Creation of the constituent assembly. Convening the constituent assembly. Attitude to the Constituent Assembly at the beginning of the 21st century

The i’s on the issue of the “Constituent Assembly” have been dotted, and have been dotted for a long time.

You just need to be periodically reminded of this so as not to succumb to speculation on this topic by liberals, neo-Blys and pseudo-monarchists.

Brief and succinct material will remind someone, but for others it will open a long time ago known facts O short life"Constituent Assembly".

V. Karpets."Initiator": truth and lies.

Today not only means mass media, but the Russian authorities are also actively raising the issue of the Constituent Assembly, the dissolution of which they are trying to present as a crime of the Bolsheviks and a violation of the “natural”, “normal” historical path of Russia. But is it?

The very idea of ​​the Constituent Assembly as a form of government similar to the Zemsky Sobor (which elected the king on February 21, 1613 Mikhail Romanov), put forward by the Decembrists in 1825, then, in the 1860s, it was supported by the organizations “Land and Freedom” and “People’s Will”, and in 1903 the demand for the convocation of the Constituent Assembly was included in its program of the RSDLP. But during the First Russian Revolution of 1905-07. the masses proposed a higher form of democracy - the Soviets. “The Russian people have made a giant leap - a leap from tsarism to the Soviets. This is an irrefutable and unprecedented fact.”(V. Lenin, vol. 35, p. 239). After the February Revolution of 1917, the Provisional Government, which overthrew the Tsar, did not resolve a single sore point until October 1917 and in every possible way delayed the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, the election of delegates of which began only after the overthrow of the Provisional Government, on November 12 (25), 1917 and continued until January 1918. On October 25 (November 7), 1917, the October Socialist Revolution took place under the slogan “All power to the Soviets!” Before her, a split occurred in the Socialist Revolutionary Party into left and right; the left followed the Bolsheviks, who led this revolution (i.e., the balance of political forces changed). On October 26, 1917, the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets adopted the Declaration of the Working and Exploited People. Decrees of the Soviet government followed, resolving the most pressing issues: a decree on peace; on the nationalization of land, banks, factories; about the eight-hour working day and others.

First meeting of the Constituent Assembly opened on January 5 (18), 1918 in the Tauride Palace of Petrograd, where 410 delegates from 715 elected gathered (i.e. 57.3% -arctus). The Presidium, consisting of right-wing Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, refused to consider the Declaration and recognize the decrees of Soviet power. Then the Bolsheviks (120 delegates) left the hall. Behind them are the Left Socialist Revolutionaries (another 150). Only 140 delegates left out of 410 (34% of participants or 19.6% of selected -arctus). It is clear that in this composition of the decision of the Constituent Assembly and it itself could not be considered legitimate, therefore, the meeting was interrupted at five o'clock in the morning on January 6 (19), 1918 by a guard of revolutionary sailors. January 6 (19), 1918 Council of People's Commissars decided to dissolve the Constituent Assembly, and on the same day this decision was formalized by a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, which, in particular, said : “The Constituent Assembly severed all connections between itself and the Soviet Republic of Russia. The departure from such a Constituent Assembly of the Bolshevik and Left Socialist-Revolutionary factions, which now constitute obviously a huge majority in the Soviets and enjoy the confidence of the workers and the majority of peasants, was inevitable... It is clear that the remainder of the Constituent Assembly can therefore only play the role of covering up the struggle of the bourgeois counter-revolution for the overthrow of Soviet power. Therefore, the Central Executive Committee decides: The Constituent Assembly is dissolved.”
This decree was approved on January 19 (31), 1918 by the delegates of the Third All-Russian Congress of Soviets - 1647 with a casting vote and 210 with an advisory vote. In the same Tauride Palace in Petrograd. (By the way, the speakers were Bolsheviks: according to the Report - Lenin, Sverdlov; according to the formation of the RSFSR - Stalin).

Only on June 8, 1918 in Samara, “liberated” from Soviet power as a result of the uprising of the Czechoslovak corps, five delegates from among the right Socialist Revolutionaries (I. Brushvit, V. Volsky - chairman, P. Klimushkin, I. Nesterov and B. Fortunatov) a Committee of Members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly (Komuch) was formed, which played a truly “outstanding” role in inciting the civil war in Russia. But even during the peak period of Komuch, in the early autumn of 1918, it included only 97 out of 715 delegates ( 13,6% - arctus). Subsequently, the “opposition” delegates of the Constituent Assembly from among the right Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks did not play any independent role in the “white” movement, since they were considered, if not “red”, then “pink”, and some of them were shot by Kolchak’s men for “revolutionary propaganda” "

These are historical facts. From which it follows that the real logic of the revolutionary and political struggle in general is very far from the logic of the “crocodile tears” of domestic liberals, who are ready to mourn the “death of Russian democracy” in January 1918, successfully and without any damage to themselves “digesting” the results of the “victory of the Russian democracy" in October 1993, although the sailor Zheleznyak and his comrades did not shoot their political opponents with machine guns (we are not even talking about tank guns here).
In conclusion, we can only repeat Lenin’s famous words: “The people’s assimilation of the October Revolution has not ended to this day” (V.I. Lenin, vol. 35, p. 241). They are still very relevant today.

ELECTIONS TO THE CONSTITUENT BOARD

The convening of the Constituent Assembly as the body of the supreme democratic power was the demand of all socialist parties in pre-revolutionary Russia- from the people's socialists to the Bolsheviks. Elections to the Constituent Assembly took place at the end of 1917. The overwhelming majority of voters participating in the elections, about 90%, voted for socialist parties, 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 a 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 superior to all parliaments, all 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 elections, Lenin warned that the Constituent Assembly would “doom itself to political death” if it opposed Soviet power.

Lenin took advantage of the fierce struggle within the Socialist Revolutionary Party and formed a political bloc with the Left Socialist Revolutionaries. Despite differences with them on issues of a multi-party system and the dictatorship of the proletariat, a separate world, and 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 "Around the World"

FIRST AND LAST MEETING

The positions have been decided. Circumstances forced the Socialist-Revolutionary faction. play a leadership and leadership role. This was caused by the numerical superiority of the faction. This was also due to the fact that the more moderate members of the Constituent Assembly, elected among 64, did not dare, with a few 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, in a sense, “decapitated.” Avksentyev was still in Peter and Paul Fortress. Kerensky, on whom Bolshevik slander and rage was predominantly concentrated, was also absent. They looked for him everywhere, night and day. He was in Petrograd, and it took a lot of effort to convince him to abandon the crazy idea of ​​​​appearing at the Tauride Palace to declare that he was relinquishing power before a legally elected and authorized assembly. The recklessly brave Gotz nevertheless appeared at the meeting, despite the order of arrest for participation in the cadet 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 seizure of power. And V.M. Chernov, 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 trusted to lead. 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 chairman was opposed by Spiridonova's candidacy. When voting, Chernov received 244 white balls against 151 black balls. After the results were announced, Chernov took the monumental chair of the chairman on the stage, overlooking the oratory. A large distance had formed 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 “shocky” parts of Chernov’s speech, an obvious chill ran through the right sector. The speech caused dissatisfaction among the leaders of the faction and a simple-minded misunderstanding of this dissatisfaction on the part of the speaker himself.<...>

Long and tedious hours passed before the assembly was freed from the hostile factions that were hindering its work. The electricity had been turned on a long time ago. The tense atmosphere of the military camp was growing and was definitely looking for a way out. From my secretary's chair on the podium, I saw how armed people, after the Bolsheviks left, increasingly began to raise their rifles and take aim at those on the podium or sitting in the hall. O.S. Minor’s gleaming bald head was an attractive target for soldiers and sailors while away the time. Shotguns and revolvers threatened every minute to discharge themselves, hand bombs and grenades to explode themselves.<...>

Having descended from the platform, I went to see what was happening in the choir. In the semicircular hall, grenades and cartridge bags are stacked in the corners, and guns are stacked. 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. Certain groups continue to “protest” and argue. Some of the deputies are trying to convince the soldiers of the rightness of the meeting and the criminality of the Bolsheviks. Rushes:

And Lenin will have a bullet if he deceives!

The room reserved for our faction has already been captured by sailors. The commandant's office helpfully reports that it does not guarantee the immunity of deputies - they can be shot at the meeting itself. Melancholy and grief are aggravated by the consciousness of complete powerlessness. Sacrificial readiness finds no way out. What they are doing, let them do it quickly!

In the meeting room, the sailors and Red Army soldiers had finally stopped feeling shy. They jump over the barriers of the boxes, click the bolts of their rifles as they go, and rush into the choir like a whirlwind. Of the Bolshevik faction, only the more prominent ones left the Tauride Palace. The less famous ones have only moved from the delegate chairs to the choirs and aisles of the hall and from there they observe and give their remarks. The audience in the choir is anxious, almost in panic. Deputies on the ground are motionless, tragically silent. We are isolated from the world, just as the Tauride Palace is isolated from Petrograd and Petrograd from Russia. There is noise all around, and we seem to be in the desert given over to the will of a triumphant enemy, so that we can 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 those arrested. There was even something reassuring about it - still some certainty. Some begin hastily destroying incriminating documents. We convey something to our loved ones - in the public and in the journalists' box. 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 arrive. New rumor - the electricity will be turned off. A few minutes later A.N. Sletova had already produced dozens of candles.

It was five o'clock in the morning. The prepared land law was announced and voted on. An unknown sailor rose to the podium - one of many who had been loitering all day and night in the corridors and passages. Approaching the chair of the chairman, who was busy with the voting procedure, the sailor stood for a while, 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 declared that, according to the instructions he received from the commissar (Dybenka), those present should leave the hall.

An argument began between V.M. Chernov, who insisted that “the Constituent Assembly can disperse only if force is used,” and the “citizen sailor,” who demanded that they “immediately leave the meeting room.” The real power, alas, was on the side of the anarchist-communist, and it was not Viktor Chernov, but Anatoly Zheleznyakov who prevailed.

We quickly hear a series of extraordinary statements and, in order of haste, we 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 resolution on the federal structure of the Russian democratic republic. At 4:40 a.m. In the morning the first meeting of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly closes.

M. Vishnyak. Convocation and dispersal of the Constituent Assembly // October Revolution. The revolution of 1917 through the eyes of its leaders. Memoirs of Russian politicians and commentary by a Western historian. M., 1991.

"THE GUARD IS TIRED"

Citizen sailor. I have received instructions to bring to your attention that all those present leave the meeting room because the guard is tired. (Voices: we don’t need a guard.)

Chairman. What instructions? From whom?

Citizen sailor. I am the head of security at the Tauride Palace and have instructions from Commissioner Dybenka.

Chairman. All members of the Constituent Assembly are also very tired, but no amount of fatigue can interrupt the announcement of the land law that Russia is waiting for. (Terrible noise. Shouts: enough! enough!) The Constituent Assembly can disperse only if force is used. (Noise. Voices: Down with Chernov.)

Citizen sailor. (Inaudible) ... I ask you to leave the courtroom immediately.

Chairman. On this issue that suddenly burst into our meeting, the Ukrainian faction asks for the floor for an extraordinary statement...

I.V. Streltsov. I have the honor to make an extraordinary statement from the group of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party. Ukrainians with the following content: standing from the point of view of resolving the question of peace and land, as it is resolved by the entire working peasantry, workers and soldiers, and as it is set out in the declaration of the Central Executive Committee, a group of left Socialist-Revolutionaries. Ukrainians, however, taking into account the current situation, joins the declaration of the Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionary Party, with all the ensuing consequences. (Applause.)

Chairman. The following proposal has been made. Finish the meeting of this Assembly by adopting the read part of the basic law on land without debate, and transfer the rest to the commission for presentation within seven days. (Voting.) The proposal was accepted. A proposal was made to cancel the roll call vote due to the current situation and to conduct an open vote. (Voting.) Accepted. The announced main provisions of the land law are put to a vote. (Ballotment.) So, citizens, members of the Constituent Assembly, you have accepted the basic provisions announced by me on the land issue.

There is a proposal to elect a land commission, which would, within seven days, consider all the remaining undisclosed points of the land law. (Voting.) Accepted. (Inaudible... Noise.) Proposals were made to accept the announced statements: an appeal to the allies, to convene an international socialist peace conference, to accept peace negotiations with the warring powers by the Constituent Assembly, 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 inflexible 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 to jointly determine the exact conditions of a democratic peace acceptable to all warring 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 desire 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 through joint efforts a speedy peace will be achieved, ensuring the welfare and dignity of all warring peoples.

Expressing regret on behalf of the peoples of Russia that 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 Federative Republic, continuing the established truce, takes upon itself further negotiations with the powers at war with us, so that, while protecting the interests of Russia, we achieve, in accordance with the will of the people, a universal democratic peace"

“The Constituent Assembly declares that it will provide every possible assistance to the initiatives of the socialist parties of the Russian Republic in the matter of immediately convening an international socialist conference in order to achieve universal democratic peace.”

“The Constituent Assembly decides to elect from among its members a plenipotentiary delegation to conduct negotiations with representatives of the Allied powers and to present them with an appeal to jointly clarify the conditions for an early end to the war, as well as to implement the decision of the Constituent Assembly on the issue 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.

(Voting.) So, all proposals have been accepted. A proposal was made to adopt the following resolution on state structure Russia:

“In the name of the peoples, the constituent Russian state, the All-Russian Constituent Assembly decides: the Russian state is proclaimed a Russian democratic federal republic, uniting in an inextricable union the peoples and regions within the limits established by the federal constitution, sovereign.”

(Voting.) Accepted. (It is proposed to schedule the next meeting of the Constituent Assembly for tomorrow at 12 noon. There is another proposal - to schedule the meeting not at 12 noon, but at 5 o’clock. (Voting.) For - 12, minority. So, Tomorrow the meeting is scheduled at 5 pm (Voices: today.) My attention is drawn to the fact that this 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 balance of political forces, when the Compromisers and Cadets were in power.

The people could not then, when voting for 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 help but stand across the path 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 desperate resistance from the exploiters and in the suppression of this resistance fully revealed itself as the beginning of the socialist revolution.

The working classes had to learn from experience that the old bourgeois parliamentarism had outlived itself, that it was completely incompatible with the tasks of implementing socialism, that not national, but only class institutions (such as the Soviets) were able to defeat the resistance of the propertied classes and lay the foundations of a socialist society.

Introduction

Russia, will represent the institution, intended in accordance with bourgeois state-legal views to establish a form of government and develop a constitution; its creation was supposed to be based on universal suffrage. The slogan of convening a Constituent Assembly was included in the program of the RSDLP in 1903. After the Feb. -democratic republic since the Constituent Assembly. With the victory of the October Revolution, the Bolshevik Party sought to help the petty-bourgeois masses, through their own experience, get rid of bourgeois illusions. On October 27 (November 9), Soviet production adopted a resolution on the Constituent Assembly on the appointed date. In November doc. 1917 (and in some remote places in January 1918) elections to the Constituent Assembly took place, taking place under conditions of sabotage by counter-revolutionaries, which actually began the Civil War. Of those who took part in the voting, about 1/2 of the voters voted for the Bolsheviks, 40% for the Socialist-Revolutionaries, 2.3% for the Mensheviks, 4.7% for the Cadets, and the rest for other bourgeois and petty-bourgeois parties and groups. The majority of workers and almost half of the soldiers voted for the Bolsheviks (who achieved success in Petrograd, Moscow, on the Northern and Western fronts, the Baltic Fleet, in 20 districts of the North-West and Central Industrial Districts), which confirmed the pattern of victory of the October Revolution.

The demand for the immediate convening of the Constituent Assembly and the “protection” of its rights and sovereignty from “usurpation” by the Soviets became the banner under which they united. All the forces of bourgeois and petty bourgeois counter-revolution. Considering the unpopularity of monarchist and bourgeois slogans and trying to mobilize forces to fight against Soviet power, the counter-revolution relied on a slogan that had not yet completely lost its popularity among the working masses. At the opening on 5(18) Jan. At the 1918 meeting of the Constituent Assembly of 715 deputies, approx. 410 (predominant: centrist Socialist Revolutionaries, led by V.M. Chernov; Bolsheviks and left Socialist Revolutionaries - 155 people, 38.5%). Counter-revolution the majority of the Constituent Assembly (president Chernov) refused to discuss the Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People proposed by Ya. M. Sverdlov from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and did not recognize the decrees of the Soviets. authorities. The Bolshevik faction, and then the Left Socialist Revolutionaries and some other groups left the meeting. At 5 o'clock in the morning 6(19) Jan. The Constituent Assembly was closed. On the night of 7(20) January. Based on the report of V. I. Lenin, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a decree on the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, approved by the 3rd All-Russian Congress of Soviets. The remnants of the deputies of the Constituent Assembly gathered in Samara, where in June 1918 they formed a counter-revolutionary movement. Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly. During the Civil War, the slogan of the Constituent Assembly became the basis of the political program of the Mensheviks (withdrawn in December 1918), some of the leaders of the “White Cause” (they modified it into the slogan of the “legislative assembly” and used it for tactical purposes) and especially the Socialist Revolutionaries. The military defeat of the counter-revolution, the socialist transformations carried out by the Soviet government in the country deprived the bourgeois and petty-bourgeois parties of a social base, predetermined the collapse of the slogan of the Constituent Assembly.

The work used the literature of the following authors: Kozlov V.A. History of the Fatherland: people, ideas, decisions; Novitskaya T.E. Constituent Assembly. Russia. 1918; Kiseleva A.F. Recent history fatherland of the XX century; Dumanova N.G. History of political parties in Russia; Boffa J. History Soviet Union. From the revolution to the second world war. Lenin and Stalin 1917-194; Azovtsev N.N. Civil war and military intervention in the USSR. Encyclopedia; Chernov M.V. The struggle for the Constituent Assembly and its dispersal.

Goal of the work - Study the organization of elections to the Constituent Assembly of 1917.

Tasks

Get acquainted with the convocation of the Constituent Assembly;

Study the election regulations;

Consider suffrage and electoral lists for the Constituent Assembly.

Elections to the Constituent Assembly. On the formation of a Special Meeting. Regulations on elections to the Constituent Assembly

On March 25, it was decided that it was necessary to form a Special Meeting to prepare a draft Regulation on the elections to the Constituent Assembly. The composition of this body took more than a month to form and began work on May 25.

The Special Meeting is the institution that directly prepared the elections for the preparation of the Draft Regulations on the elections to the Constituent Assembly chaired by Kokoshkin (created by decree of the Provisional Government on March 25, 1917). The focus of the work of the Special Meeting, as well as the practical work of the All-Russian Commission on Elections to the Constituent Assembly (All Elections), created in the summer of 1917, was the development of new electoral legislation and the administrative infrastructure for its implementation. The general direction in resolving this issue (despite the representation of different parties) was determined by the desire of the professional part of the authors of the “Regulations” to reflect the will of society as objectively as possible, on the one hand, and, on the other, to neutralize, as far as possible, the negative impact on the outcome of the elections of the least prepared part of society ( This explains, in particular, the discussion about the age limit, the desire to ensure the rights of minorities, the discussion of the control system and re-ballots). A special meeting was formed “to prepare a draft regulation on elections to the Constituent Assembly,” and it was decided to appoint specialists on issues state law, a representative of statistical science and other knowledgeable persons and invite political and public figures representing the main political and national political trends in Russia 63 . Qualified lawyers, members State Duma first convocation of Professor S.A. Kotlyarevsky and F.F. Kokoshkin, member of the State Duma of the second convocation, Professor V.M. Gessen, members of the State Duma V.A. Maklakov and M.S. Adzhemov, academician A.S. Lappo-Danilevsky, Master of State Law N.I. Lazarevsky, Master of International Law Baron B.E., Nolde, Head of the Main Directorate for Local Economic Affairs N.N. Avinov, member of the consultation established under the Ministry of Justice A.Ya. Galpern and candidate of rights V.V. Vodovozov. Further, however, this institution is blurred: as has been shown, representatives from parties and nationalities are included in it, which could not but lead to the disorganization of all work and the transition from professionalism to populism.

In the Regulations “On the formation of the Committee under the Provisional Government for the adaptation of the building for the Constituent Assembly. Resolution of the Provisional Government of May 24, 1917" The Provisional Government decided: I To form under the Provisional Government a Committee for the adaptation of the building for the Constituent Assembly, chaired by the Commissioner of the Provisional Government for the Ministry of Trade and Industry Vasily Aleksandrovich Stepanov, consisting of the following persons: Comrade Chairman of the Committee engineer Yakov Yakovlerich Brusov and members: Chairman of the Special meeting for the preparation of a draft regulation on elections to the Constituent Assembly, Senator Fedor Fedorovich Kokoshkin, the producer of the work of the Committee, Academician Vladimir Alekseevich Shchuko, the Assistant Commissioner of the Provisional Government over the Ministry of the Court, engineer Pavel Mizhayalovich Makarov, architect Nikolai Evgenievich Lansere, two representatives from the said Meeting and one representative each from the Ministry of Finance and State Control, granting the Chairman of the Committee the right to invite Members and other persons whose participation will be considered useful in the work of the Committee.

“The expenses of the Committee are aimed at preparatory work to adapt the building for the Constituent Assembly...”

“On approval of section I of the regulations on elections to the Constituent Assembly. Resolution of the Provisional Government of July 20, 1917." Recognizing the urgency of putting into effect those rules on the elections to the Constituent Assembly that are necessary for the immediate start of the election process among the civilian population of the Provisional Government, based on the report of the Special Meeting for the preparation of the draft Regulations on the elections to the Constituent Assembly:

Approve the first section (chapters 1-5) of the Regulations on elections to the Constituent Assembly...

Entrust the preparatory work for compiling electoral lists to existing government institutions and public organizations, indicated by special decrees of the Provisional Government.

Entrust the Ministry of Internal Affairs with direct executive actions necessary for the technical preparation of the elections to the Constituent Assembly in order to speed them up and successfully pass them.

The election of members of the Constituent Assembly from the province occupied by the enemy, with the exception of the territory intended to be included in the future Polish state. The indication of the number of members of the Constituent Assembly in each district is established by special decrees of the Provisional Government.

In accordance with the provision, the following transitional rules have been established. Pending the formation of local institutions of provincial and district zemstvo and city and village self-government on the basis of resolutions of the Provisional Government, members of commissions for elections to the Constituent Assembly and precinct election commissions ... are temporarily replaced by persons elected by local public institutions and organizations indicated by the Provisional Government.

Regulations on elections to the Constituent Assembly (Section one Chapter I) general position. The Constituent Assembly is formed from members elected by the population on the basis of universal, without distinction of sex, and equal suffrage, through direct elections and secret ballot, using the principles of proportional representation.

To conduct elections to the Constituent Assembly, the following electoral districts are formed:

Provinces: Altai, Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan (including

inhabited by Kalmyks of the aimag of the Terek region and with the exception of the lands inhabited by the nomadic Kalmyks of the Kalmyk steppe and the Kyrgyz of the Inner Horde), Bessarabian, Vitebsk, Vladimir, Vologda, Volyn (with the exception of parts of it occupied by the enemy), Voronezh, Vyatka, Ekatsrinoslav, Yenisei (with inclusion in it of Russian citizens living in the Uriankhai region), Irkutsk, Kazan, Kaluga, Kiev, Kostroma, Kursk, Livlyandsk (with the inclusion of parts of the Kurland province not occupied by the enemy), Minsk (with the exception of parts of it occupied by the enemy, and with the inclusion of those not occupied by the enemy parts of the Vilna and Kovno provinces), Mogilev, Moscow (except for the city of Moscow), Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod, Olonetsk, Orenburg, Oryol, Penza, Perm, Petrograd (except for the city of Petrograd), Podolsk, Poltava, Pskov, Ryazan, Samara, Simbirsk , Smolensk, Stavropol (with the inclusion of Karanogay, which is part of the Terek region), Tauride, Tambov, Tver, Tobolsk, Tomsk, Tula, Ufa, Kharkov, Kherson, Chernigov, Estland and Yaroslavl, and the regions: Don Troops, Transbaikal, Trans-Castle (beyond with the exception of the Mangyshlak district, but with the inclusion of the volosts of the named district inhabited by Turkmens), Kamchatka, Samar-Kand, Semirechensk, Syr-Daryinskaya (with the exception of the Amu-Darya department), Turgay, Ural (with the inclusion of the Mashashn Lak district of the Transcaspian region, except for the volosts of the said Turkmens) districts), Fergana and Yakutsk - each form one electoral district.

The capitals Petrograd and Moscow each form a special electoral district.

On top of this, electoral districts are formed: Amu-Darya I, consisting of the Amu-Darya department, Syr-Darya region, Transcaucasian - as part of the provinces of Baku, Yelisavetpol, Kutais, Tiflis and Erivan, regions of Batumi and Kars and districts of Sukhumi and Zagatala, Kuban-Black Sea - in as part of the Kuban region" and the Black Sea province, the Terek-Dagestan region as part of the Terek region (with the exception of the Karanogai police station and aimak inhabited by Kalmyks) and Dagestan, Steppe - as part of the Akmola and Semipalatinsk regions, Ordynsky - as part of parts of the Astrakhan province inhabited by the nomadic Kyrgyz of the Inner Horde , Priamursky - as part of the Amur Primorsky and Sakhalin regions, Prikaspiansky - as part of parts of the Astrakhan province inhabited by nomadic Kalmyks, and the district of the Chinese Eastern railway- as part of the right-of-way of the said road.

The number of members of the Constituent Assembly to be elected in each district is determined separately.

Suffrage based on the Constituent Assembly.

In 1917, the most democratic law on elections to the Constituent Assembly was adopted: universal, equal, direct elections by secret ballot. The adopted law was significantly ahead of the social development of election legislation in other countries and was revolutionary for Russia:

• Voting rights were granted to women (a first in the world).
• A low age limit for that time was set at 20 years (in the UK, Italy, USA, France the age limit was 21 years, in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain - 25 years).
• Russia became the only country in the world that granted voting rights to military personnel, but only if they reached the age established for the last early conscription by election day.
• The regulations on elections to the Constituent Assembly did not recognize property qualifications, residency and literacy qualifications, or restrictions on religious or national grounds.

Those recognized as insane or insane in accordance with the procedure established by law, as well as deaf and dumb people under guardianship, do not participate in elections.

Voting rights are deprived:

1) awarded by court sentences that have entered into legal force, if they have not previously been restored to the rights of the state. (to hard labor, to exile to a settlement)

2) convicted of theft

3) insolvent debtors recognized on the basis of judicial rulings that have entered into legal force.

4) military personnel who left the ranks of the troops without permission

5) Only persons included in the electoral list of the precinct have the right to participate in elections in each polling station.

The management of the election proceedings is entrusted to: the All-Russian, district capital, district and city commissions for elections to the Constituent Assembly and precinct election commissions, city and village councils and volost and zemstvo councils.

The All-Russian Commission on Affairs of Elections to the Constituent Assembly is entrusted with:

· General observation of the progress of the elections to the Constituent Assembly and discussion of measures necessary to speed up these elections;

· Development of general instructions approved by the Provisional Government in addition to and development of both this Regulation and the Order on the application of this Regulation;

· Drawing up a list of persons elected as members of the Constituent Assembly, and

District commissions for elections to the Constituent Assembly are entrusted with: 1) monitoring the timely formation and opening of actions of county and city commissions for elections to the Constituent Assembly. 2) approval of the distribution of polling stations based on the proposals of county and city councilors in cases of elections to the Constituent Assembly of commissions and consideration of all submitted statements about irregularities committed in such distribution, 3) determination and public announcement of the day on which city and town councils and volosts zemstvo councils begin compiling electoral lists, monitoring the timely compilation of these lists and putting them up for public viewing, 4) accepting and considering candidate lists, numbering these lists, putting them up for public viewing and reporting the lists to district and city officials on matters of elections to the Constituent meeting of commissions, city and village governments and precinct election commissions, as well as the announcement to the general public about subsequent mergers of lists, 5) orders for the preparation of election envelopes, election notes, etc. or entrusting this to the district and city commissions regarding elections to the Constituent Assembly, 6) counting votes in the district, determining the election results and announcing them to the public, 7) issuing proper certificates of the subsequent election to members of the Constituent Assembly, 8) transfer of all election proceedings received by them to the All-Russian Commission for Elections to the Constituent Assembly and 9) disposal of loans allocated for the conduct of elections in a given district.

Capital commissions on affairs of elections to the Constituent Assembly

the rights and obligations assigned by these Regulations to both district and city commissions in matters of elections to the Constituent Assembly of the commission are assigned.

The precinct election commission consists of four members elected by the city or village government or the volost zemstvo government, including the chairman and secretary.

In addition, the commission includes, as members, one person from each group of voters who submitted a candidate list and indicated their representative to be included in this commission.

Precinct election commissions are responsible for receiving and initially counting ballot papers in a given polling station.

Institutions of local government and self-government are obliged to assist commissions on matters of elections to the Constituent Assembly and precinct election commissions in the performance by the latter of the duties assigned to them by these Regulations.

All kinds of acts and papers drawn up in cases of elections to the Constituent Assembly, both submitted to government, judicial, administrative and public institutions and officials of all departments and institutions, and issued by all these institutions and officials, are exempt from stamp and other taxes.

Electoral lists. To conduct elections to the Constituent Assembly, voter lists are compiled separately for each polling station. No one may be included in the electoral lists for more than one precinct.

The compilation of electoral lists is entrusted to city and village councils and to volost zemstvo councils, according to their affiliation.

The day on which the said councils begin to compile electoral lists is designated for the entire district by order of the district election commission Convincing meeting and is announced to the public in the manner that best ensures wide notification of this to the population.

The educational list indicates the last name or nickname of each voter, his first name, patronymic, age, place of residence and occupation. A list for each site is compiled in alphabetical order surnames.

Within ten days after the election list is announced to the public, a representative of the local administrative authority may lodge protests, and persons enjoying the right to participate in elections may file complaints about the incorrectness or inaccuracy of this list.

Protests and complaints are considered within five days by county and city commissions in cases of elections to the Constituent Assembly in an open meeting in the manner established for the consideration of cases by administrative judges, in accordance with the Regulations on Administrative Courts

On November 12, 1917, elections began. During the elections, troops loyal to the Bolsheviks gathered in Petrograd. After the elections, the Bolsheviks began repressions against the Cadets. The Constitutional Democratic Party was officially declared a party of “enemies of the people”, and arrests of its members began. Constituting less than 2% of the Assembly's deputies, the cadets were neutralized and did not take part in its activities.

The result of the elections was the victory of the Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs), who received almost twice as many votes (40% according to official data) as the Bolsheviks.

At the same time, in the elections to the Constituent Assembly, the party of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries acted with the party of the Socialist-Revolutionaries on common lists, since organizationally the left and right Socialist-Revolutionaries until the Congress of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries on December 2-11 (November 19-28), 1917, represented a single party.

Since at the time the lists were compiled, the Left Socialist Revolutionary faction constituted a minority in the Socialist Revolutionary Party, as a rule, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries were in the minority and came last on the list. That part of the peasantry that gave preference to the left Socialist Revolutionaries, voting for the general list, provided mandates for the right Socialist Revolutionaries. Voting on lists that did not reflect the relative weight of political groupings after the October Revolution could not but affect the party composition of the members of the Constituent Assembly.

In general, less than 50% of voters took part in the elections (44.5 million out of 90), and such disinterest in the long-awaited Constituent Assembly can be explained by the fact that the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies had already adopted all the most important decrees and proclaimed Soviet power.

Conclusion

During the preparation of the Constituent Assembly, Russian society for the first time independently raised and resolved issues of national identity and political self-determination. This time marks the most intense debate about human rights, the form of government and the type of future political system; administrative-territorial structure; the structure of parliament and the judiciary; legal status of political parties; the order of formation and functioning of institutions of the transition period (in conditions of war and anarchy). The central problem in resolving these issues, as in other great revolutions, was the conflict between the constituent and constitutional powers. When designing the Russian Constitution, its liberal developers were guided by the negative experience of previous (mainly French) revolutions: they sought to avoid two extremes - on the one hand, the establishment of its complete and unlimited monopoly on power, which could lead to the tyranny of the majority; on the other, preventing weakness in relation to the temporary executive power, which could establish a dictatorship of the Bonapartist type and ultimately lead to the restoration of the monarchy.

The Constituent Assembly will direct the people on the right path and will not abandon them in difficult times, as many residents of even the deepest provinces thought.

The Provisional Government under the influence of the Cadets and personally P.N. Miliukov, who analyzed the results of local government bodies in Moscow and Petrograd, did his best to delay the elections to the Constituent Assembly in the spring and summer of 1917. Even in the summer, the legal council under the government did not begin to develop the principles of the election campaign. The government crises that took place against this background and the resignations of Cadet ministers contributed to the decline in the authority of this party and government. In general, the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries who collaborated with him as part of the coalition governments were also responsible in the eyes of society for delaying the convening of the Constituent Assembly.

As a result, the elections were held in conditions when the Bolsheviks declared the power of the Soviets and adopted the Decree on Land and the Decree on Peace. However, the popularity of the Constituent Assembly in public consciousness was so great that, despite the proclamation of the power of the Soviets, they went to convene a body that was supposed to resolve the issue of power.

Elections to the Constituent Assembly, held in November 1917 throughout the country, were democratic in nature. For the first time in Russia, the principle of secret universal electoral and direct voting was tested. Citizens who had reached the age of 21 enjoyed the right to choose, without distinction of gender, nationality or religion. The political parties vying for representation in the Constituent Assembly represented various strata of Russian society, from the right and the Cadets to the Bolsheviks. The Social Revolutionaries won the elections, receiving 191.10074 votes, followed by the Bolsheviks in the number of votes - 108.89437. The results did not satisfy the Bolsheviks, and they began to pursue a policy of delaying the convening of the Constituent Assembly.

People's hopes were not justified. With the Bolsheviks coming to power in October 1917, they pushed the Constituent Assembly into the background. Its convocation becomes a fiction, since the Soviet government becomes the actual power - the Council People's Commissars, headed by V.I. Lenin.

Going to convene the Constituent Assembly, they adopted a number of decrees that disarmed the activities of the Constituent Assembly. However, they decided to accept the work of the Constituent Assembly if the specially developed document “Declaration of the Rights of Working and Exploited People” was recognized. This document legitimized the Decrees adopted by the Second Congress of Soviets and declared the only power to be the Power of the Soviets.

Bibliography

1. Novitskaya T.E. Constituent Assembly. Russia. 1918 / Transcript and other documents. Comp. T.V. Novitskaya. – M.: Russian Open University, 1991. – 160 p.

2. Collection of documents on the history of the USSR for seminaries and practical classes. The era of socialism. Issue 1917-1920 – M.: Higher School, 1978. – 264 p.

Periodicals

1. Chernov M.V. The struggle for the Constituent Assembly and its dispersal / M.V. Chernov // Centaur. Historical and political magazine. – M.: Phoenix, 1993. - No. 3. P. 116-160

Special literature

1. Azovtsev N.N. Civil war and military intervention in the USSR. Encyclopedia / N.N. Azovtsev and others - M.: Soviet encyclopedia, 1983. – 789 p.

2. Boffa J. History of the Soviet Union. From the revolution to the second world war. Lenin and Stalin 1917-1941 / translation by I.V. Levina. – M.: International relationships, 1990. - 632 p.

3. Vvedensky B.A. USSR 1917-1967 Encyclopedic reference book / B.A. Vvedensky and others - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1967 - 684 p.

4. Dumanova N.G. History of political parties in Russia / N.G. Dumanova, Erofeev N.D., S.V. Tyutyukin et al. - M.: Higher School, 1994 - 447 p.

5. Kiseleva A.F. Recent history of the fatherland in the 20th century. / A.F. Kiseleva, E.M. Shchagin. – T. 1. – M.: Vlados. – 469 p.

6. Kozlov V.A. History of the Fatherland: people, ideas, decisions. Essays on the history of the Soviet state / V.A. Kozlov. – M.: Politizdat, 1991 – 366 p.

Kozlov V.A. History of the Fatherland: people, ideas, decisions. Essays on the history of the Soviet state / V.A. Kozlov. – M.: Politizdat, 1991 – 366 p.

Novitskaya T.E. Constituent Assembly. Russia. 1918 / Transcript and other documents. Comp. T.V. Novitskaya. – M.: Russian Open University, 1991. – 160 p.

Kiseleva A.F. Recent history of the fatherland in the 20th century. / A.F. Kiseleva, E.M. Shchagin. – T. 1. – M.: Vlados. – 469 p.

Dumanova N.G. History of political parties in Russia / N.G. Dumanova, Erofeev N.D., S.V. Tyutyukin et al. - M.: Higher School, 1994 - 447 p.

Boffa J. History of the Soviet Union. From the revolution to the second world war. Lenin and Stalin 1917-1941 / translation by I.V. Levina. – M.: International relations, 1990. - 632 p.

Azovtsev N.N. Civil war and military intervention in the USSR. Encyclopedia / N.N. Azovtsev et al. – M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1983. – 789 p.

Chernov M.V. The struggle for the Constituent Assembly and its dispersal / M.V. Chernov // Centaur. Historical and political magazine. – M.: Phoenix, 1993. - No. 3. - 160

Chernov M.V. The struggle for the Constituent Assembly and its dispersal / M.V. Chernov // Centaur. Historical and political magazine. – M.: Phoenix, 1993. - No. 3. - P. 116-160.

Novitskaya T.E. Constituent Assembly. Russia. 1918 / Transcript and other documents. Comp. T.V. Novitskaya. – M.: Russian Open University, 1991. - P. 13–160.

Novitskaya T.E. Constituent Assembly. Russia. 1918 / Transcript and other documents. Comp. T.V. Novitskaya. – M.: Russian Open University, 1991. - P. 14–160.

Boffa J. History of the Soviet Union. From the revolution to the second world war. Lenin and Stalin 1917-1941 / translation by I.V. Levina. – M.: International Relations, 1990. - P. 256-632.

Novitskaya T.E. Constituent Assembly. Russia. 1918 / Transcript and other documents. Comp. T.V. Novitskaya. – M.: Russian Open University, 1991. - P. 18–160.

On the path to absolute power, the Bolsheviks faced one more obstacle - the Constituent Assembly. His elections were scheduled by the Provisional Government for the second half of November. Before setting this date, the government repeatedly postponed the elections. Its constituent political parties were either waiting for a more stable situation, or believed that they would later gather more votes. This delay gave the Bolsheviks a good reason to criticize the Provisional Government. They stated that only the transfer of power to the Soviets would allow elections to be held. Even for some time after the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks said that they took power in order to ensure the convening of the Constituent Assembly. The resolutions of the Second Congress of Soviets were temporary: the decrees on peace and land had to be approved by the Constituent Assembly.

Bolshevik criticism was a purely political move. Having seized power, the Bolsheviks no longer needed elections. They viewed their victory in October as a historical pattern, and, according to Marxist theory, the wheel of history has no reverse. This view made elections completely unnecessary.

But to ban elections, changing the party’s position 180°, meant pitting it against the people. This was risky for the fragile dictatorship of the proletariat. Apparently, the Bolsheviks did not exclude the possibility that they could win the elections thanks to decrees on peace and land and turn the Constituent Assembly into their puppet body.

The elections, held according to party lists, took place on time. The Socialist Revolutionaries won. They received 40% of the votes and, together with their allies, more than half the seats in the Constituent Assembly. The Bolsheviks took second place with 23% of the votes. Together with the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, they owned a quarter of the mandates. However, the Bolsheviks won in strategically important points - in the army, Petrograd, Moscow, and large industrial cities in the European part of the country. The majority of workers, soldiers and sailors voted for the Bolsheviks. The peasants and the outskirts followed the Social Revolutionaries. The geographical distribution of political sympathies subsequently determined the front line in the civil war and became one of the reasons for the victory of the Reds.

So far, the result was different - the Bolsheviks lost the general elections. At first they were inclined to annul the election results. The opening of the Constituent Assembly, scheduled by the Provisional Government for November 28, was postponed indefinitely. Local councils were instructed to report any “irregularities” that occurred during voting. Finally, on November 28, by decree of the Council of People's Commissars it was prohibited cadet party, its leaders, declared “enemies of the people,” were arrested. Among those arrested were deputies of the Constituent Assembly. Two of them, Shingarev and Kokoshkin, were killed by sailors, the rest were soon released, but they could no longer sit in the Constituent Assembly without risking their lives. The Cadets turned out to be the first party to be banned by the Soviet government. This was no accident. Although the Cadets received less than 5% of the votes in the elections, they took second place in the cities, second only to the Bolsheviks. Unlike the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries, the Cadets were not bound by “socialist solidarity” with the Bolsheviks. Therefore, the Bolsheviks saw their main competitor in the constitutional democratic party.

Probably, only the opposition of the only allies of the Bolsheviks - the left Socialist Revolutionaries - prevented Lenin from declaring the elections invalid. But since the Bolsheviks could not prevent the convening of parliament, they had only one way to maintain their power - to forcefully disperse the Constituent Assembly.

This did not contradict the Marxist tradition. The first Russian Marxist, Menshevik leader G. Plekhanov, at the Second Congress of the RSDLP in 1903, said: “... the success of the revolution is the highest law. And if for the sake of the success of the revolution it was necessary to temporarily limit the operation of one or another democratic principle, then it would be criminal to stop before such a limitation... If, in a fit of revolutionary enthusiasm, the people elected a very good parliament... then we should try to make it last parliament, and if the elections were unsuccessful, then we would need to try to disperse it not in two years, but, if possible, in two weeks” (p. 182).

The Bolsheviks did not hide their intentions, trying to intimidate the deputies. The Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries were ready to resist, but using non-violent methods. They argued that violence would play into the hands of the right and the Bolsheviks. In reality, this position only covered up the inability of the Socialist Revolutionary-Menshevik leaders to take risky and decisive actions. The policy of the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks was to provide the Constituent Assembly with mass support that could save it from dispersal. The “Union for the Defense of the Constituent Assembly” they formed collected many signatures in factories and military units for petitions supporting parliament.

In terms of mass numbers, the Bolsheviks were much worse. Although workers, soldiers and sailors voted mainly for the Bolsheviks, they were unable to force a single factory or military unit to adopt anti-parliamentary resolutions. The military superiority of the Bolsheviks was also questionable. The Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky regiments, the armored car division of the Izmailovsky regiment were ready to defend the parliament with arms in hand.

Among the Socialist Revolutionaries there were people who understood that there was simply no other way. F. Onipko, a member of the Military Commission of the Union for the Defense of the Constituent Assembly, having found out through his agents the daily routine and routes of Lenin and Trotsky, proposed to kidnap them or kill them. He also proposed holding an armed demonstration of units loyal to the Social Revolutionaries on January 5, 1918, the opening day of the Constituent Assembly, in front of the Tauride Palace - the place of its meetings. The Central Committee of the Socialist Revolutionaries rejected even that. and another, scheduling a peaceful demonstration for January 5th. By the way, on the night of January 5, pro-Bolshevik workers at car repair shops disabled Socialist Revolutionary armored cars.

The Bolsheviks met the demonstration with machine gun fire. About twenty people were killed. Only after making sure that the demonstration was suppressed and his troops were in control of Petrograd did Lenin allow the parliament to open. According to the recollections of the manager of the Council of People's Commissars, V. Bonch-Bruevich, Lenin that day “was worried and was deathly pale... as never before” (p. 248). This is understandable. His power hung by a thread and was saved by the indecisiveness of the Socialist Revolutionary leaders.

The first and only meeting of the Constituent Assembly took place amid the hubbub of drunken Red Guards, soldiers and sailors, banging their butts, clanking their bolts, and aiming at the speakers. A little more than four hundred deputies took part in the meeting. The Social Revolutionaries had the majority. They managed to elect their leader V. Chernov as chairman of the meeting. The candidacy of M. Spiridonova, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, supported by the Bolsheviks, was rejected.

The Bolsheviks proposed that the Constituent Assembly adopt the “Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People.” It said that power should belong only to the Soviets, that the Constituent Assembly should limit itself to developing “the foundations for the socialist reorganization of society,” ratify the decrees of the Council of People’s Commissars and disperse. Only the Bolsheviks voted for the “Declaration...”, and it did not pass. Then, according to the prepared scenario, the Bolsheviks left the meeting room, and at night the Left Socialist Revolutionaries followed their example.

At four o’clock in the morning, the chief of the guard, sailor A. Zheleznyakov, having received the appropriate instructions, demanded that Chernov close the meeting, saying that “the guard was tired.” At the same time, armed Red Guards entered the hall. Having hastily adopted resolutions declaring Russia a republic, the land the national property, and calling for the start of negotiations on universal peace, the deputies dispersed. The next day, by order of Lenin, and formally by a resolution of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets, the Constituent Assembly was dissolved. The Tauride Palace was blocked by Bolshevik troops.

Externally, the country did not react in any way to the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly. People are tired of war and revolution. But now it became clear to everyone, even the Socialist Revolutionaries, that the Bolsheviks would not leave peacefully. Many deputies left Petrograd, went to the provinces and led the armed struggle against Soviet power. The dispersal of the Constituent Assembly added fuel to the fire of the flaring civil war.

At the same time, it was an important milestone in consolidating the power of the Bolshevik Party. It is after this that the strike of civil servants ends. They considered that a strike would not achieve anything from the Bolsheviks, since they were able to disperse the popularly elected parliament.

The military coup and Lenin's indomitable desire for power led the Bolsheviks to victory in Petrograd. But by March 1918, Soviet power was established throughout almost the entire country. Thus, the communist revolution rested on a broad social base. It consisted of millions of soldiers, sailors, workers and peasants, embittered by war and poverty. However, the support for democracy was no less broad. In the elections to the Constituent Assembly, the majority voted not only for socialism, but also for democracy. The victory of the Bolsheviks was not fatally predetermined. Chances to prevent it were given by the arrest of Lenin after the July revolt, Russia's exit from the war, the transfer of landowners' land to the peasants, and the armed defense of the Constituent Assembly.

In times of turmoil, the most organized and purposeful force seizes power. The Bolshevik Party led by Lenin turned out to be such a force.

The severe crisis that Russia was experiencing, the promise of a speedy peace, which helped the Bolsheviks come to power, and the interest of the Central Powers in ending the war on two fronts led to peace negotiations between Soviet Russia, on the one hand, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, on the one hand. another. Negotiations began in Brest-Litovsk (now Brest) on December 3, 1917. A month later, Ukraine took part in them, proclaimed by a resolution of its supreme body authorities - the Central Rada - an independent state. On December 15, a truce was signed.

The Soviet delegation proposed concluding peace without annexations and indemnities. This proposal was of a propaganda nature and was unacceptable to Germany simply because it occupied part of Russian territory. The German delegation put forward its peace conditions. Lithuania, part of Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, a total of 150 thousand sq. km, were torn away from Russia. These conditions were not too difficult: Russia could not hold the Baltic states in any case.

Lenin proposed to sign peace immediately. At the cost of space, he wanted to gain time to strengthen his regime. However, he faced strong resistance from the Bolshevik leadership. Making peace meant stabilizing the situation in Germany. Meanwhile, the socialist revolution was conceived as a world revolution. Russia turned out to be its first stage. The second was to be Germany, with its powerful communist opposition.

N. Bukharin and his supporters, called “left communists,” proposed starting a “revolutionary war” with Germany. They believed that if the revolution did not win in the West, it would fail in Russia. This position was shared by both the Left Social Revolutionaries and the German communists led by K. Liebknecht and R. Luxemburg.

Trotsky thought so too. But unlike the left communists, he, like Lenin, understood that Russia had nothing to fight with. And he put forward the slogan “no peace, no war, but disband the army.” Seeming, to put it mildly, strange to an ignorant person, this formula had a completely common sense, from the point of view of a revolutionary. Without signing peace with the German Kaiser and declaring the dissolution of the no longer existing Russian army, Trotsky appealed to the solidarity of the international proletariat, in particular the German one. Thus, this slogan was a call for world revolution. He also had another, secret plan - to refute rumors that the Bolsheviks had been bought by the Germans and were working out the script written in Berlin in Brest.

The dispute within the Bolshevik leadership was, in essence, a conflict between statists and revolutionaries, realists and utopians. For Lenin, the most important thing was the bird in the hand - the existing Soviet state, for his opponents - the pie in the sky - the future world revolution. However, personal considerations were mixed into Lenin’s position. He didn't want to risk losing his own power. Perhaps at that moment he was not interested in the victory of the revolution in Germany: Liebknecht could lay claim to the role of the leader of world communism.

At first Lenin found himself in the minority. Trotsky, the head of the Soviet delegation, was instructed not to sign peace, but to stall for time. He delayed the negotiations as long as he could, and when the Germans’ patience was exhausted, he declared that Soviet Russia was withdrawing from the imperialist war, demobilizing the army and not signing the annexationist peace. Then the Germans broke the truce and went on the offensive on February 18. The Council of People's Commissars issued a decree “The Socialist Fatherland is in Danger!”, the formation of the Red Army began, but it was a shock. Small German detachments occupied Minsk, Kyiv, Pskov, Tallinn, Narva and other cities without a fight. The German proletariat did not show any special signs of solidarity with the dictatorship of the proletariat in Russia these days.

By threatening his own resignation, Lenin forced the majority of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) to agree to German conditions. This time Trotsky joined Lenin, declaring that with a split in the party it was impossible to wage a revolutionary war. The Bolsheviks' decision was also supported by the Central Committee of the Left Social Revolutionaries (PLSR). On the radio, the Soviet government informed the Germans that it was ready to sign peace.

In response, they put forward much more stringent demands. Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia were torn away from Russia. Part of the Russian and Belarusian lands went to these states. Ukraine found itself under German occupation. The cities of Kars, Ardagan, Batum and surrounding lands passed to Turkey. Russia had to demobilize its army and navy, which, however, practically did not exist, and pay an indemnity of six billion marks. In total, Russia lost a territory of 780 thousand square kilometers, where 56 million people lived - a third of its population and where 32% of agricultural and 23% of industrial products were produced. On these terms the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed. new chapter Soviet delegation G. Sokolnikov March 3, 1918

The VII Congress of the RSDLP (b), held on March 7-8, 1918, approved the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty by a majority of votes. This congress also adopted a new name for the party: Russian communist party(Bolsheviks). On the contrary, pressure from the lower ranks of the party forced the Central Committee of the PLSR to reconsider its position and oppose peace. Nevertheless, it was ratified by the IV Extraordinary Congress of Soviets on March 14, 1918. The Congress was held in Moscow, where, due to the approach of the Germans to Petrograd and the strikes of Petrograd workers, the Soviet government moved. Communists - supporters of Lenin and Trotsky - voted for the treaty, left Socialist-Revolutionaries, anarchists, Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks voted against, left communists abstained. Protesting against ratification, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries left the Council of People's Commissars, although they did not stop collaborating with the Bolsheviks. The left communist faction gradually disintegrated. Trotsky in April 1918 left the post of People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs and became People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, and then Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic. G. Chicherin was appointed People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs.

The actual surrender of Russia allowed the Germans to transfer troops to the Western Front and reach almost the French capital. The units remaining in the east continued, in violation of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, to move deeper into Russian territory and reached the Don. Lenin was losing authority, including in his own party. But in the summer of 1918, on the Marne River and near the city of Amiens, a hundred kilometers from Paris, the French, British, Americans and their allies inflicted decisive defeats on the German army, predetermining their victory in the war and giving rise to the myth of Lenin’s brilliant gift of foresight. In reality, he was betting on Germany to win. At the end of August, the Soviet and German governments agreed on joint operations against the British, who occupied Murmansk, and Denikin’s troops. In September, Russia paid Germany part of the indemnity.

The Bolsheviks, however, took full advantage of the Entente victory. When the countries of the German bloc capitulated in November 1918, and revolutions took place in Germany and Austria-Hungary, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee annulled the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty. Soviet troops occupied Ukraine and Belarus. Baltic states. Now Lenin considered the moment favorable to bring communism and his power to the European peoples with the bayonets of the Red Army. Only the defeat of the communist uprisings in Germany and the outbreak of civil war in Russia prevented the campaign in Europe.

1.9. Civil War (1917-1922)

The Bolsheviks' desire for absolute power, demonstrated by October Revolution, and the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly, and the liquidation of all civil rights and freedoms, including private property rights, led to a civil war, the second after the Troubles of 1601-1618. in the history of Russia.

The Don became the Russian Vendee*. On the very day of the October Revolution, the ataman of the Don Cossacks, General L. Kaledin, dispersed the local Soviets. On the Don, General Alekseev formed a Volunteer Army of 3.5 thousand people. Its backbone consisted of officers of the Russian army. After escaping from the Bykhov prison, this army was led by Kornilov. Differences between the Cossacks and the volunteers immediately emerged: the former wanted autonomy for the Don. the second - “a united and indivisible Russia”. No general command was created.

___________________________

* The province of Vendée became the first center of resistance to the new government during the Great French Revolution of 1789-1794.

Clashes of late 1917 - early 1918 were fought in small detachments along the railway tracks and were called “echelon warfare”. Regular fighting began in the spring of 1918. They proceeded with varying degrees of success. Under the pressure of superior forces of the Reds (the traditional color of revolutionaries), supported by the workers of the Donetsk cities, the Whites (the traditional color of conservatives - supporters of the old order) left the Don. Kaledin shot himself; General Krasnov was elected ataman of the Don Army. The volunteer army retreated to Kuban, making the so-called Ice, or 1st Kuban campaign, and then to the North Caucasus. When the Whites tried to take Yekaterinodar (Krasnodar), Kornilov died, Alekseev soon died, and General A. Denikin (1872-1947) became the commander of the Volunteer Army. The food dictatorship established by the Bolsheviks tipped the scales in favor of their opponents. By January 1919, the Whites controlled the Kuban and the North Caucasus. Denikin was proclaimed commander-in-chief of the “Armed Forces of the South of Russia”; Krasnov's Cossacks finally submitted to him. But Krasnov failed to take Tsaritsyn, which prevented the white armies advancing from the south and east from uniting.

It was from the east that the main threat to the communist regime came in 1918. An insignificant event led to the mutiny of the 35,000-strong Czechoslovak corps. Czechoslovakia was then part of Austria-Hungary, and this corps was formed from captured Czechs and Slovaks who wanted to fight for the independence of their country. In January 1918, France took command of the corps, and its transfer to the Western Front through the Far East began. In mid-May, in Chelyabinsk there was a fight between Czechs and Hungarian prisoners of war returning to their homeland. The local Soviet arrested several Czechs, but was forced to release them at the request of others who had seized the arsenal. Wanting to demonstrate his firmness and power, Trotsky ordered the corps to be disarmed. This inadequate response had far-reaching consequences. Means for execution of this order The Bolsheviks did not have it. The Red Army then consisted of several battalions of Latvian riflemen. Convinced that the Bolsheviks wanted to hand them over to the Germans, and deciding to make their way to the Pacific Ocean, the Czechs and Slovaks rebelled. They captured the railway from Penza to Vladivostok, along which their trains stretched. Immediately on the territory from the Volga to Pacific Ocean Soviet power collapsed. It was replaced by anti-Bolshevik governments. In particular, the Middle Volga region came under the rule of the Socialist Revolutionary Komuch (Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly), located in Samara.

A quarter of the country’s territory remained under the control of the Reds, although its most populated and industrially developed central European part. But here too it was uneasy. On July 6, the very day when the first Socialist Revolutionaries shot Mirbach, an uprising broke out in Yaroslavl, the next day in Rybinsk, and the next day in Murom. They were organized by the “Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom,” headed by B. Savinkov. On July 10, the commander of the Eastern Front, the left Socialist Revolutionary M. Muravyov, rebelled. These riots did not receive outside support and were suppressed, although the latter allowed the Czechoslovaks to occupy Simbirsk and Yekaterinburg. Now they were moving to the West - on the orders of the Entente, which decided to overthrow the Soviet government with their hands and then send them against the Germans.

In the spring, the Bolsheviks transported the royal family from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg. Here, on the night of July 16-17, 1918, a week before the fall of the city, in the house of businessman Ipatiev, requisitioned by the Bolsheviks, Nicholas II, the Empress, their children and servants were shot. The execution was commanded by Y. Yurovsky, head of the Yekaterinburg Cheka.

The message from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee stated that the Ural Regional Council had decided to execute the tsar. Execution of his wife and children by the Soviets officials denied until the mid-twenties, when a book by N. Sokolov, who investigated this case on behalf of Kolchak, appeared in Paris. The documents now published irrefutably prove that the decision to execute the royal family was made by Lenin and Sverdlov. The fact that it was accepted at the Center is evidenced by a series of murders in June-July 1918 of all the Romanovs who fell into the hands of the Bolsheviks, and by the hierarchical structure of communist power itself, which deprived local authorities of any independence.

Quite rational motives underlay this decision. The regicide showed the whites that the reds would fight to the end. It tied up the entire party and demonstrated to the communists that the path to retreat was cut off. It was in line with the revolutionary tradition. The Decembrists discussed plans for the extermination of the royal family. Alexander II “the Liberator” was killed by the Narodnaya Volya. Pushkin wrote in his ode “Liberty”:

Autocratic villain!

I hate you, your throne.

Your death, the death of children

I see it with cruel joy.

However, the country reacted indifferently to the execution of the Tsar: death became an everyday occurrence, and people got used to it.

The Czechoslovak revolt served as a good lesson for the Bolsheviks. Not trusting the peasants and officers, at first they tried to create a voluntary proletarian army. Now they began to form a regular army. The first Soviet Constitution, adopted by the V Congress of Soviets in July 1918, introduced universal military service for workers and peasants. “Non-labor elements” were to “perform other military duties.” Having overcome the resistance of the “military opposition”, which consisted of former “left communists”, Trotsky recruited “military specialists” - former tsarist officers - to serve in the Red Army. To control them, an institute of commissars was created, selected from reliable communists. Treason by an officer was punishable by execution of his family and the commissar responsible for him. In total, about half of the Russian officers served in the Red Army.

Using draconian measures, shooting retreaters and deserters, Trotsky managed to impose firm discipline in the Red Army and maintain the front in the east. In August, the Red troops under the command of S. Kamenev, a former colonel of the Russian army, went on the offensive on the Eastern Front and drove the Whites back to the Urals. The striking force of this offensive were the same Latvian riflemen, thanks to whom the Bolsheviks survived in 1918. The power of Komuch was eliminated, the “State Meeting” held in Ufa formed the Provisional All-Russian Government (Ufa Directory). Soon it moved to Omsk, away from the front line. The Council of Ministers was formed as a “business body” under the Directory, and Admiral A. Kolchak (1873-1920) became Minister of Defense.

Two groups fought in these authorities: the left, mainly the Socialist Revolutionaries - supporters of socialism and democracy, and the right - cadets, officers, Cossacks - supporters of the military dictatorship. The failures of the Whites at the front led to a coup in their rear. On November 18, 1918, officers and Cossacks arrested Socialist Revolutionary leaders in Omsk. Some of them were shot, some were sent abroad. The Council of Ministers transferred all power to Admiral Kolchak, who was proclaimed the “Supreme Ruler” Russian state" and "Supreme Commander" of his armed forces. The Urals, Siberia, and the Far East came under Kolchak's rule. His supremacy was recognized by A. Denikin and N. Yudenich (1862-1933), commander of the North-Western Army, which, however, did not make the White operations more coordinated.

Since mid-1919, the Socialist-Revolutionaries abandoned the armed struggle against Soviet power - not out of sympathy for the Bolsheviks, but not wanting to contribute to the victory of the counter-revolution; After the defeat of the Whites, the Social Revolutionaries took part in anti-communist riots.

In 1918, foreign powers intervened in the Russian turmoil. German and Austrian troops occupied Ukraine; in violation of the Brest Peace Treaty, German units reached the Don. Partly to counter Germany, partly to fight the Bolsheviks, partly trying to expand their spheres of influence, the Entente countries (England, France, Italy, USA, Japan) landed military contingents in Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, Odessa, Crimea, Transcaucasia, and the Far East. two hundred thousand people. With the surrender of Germany, the Entente, primarily the USA and England, began to help the Whites with weapons and equipment.

The decisive battles of the Civil War took place in 1919. In the spring, Kolchak’s troops approached Vyatka and the Volga.

Earlier, in January, the Reds began a policy of “decossackization” - mass terror against the Cossacks. In March, an anti-Bolshevik Cossack uprising broke out on the Don. It created the conditions for Denikin’s army to go on the offensive. In the fall, she captured Kursk, Orel, Voronezh, approached Tula, the main arsenal of the Soviet Republic, and was going to take Moscow. This was the most dangerous moment for the Bolsheviks - they were preparing to flee, stocking up on confiscated jewelry, printing tsarist money and fake passports. In May-June and September, Yudenich tried to take Petrograd.

But the Reds managed to defeat their opponents one by one, taking advantage of their differences and each time concentrating their advantage on the main sector of the front. At the end of April, troops launched a counteroffensive Eastern Front under the command of S. Kamenev. The supply of weapons to Kolchak was blocked by the Japanese protege Ataman G. Semenov, who controlled the Far East, where Japan wanted to create a Russian republic dependent on it. At the same time, Kolchak rejected the proposal of the Minister of Defense of Finland, Mannerheim, to throw a 100,000-strong corps into an attack on Petrograd in exchange for recognition of its independence. By the end of 1919, Kolchak’s units were defeated. Kolchak was forced to transfer command of the white troops in Siberia and the Far East to Semenov and come under the protection of the Czechoslovak corps. In exchange for free passage to Vladivostok, the Czechs, in agreement with the allied command, handed over the admiral, the prime minister of his government V. Pepelyaev and the white train with state gold to the Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik “Political Center” formed in Irkutsk. In January 1920, he ceded power in the city to the Reds. On February 7, on the secret order of Lenin, Kolchak and Pepelyaev were shot.

Having defeated Kolchak, the Reds attacked Denikin. His army of 100 thousand was too small. to hold the vast territories he conquered, his front was too extended. Having defeated Denikin's troops near Orel and Voronezh, the Reds attacked along the entire front. The most important role in their offensive was played by the 1st Red Army under the command of S. Budyonny. It was created in November 1919 on the initiative of Trotsky, who put forward the slogan “Proletariat, on horseback!” The raid on the Dsnikin rear areas of the cavalry of the anarchist N. Makhno was a great help to the Reds. Having suffered heavy losses, the Whites retreated to the Crimea. Denikin transferred command over them to P. Wrangel.

Yudsnich was no more fortunate. Like Kolchak, he refused to recognize the independence of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Meanwhile, the Soviet government did this in September 1919. And the Baltic states refused to participate in a joint campaign with Yudenich against Petrograd. At the end of 1919, his troops were driven into Estonia and disarmed by its government.

The defeats of the armies of Kolchak and Denikin made the final victory of the Reds inevitable. Therefore, in 1919, almost all foreign powers withdrew their troops from Russia. France set an example. Her squadron left Odessa in April 1919, after French sailors rebelled under the influence of communist agitation.

However, the troops of those states that had territorial claims to Russia remained and took advantage of the unrest to take away the disputed lands. In 1918, Romania occupied Bessarabia, captured by Russia in 1812. Poland sought to return Ukraine and Belarus, lost in the 17th-18th centuries. In 1919, Polish troops occupied Minsk. But she was restrained by the fact that Denikin, who controlled Ukraine, was, like Poland, an ally of the Entente. With the defeat of Denikin, Polish troops went on the offensive and captured Right Bank Ukraine and Kyiv in April-May 1920.

It was a temporary success. Having achieved superiority in manpower and weapons, the Red Army counterattacked with the forces of the Western Front (commander M. Tukhachevsky) and the Southwestern Front (commander A. Egorov, member of the Revolutionary Military Council I. Stalin). Expelling the invaders was a secondary objective of this campaign. His most important goal was world revolution. Tukhachesky’s order to attack ended with the words: “To Warsaw, to Berlin!”

Already in July, Soviet troops invaded Poland. However, having underestimated the enemy, they moved too quickly, which made it difficult to supply them, and, moreover, they went in diverging directions: the Western Front - to Warsaw, the Southwestern Front - to Lvov. The invasion of the Red Army caused a patriotic upsurge in Poland, which allowed for additional mobilization. France, interested in Poland as a counterweight to Russia and Germany, supplied the Poles with weapons. As a result, Polish troops defeated the armies of the Western Front near Warsaw. 130 thousand Red Army soldiers were captured. Tukhachevsky flew away by plane, leaving the army. The threat of encirclement forced the Southwestern Front to retreat. The war ended with the signing of the Soviet-Polish peace treaty in Riga in 1921, which left Western Ukraine and Western Belarus for Poland.

Then the Reds set about attacking Wrangel. While the war with Poland was going on, he managed to occupy the areas adjacent to the Crimea. When the fighting in the west ended, the 1st Cavalry Army and other units were transferred to the Southern Front (commander M. Frunze). The Red Army drove the enemy into Crimea, and in November 1920, through the Perekop Isthmus and Sivash Bay, invaded the peninsula. The only thing Wrangel was able to do was clearly organize the evacuation. 145 thousand people were taken out on ships of the Entente and the Black Sea Fleet. The Reds promised amnesty to the white soldiers and officers who remained in Crimea, provided that they register and hand over their weapons. Tens of thousands believed - and were shot. This operation was led by Bela Kun. in 1919, the leader of the Hungarian Soviet Republic that existed for four months, in 1920, a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front, chairman of the Crimean Regional Revolutionary Committee, and R. Zemlyachka (Zalkind), secretary of the Crimean Regional Bureau of the RCP (b).

In December, in the Crimea and near Kharkov, the Reds defeated Makhno’s units - they no longer needed this unreliable ally. Makhno himself fled to Romania. The evacuation of the Japanese and the expulsion of whites from the Far East at the end of 1922 completed civil war.

The following circumstances brought victory to the Reds. Firstly, the Reds were united, while the White factions were constantly at odds with each other.

Secondly, the Reds controlled the central European regions of the country. The majority of the population lived here, most of the industrial potential was located, and there was a developed railway network. This made it difficult to coordinate the white armies and facilitated the formation, supply and maneuvers of the red troops.

Thirdly, the Reds outplayed the Whites politically. The Red camp was led by professional politicians who clearly understood the importance of political means in the struggle for power. The whites were led by generals who tried to gain the upper hand through purely military means.

Unlike the Reds, the Whites did not build a state. Their governments were little more than civilian appendages to the military command and had no subordinate local authorities. In particular, this made it difficult to carry out mobilizations in their army.

The Reds offered an attractive ideology. Many people had a purely religious belief that they were fighting for an earthly paradise - a commune.

The uncompromising adherence to the slogan of “united and indivisible Russia” was also fatal for the whites. They stubbornly refused to recognize the independence or autonomy of the national borderlands of Russia, depriving themselves of potential allies. The Reds very often provided this independence - taking it away later.

Finally, the Reds “bought” the peasantry, who made up 80% of the country’s population, by allowing the division of landowners’ land. The Whites never developed a political program acceptable to the peasants. White ideology was expressed by the term “non-decision.” This meant that they were fighting to overthrow the Bolshevik despotism, and only then the National Assembly or the Zemsky Sobor, elected by the people, would determine the political system. In other words, they did not provide guarantees that the land seized by the peasants would remain in their possession and that they would not have to answer for the robbery of the landowners' estates. (The exception was Wrangel, who transferred the land to the peasants for hereditary use, but the outcome of the struggle was already predetermined then). Therefore, the peasants preferred the Reds as the “lesser evil.” The support of the peasantry, although conditional, provided a numerical advantage for the Reds, which the Whites could not compensate for by superiority in professional military training. By the end of 1919, the Red Army numbered three million people, while the combined strength of the armies of Kolchak and Denikin. Yudenich did not exceed 600 thousand.

The civil war was fought with extreme bitterness on both sides. The Reds, during the policy of “de-Cossackization,” exterminated about a million Cossacks. The Jewish pogroms that accompanied the advance of the white armies claimed tens, if not hundreds of thousands of lives. White counterintelligence bodies, created in the image and likeness of the Cheka. They destroyed all the commissars and communists who fell into their hands. The Whites mercilessly shot captured officers serving in the Red Army; The Reds also did the same with the white officers. Population of Russia (excluding territories lost to the civil war) for 1918-1922. decreased by 14.3 million people. Taking into account natural growth, population decline from unnatural causes caused by unrest can be estimated at approximately 20 million. Of these, 2.5 million are victims of combat, 2.0 million are emigration, 3.0-5.0 million are victims of famine in the Volga region, the rest are victims of epidemics and terror (pp. 97-104).

1.10. War communism (1918-1921)

The Constituent Assembly is a political body of power in Russia, created in 1917. It was convened for the first and last time in 1918 to adopt a constitution. The results of his activities were the conclusion of a peace treaty, nationalization of land, recognition of Russia democratic republic, liquidation of the monarchy. However, it did not recognize most of her decrees.

In January 1918, the Bolsheviks dispersed

For representatives of most parties of that time, the creation of this political body was due to the need to rid Russia of an outdated system. The Constituent Assembly had special hopes associated with the creation of a legal democratic state.

Lenin was against the creation of this structure, as he considered the Soviet Republic a more perfect form of government. The stronger the forces that were going to oppose it to Soviet power fought for its creation.

The fate of the Constituent Assembly, as well as the path of development of the country, depended on which parties won the elections. The Bolsheviks began to consider in advance the possibility of dissolving the Constituent Assembly if it promoted anti-Soviet decisions.

According to the election results, the Bolsheviks were inferior to many parties. From November 1917 to January 1918, many attempts were made to delay the convocation of the assembly in order to have time to adopt decrees insuring them in the event that the deputies made decisions against Soviet power. At this time, other parties fought to ensure that the work of the Constituent Assembly took place.

Finally, it began work on January 5 (18 - new style) January 1918. Almost immediately, the Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries left the meeting, and soon declared the activities of the meeting counter-revolutionary. Thus, the Constituent Assembly was dispersed.

In order to prevent a re-convocation, during 1918 the Bolsheviks arrested the most active members of the opposition parties.

Another event that caused a wide resonance was the murder of two leaders of the constitutional democratic party - Shingarev and Kokoshkin. This happened on the night from January 6th to 7th.

The dispersal of the Constituent Assembly was another reason for the unleashing. Perhaps this is why the right-wing forces did not put up real resistance to the Bolsheviks when the dissolution was carried out. In other words, the anti-Bolshevik parties hoped to destroy Soviet power by force.

Most members of the Constituent Assembly were arrested and executed by the Bolsheviks during 1918. In addition, the Bolsheviks very quickly took other measures to strengthen their position. The All-Russian Congress of Workers and Peasants was convened, which proclaimed the creation of the Russian Soviet Republic, the principle of equal use of land was approved, and the Declaration of Workers' Rights was adopted.