlord estates. At the same time, any damage to the confiscated property, which now belongs to the whole people, was declared a serious crime. Such crimes were punished by a revolutionary court (tribunal), which consisted of a chairman and 6 regular assessors elected by provincial and city councils. The county soviets of peasant deputies had to take all the necessary measures to observe the strictest order in the confiscation of landowners' estates. The order on land included in the decree (Article 4) determined the new principles of land ownership and land use; the right of private ownership of land was abolished, it was forbidden to sell land, lease it and pledge it, all land turned into public property (i.e. passed into state ownership, which meant the nationalization of the land). All minerals (ore, oil, coal, salt, etc.), as well as forests and waters, were transferred to the use of the state. Land plots with highly cultivated farms, nurseries, stud farms, etc., as well as the entire household inventory of confiscated lands, were transferred to the exclusive use of the state or communities; All citizens received the right to use land, provided that it was cultivated by their own labor, family or partnership without the use of hired labor, on the basis of egalitarian land use with a free choice of forms of land use, including the artel. Farmers who lost the opportunity to cultivate land due to old age or disability lost the right to use it and received pensions from the state. The confiscation of inventory did not concern small-land peasants; it was also established that the lands of ordinary peasants and ordinary Cossacks were not confiscated. Upon expropriation, the land entered the land fund, which periodically had to be redistributed depending on demographic changes and raising the productivity and culture of agriculture. The text of the decree says that the issue of land in its entirety, as well as issues of redemption, can only be resolved by the all-people Constituent Assembly, and the provisions of the decree are, as it were, parting words, i.e. as good as it should be. The state assumed the obligation to organize the resettlement and cover the costs associated with it, as well as the costs of supplying inventory. The decree ends with the provision that this document is only temporary. It will be carried out until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly. By decree, the peasants of Russia received free of charge more than 150 million acres of land, were exempted from paying 700 million rubles in gold annually for land rent and from debts for land, which by that time had reached 3 billion rubles. The decree ensured the support of the Soviet government from the working peasantry, laid the economic foundation for strengthening the alliance of workers and peasants. Decree on Court No. 1. Decree on Court No. 1 was adopted by the Council of People's Commissars on November 22, 1917 (in other sources, November 24, 1917). He abolished all existing judicial institutions: district courts, judicial chambers and the governing senate with all departments, all military and naval courts, replacing them with courts formed on the basis of democratic elections. The decree suspended the operation of the existing institute of magistrates. Local judges now had to be elected on the basis of direct democratic elections, and before such elections were called, by district and volost (county and city) Soviets. Moreover, those who previously held the position of justices of the peace were not deprived of the right to be elected to local judges both temporarily and finally in democratic elections. The decree determined the competence of local courts. They had to resolve all civil cases with a claim value of no more than 3,000 rubles and criminal cases, the punishment for which could be no more than 2 years in prison. The sentences and decisions of the local courts were final and not subject to appeal. In certain cases, a request for cassation was allowed. The cassation commission in such cases was the county, and in the capitals - the capital congress of local judges. The institutions of judicial investigators, prosecutorial supervision, jury and private advocacy were also abolished, and preliminary investigation in criminal cases was assigned to local judges alone until the transformation of the entire judicial order. Local courts decide cases in the name of the Russian Republic and are guided in their decisions and judgments by the laws of the overthrown governments only insofar as they are not abolished by the revolution and do not contradict revolutionary conscience and revolutionary legal consciousness. All laws that contradicted the decrees of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of workers, soldiers, and the cross were recognized as repealed. deputies and the Workers' and Peasants' Government, as well as the minimum programs of the RSDLP (the minimum program: the establishment of a bourgeois republic, the abolition of all redemption payments, 8 hours a day, self-determination of all nations) and the party of the SR (the implementation by the working people of the revolution in order to establish socialism, the socialization of all lands, namely, the transfer of land without redemption for communal use, and the communities had to divide the land according to the equalizing labor principle. Prohibition of the sale of land). To fight against counter-revolutionary forces in the form of taking measures to protect the revolution and its conquests from them, to resolve cases of combating looting and predation, sabotage and other abuses, workers' and peasants' Revolutionary Tribunals are established, consisting of one chairman and six ordinary assessors elected by provincial or city Tips. Special investigative commissions are formed under the same Soviets for the production of the same cases of preliminary investigation.

In the morning October 25, 1917 The Military Revolutionary Committee, in the name of the Petrograd Soviet, declared the Provisional Government deposed.

opened in the evening of the same day II All-Russian Congress of Soviets, at which delegates from 402 Soviets of Russia were represented, authorized the transfer of power to the Soviets. Of the 670 delegates to the congress, 390 were Bolsheviks, 160 were Socialist-Revolutionaries, 72 were Mensheviks, 38 were others; The decision of the congress was supported by the majority of the delegates.

2 hours after the arrest of the Provisional Government, the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets ratified two main decrees - “ Peace Decree" and " Land Decree". According to the first decree, all belligerent countries were asked to start negotiations for a world that was just and democratic. The abolition of secret diplomacy was supposed, the publication of secret treaties. Peace should have been made without annexations and indemnities. All of Russia's allies refused to consider these proposals.

“Land Decree” took into account peasant demands and was based on the Socialist-Revolutionary program developed on the basis of 242 peasant local orders. The abolition of private ownership of land, the nationalization of all land was proclaimed. Landlord property was abolished and placed at the disposal of local peasant committees. Equalized land use was introduced, hired labor and land lease were prohibited.

At the congress, a one-party Bolshevik government was formed (the Left Social Revolutionaries entered the government only in December 1917) - the Council of People's Commissars. Headed the government V.I. Lenin, the rest of the posts were distributed as follows: A.I. Rykov - People's Commissar of Internal Affairs; L.D. Trotsky - People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs; A.V. Lunacharsky - People's Commissar of Education; I.V. Stalin - People's Commissar for Nationalities; P.E. Dybenko, N.V. Krylenko and V.A. Antonov-Ovseenko - commissars for military and naval affairs.

The composition of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTSIK) of the Congress of Soviets was elected. L.B. became the chairman. Kamenev. It included 62 Bolsheviks, 29 Left Social Revolutionaries and several representatives of other parties.

In the first months of the October Revolution, the government adopted a large number of decrees that consolidated changes in the political and economic situation of the Soviet state.

So, from October to December 1917, the following were adopted:

• Decree on the introduction of an eight-hour working day;
• Decree on the press;
• Decree on the destruction of estates and civil ranks;
• Regulations on workers' control;
• Decree on the formation of the Supreme Economic Council (Supreme Council of the National Economy);
• Decree on the democratization of the army;
• Decree on civil marriage, on children and the introduction of books-acts of state;
• Decree on the nationalization of banks;
• Creation of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK) headed by F.E. Dzerzhinsky;
• Decree establishing people's courts and revolutionary tribunals.

Decrees appeared in January 1918:

• On freedom of conscience, church and religious societies;
• On the annulment of government loans;
• On the nationalization of the merchant fleet;
• On the introduction of the Western European calendar, etc.