What do you know about the constituent assembly. All-Russian Constituent Assembly. In the "clash of wills and interests"

In the early morning of January 19, 1918, having dispersed the Constituent Assembly, the Bolsheviks unleashed a civil war: the discussion ended, from that day political issues were resolved on the battlefield

All political parties opposed to the autocracy, from the Cadets to the Bolsheviks, have long dreamed of a Constituent Assembly, a representative body popularly elected to determine the form of government, the political system, the political system, and so on.

Before the emperor had time to abdicate, the Provisional Committee State Duma(a prototype of the Provisional Government) announced the immediate convocation Constituent Assembly. And the Provisional Government itself, immediately after its formation, proclaimed the convocation of the Constituent Assembly as its top priority. As early as March 13, a decision was made to establish a Special Conference to prepare a law on elections to the Constituent Assembly. The appointment of the date of the elections is expected from day to day.

However, the rapidly gaining speed of the car suddenly began to abruptly slow down. A whole month was spent only on the formation of the composition of the Special Conference of 82 people, which began work only at the end of May. For three months the meeting worked out the Regulations on the elections to the Constituent Assembly.

It was the most democratic election law in the world: all persons over 20 years of age were allowed to vote, regardless of gender, nationality and their social status (for comparison: elections to councils were multi-stage, indirect, intelligentsia, entrepreneurs, clergy and non-socialist parties). It looked unusual - at that time, women in almost no country in the world had the right to vote (they received voting rights in Great Britain and Germany in 1918, in the USA in 1920, and in France in 1944). Many electoral systems retained property qualifications or other complex systems of limited representation.

Agitation for the constituent assembly in the Theater passage. Photo: RIA Novosti

The elections, originally scheduled for 17 September and the convening of the assembly for 30 September, were rescheduled for 12 and 28 November, respectively. What explains such a sharp decrease in the pace of preparations for the convocation of the Constituent Assembly? Apparently, having made sure that the monarchists do not pose a serious danger to the revolution, the Provisional Government is losing interest in the idea of ​​convening the Constituent Assembly as soon as possible. They are not afraid of the dangers "on the left".

This delay played into the hands of the Bolsheviks. In April-May their political influence was negligible. During the months provided by the Provisional Government, against the backdrop of the collapse of political and economic life, they significantly strengthen their positions in factories and military units, win a majority in the Soviets. At the same time, they are prudently putting forward the popular slogan of the speedy convocation of the Constituent Assembly, they say, there will be no delays in our presence.

The Bolsheviks take power before the scheduled election date. Not without some hesitation, they decide to hold elections for the Constituent Assembly. Probably, not everyone remembers that the Bolshevik Council of People's Commissars was only a provisional government formed to rule the country, until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly. Thus, the Bolsheviks lull the vigilance of most of their opponents, they say, we will not be for long, only until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, to which we will immediately obey.

The elections are won by the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, which received 40% of the votes. The Bolsheviks came second with 24% of the vote. The third place was taken by the Ukrainian Social Revolutionaries - 7.7%. Fourth were the Cadets. Although the total number of votes they received was low - only 4.7% - they performed very well in large cities. In Petrograd and Moscow, the Cadets took second place after the Bolsheviks. In a number of provincial towns, the party generally came first. However, these percentages simply drowned in the peasant sea: in the countryside they received nothing. The Mensheviks received only 2.6% of the vote.

The elections demonstrated the alignment of political forces in Russia. The Bolsheviks won in Petrograd, where their headquarters were located, in Moscow and several industrial central regions, where they had strong branches, in the Baltic Fleet and on several fronts.

The Social Revolutionaries won in all the peasant regions, especially the prosperous ones. But they were defeated in almost all cities. It is worth noting that the Social Revolutionaries went to the polls as a single list, despite the fact that by that time a split had already taken shape in the party and it was divided into right and left - close to the Bolsheviks. Nevertheless, there were few Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, and the party retained the majority even without them.

Residents of Moscow near the building of the election commission to the Constituent Assembly of the Pyatnitsky Commissariat on election day in 1917. Photo: RIA Novosti

In the national regions, national parties showed good results: in Kazakhstan - Alash Orda, in Azerbaijan - Musavat, in Armenia - Dashnaktsutyun. It is curious that such people as Kerensky, Petlyura, General Kaledin and Ataman Dutov were elected to the Constituent Assembly.

After the defeat in the elections, the Bolsheviks began a decisive struggle against the Constituent Assembly. A few weeks before the start of the meeting, by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars, the Kadet Party was outlawed and was unable to take part in the work of the representative body. Lenin appears in Pravda with theses about the uselessness of the Constituent Assembly.

The day before the start of its work, the Bolsheviks hastily adopt the "Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People", which proclaims the Russian Soviet Republic. Only a person authorized by the Council of People's Commissars had the right to open a meeting of the Constituent Assembly, i.e. Bolshevik.

In order to surely finish off the Assembly, on the same day they adopt a decree “On the recognition as a counter-revolutionary action of all attempts to appropriate the functions of state power”, which reads:

“All power in the Russian Republic belongs to the Soviets and Soviet institutions. Therefore, any attempt on the part of anyone or any institution to appropriate one or another function of state power will be regarded as a counter-revolutionary act. Any such attempt will be suppressed by all means at the disposal of the Soviet government, up to and including the use of armed force.

The only thing left for the Constituent Assembly was to raise its own army. But this meant starting a civil war, which was exactly what the Bolsheviks wanted and the Socialist-Revolutionaries avoided with all their might. On January 3, the Central Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party decides not to use force to defend the Constituent Assembly. Socialist-Revolutionary leader V.M. Chernov sincerely believes that "the Bolsheviks will save before the All-Russian Constituent Assembly."

In the event of armed uprisings, the Bolsheviks brought to Petrograd the military units most loyal to them: Latvian riflemen and Baltic sailors led by Pavel Dybenko. In the area of ​​the Tauride Palace, any demonstrations were prohibited, the building was cordoned off by soldiers. However, the Constituent Assembly found many supporters who took to the streets. The Reds simply shot these demonstrations.

Finally, on January 18, 1918, the first and last session of the Constituent Assembly began. Least of all it looked like a parliament. The deputies reached their seats through numerous cordons of armed soldiers. The building was surrounded by Bolshevik detachments, who openly mocked the people's choices. In fact, they were hostages.

The Bolsheviks initially knew that the meeting would be dispersed. But the delegation was sent there: to be outrageous and mock. The meeting was opened by the representative of the Bolsheviks, chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Yakov Sverdlov. Viktor Chernov was elected Chairman of the Constituent Assembly, far ahead of his competitor, the Left SR Maria Spiridonova, supported by a coalition of Left SRs and Bolsheviks. Representatives of the Reds actually read out an ultimatum, suggesting that the deputies unconditionally recognize the power of the Soviets by adopting the "Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People." This automatically meant the meaninglessness of the existence of the Constituent Assembly, since it was a recognition of the power of the Bolsheviks. The deputies refused to accept the ultimatum, after which the Reds defiantly left the "counter-revolutionary meeting." Further, the Constituent Assembly approved some decisions that had already been previously taken by the Bolshevik Council of People's Commissars and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, in particular, on the nationalization of landowners' lands, which in meaning corresponded to the "Decree on Land" and an appeal to the participants in the First World War to begin immediate peace negotiations, which in sense partly corresponded to the Bolshevik "Decree on Peace".

Lenin instructed the guards to let the deputies sit until the end. And the next day no one is allowed into the building. But there was no strength to endure. Therefore, without waiting for the end of the meeting - it lasted until the early morning of the next day - the guards, led by anarchist Anatoly Zheleznyakov (known to everyone as "sailor Zheleznyak") dispersed the deputies. The building was cordoned off and no one was allowed in. On the same day, Pravda published a decree dissolving the assembly.

The Constituent Assembly ceased to exist by decision of the Council of People's Commissars of Russia. This decision was confirmed by the Third Unifying All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. By the decision of the same congress, all references to the Constituent Assembly were excluded from laws and regulations.

Demonstration in support of the "Constituent Assembly"

But the idea of ​​the meeting did not die. The civil war, in fact, was waged under the slogan of the Whites "all power to the Constituent Assembly" and the counter slogan of the Reds "all power to the Soviets." In the future, the transfer of power to the Constituent Assembly - as the last legitimate institution of power - became the main slogan of almost all white armies. And partially succeeded. After the uprising of the Czechoslovak legion in the territory of the Volga region liberated from the Bolsheviks, the government of KOMUCH (Committee of members of the Constituent Assembly) was proclaimed. KOMUCH became one of the first anti-Bolshevik governments in Russia. Indeed, it included several deputies of the assembly dispersed by the Bolsheviks. The People's Army of KOMUCH was also created, one of the units of which was commanded by Kappel.

Later, under the onslaught of the Reds, KOMUCH merged with the Provisional Siberian Government, creating a single government - the Directory. As a result of a military coup, it was dissolved, and power passed to its military and naval minister, Kolchak, supported by the military.

The Constituent Assembly turned out to be powerless due to unjustified delay in preparing for its convocation. It was important to convene it in the very first months after the February Revolution, while the collapse and chaos had not yet reached the stage when they were irreversible, and the Bolsheviks had not gained strength.

The history of the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly clearly indicates one important circumstance. Unlike, say, Germany, the supporters of totalitarianism in Russia did not win democratic elections. Communist = Soviet power established itself in Russia through violence. The Russian people have never chosen it voluntarily. As soon as, after 70 years of dominance, the communists risked holding real alternative elections, they were again defeated.

In films about the revolution made during the Soviet period, opponents of the Bolsheviks periodically shrillly shouted "All power to the Constituent Assembly!" The Soviet youth hardly understood what it was about, but taking into account the one who was shouting, they guessed that it was something bad.

With the change of political orientations, part of the Russian youth guesses that the Constituent Assembly is, apparently, "something good if it is against the Bolsheviks." Although still hardly understands what is at stake.

How to live after renunciation?

The Russian Constituent Assembly really turned out to be a very strange phenomenon. Much was said and written about it, but it held only one meeting, which did not become life-changing for the country.

The question of convening a Constituent Assembly arose immediately after the abdication Emperor Nicholas II and his refusal brother Mikhail Alexandrovich take the crown. Under these conditions, the Constituent Assembly, which was a council of deputies elected by the people, had to answer the main questions - about the state system, about further participation in the war, about land, etc.

The provisional government of Russia first had to prepare a regulation on elections, which was supposed to determine those who would be included in the electoral process.

Ballot paper with a list of members of the RSDLP(b). Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

Very democratic elections

A special meeting for the preparation of the draft Regulations on the elections to the Constituent Assembly was held only by May. Work on the Regulation was completed in August. The elections were declared universal, equal, direct by secret ballot. No property qualification was provided - all persons who had reached the age of 20 were allowed. Women also received voting rights, which was a revolutionary decision by the standards of that time.

Work on the documents was in full swing when the Provisional Government decided on the dates. Elections to the Constituent Assembly were to be held on September 17, and the first meeting was scheduled to be convened on September 30.

But the chaos in the country grew, the situation became more complicated, and it was not possible to resolve all organizational issues within the established time frame. On August 9, the Provisional Government changes its mind - now November 12, 1917 is announced as the new date for the elections, and the first meeting is scheduled for November 28.

A revolution is a revolution, but the voting is scheduled

On October 25, 1917, the October Revolution took place. The Bolsheviks who came to power, however, did not change anything. On October 27, 1917, the Council of People's Commissars adopted and published signed Lenin the resolution on the holding at the appointed time - November 12.

At the same time, purely technically, it was impossible to hold elections simultaneously in all corners of the country. In a number of regions they were postponed to December and even to January 1918.

The victory of the socialist parties turned out to be unconditional. At the same time, the preponderance of the Social Revolutionaries was explained by the fact that they were oriented, first of all, to the peasantry - we must not forget that Russia was an agrarian country. The worker-oriented Bolsheviks won in the major cities. It is worth noting that a split occurred in the Socialist-Revolutionary Party - the left wing of the movement became allies of the Bolsheviks. The Left SRs received 40 mandates in the elections, which ensured their coalition with the Bolsheviks 215 seats in the Constituent Assembly. This moment will later play a decisive role.

Lenin establishes a quorum

The Bolsheviks, who took power, created the government and began to form new state bodies, were not going to cede the levers of state administration to anyone. At first, there was no final decision on how to proceed.

On November 26, the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, Lenin, signed a decree "For the opening of the Constituent Assembly", which required a quorum of 400 people to open it, and, according to the decree, the Assembly should have been opened by a person authorized by the Council of People's Commissars, that is, a Bolshevik, or, theoretically, a Left Social Revolutionary allied to the Bolsheviks.

The Provisional Government, as already mentioned, scheduled the convocation of the Constituent Assembly for November 28, and a number of deputies from among the Right Social Revolutionaries tried to open it on that very day. By that time, only about 300 deputies had been elected, slightly more than half of them registered, and less than a hundred arrived in Petrograd. Some of the deputies, as well as former tsarist officials who joined them, tried to hold an action in support of the Constituent Assembly, which some of the participants considered as the first meeting. As a result, the participants of the unsanctioned meeting were detained by representatives of the Military Revolutionary Committee.

"The interests of the revolution are above the rights of the Constituent Assembly"

On the same day, the decree of the Council of People's Commissars "On the arrest of leaders civil war against the revolution”, which outlawed the most right-wing party among those that made it to the Constituent Assembly - the Cadets. At the same time, "private meetings" of deputies of the Constituent Assembly were banned.

By mid-December 1917, the Bolsheviks had decided on their position. Lenin wrote: “The Constituent Assembly, convened according to the lists of the parties that existed before the proletarian-peasant revolution, under the rule of the bourgeoisie, inevitably comes into conflict with the will and interests of the working and exploited classes, who on October 25 began the socialist revolution against the bourgeoisie. Naturally, the interests of this revolution are higher than the formal rights of the Constituent Assembly, even if these formal rights were not undermined by the lack of recognition in the law on the Constituent Assembly of the right of the people to re-elect their deputies at any time.

The Bolsheviks and the Left SRs were not going to transfer any power to the Constituent Assembly, and they intended to deprive it of legitimacy.

Shooting demonstrations

At the same time, on December 20, the Council of People's Commissars decided to open the work of the Constituent Assembly on January 5.

The Bolsheviks knew that their opponents were preparing to take political revenge. The Central Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party considered the option of an armed uprising in early January 1918. Few believed that the case could end in peace.

At the same time, some of the deputies believed that the main thing was to open a meeting of the Constituent Assembly, after which the support of the international community would force the Bolsheviks to retreat.

Leon Trotsky on this score, he spoke quite caustically: “They carefully developed the ritual of the first meeting. They brought candles with them in case the Bolsheviks turned off the electricity, and a large number of sandwiches in case they were deprived of food. So democracy came to the battle with the dictatorship - fully armed with sandwiches and candles.

On the eve of the opening of the Constituent Assembly, the Socialist-Revolutionaries and other oppositionists planned demonstrations in Petrograd and Moscow in support of it. It was clear that the actions would not be peaceful, since the opponents of the Bolsheviks had enough weapons in both capitals.

On January 3 in Petrograd and on January 5 in Moscow demonstrations took place. Both there and there they ended in shooting and casualties. About 20 people died in Petrograd, about 50 in Moscow, and there were casualties on both sides.

"Declaration" of discord

Despite this, on January 5, 1918, the Constituent Assembly began its work in the Tauride Palace of Petrograd. 410 deputies were present, so there was a quorum for making decisions. Of those who were at the meeting, 155 people represented the Bolsheviks and the Left Social Revolutionaries.

Opened the meeting on behalf of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Bolshevik Yakov Sverdlov. In his speech, he expressed his hope for "full recognition by the Constituent Assembly of all the decrees and resolutions of the Council of People's Commissars." The draft "Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People" was submitted for approval by the Constituent Assembly.

Photo of a single session. VI Lenin in the box of the Tauride Palace at a meeting of the Constituent Assembly. 1918, 5 (18) January. Petrograd. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

This document was a constitutional act proclaiming the basic principles of the socialist state according to the Bolsheviks. The "Declaration" had already been approved by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and its adoption by the Constituent Assembly would have meant recognition of the October Revolution and all subsequent steps of the Bolsheviks.

Elected Chairman of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly SR Viktor Chernov, for which 244 votes were cast.

"We're leaving"

But in fact, this was already only a formality - the Bolsheviks, after refusing to consider the "Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People", switched to a different form of action.

Deputy Fyodor Raskolnikov announced that the Bolshevik faction was leaving the meeting in protest against the non-acceptance of the “Declaration”: “Not wanting to cover up the crimes of the enemies of the people for a minute, we declare that we are leaving the Constituent Assembly in order to transfer the final decision on the question of attitude towards the counter-revolutionary part of the Constituent Assembly.

About half an hour later Deputy from the Left Social Revolutionaries Vladimir Karelin announced that his faction was leaving after the allies: “The Constituent Assembly is by no means a reflection of the mood and will of the working masses ... We are leaving, we are leaving this Assembly ... We are going in order to bring our strength, our energy to Soviet institutions, to the Central Executive Committee.

The term "dispersal of the Constituent Assembly", given the departure of the Bolsheviks and the Left SRs, is inaccurate. 255 deputies remained in the hall, that is, 35.7 percent of the total number of the Constituent Assembly. Due to the lack of a quorum, the meeting lost its legitimacy, like all documents adopted by it.

Anatoly Zheleznyakov. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

"The guard is tired and wants to sleep..."

However, the Constituent Assembly continued to work. Lenin ordered not to interfere with the remaining deputies. But at five o'clock in the morning my patience ran out. head of security of the Tauride Palace Anatoly Zheleznyakov, better known as "Sailor Zheleznyak".

There are several versions of the birth of a historical phrase known to everyone today. According to one of them, Zheleznyakov went to the presiding Chernov and said: “I ask you to stop the meeting! The guard is tired and wants to sleep ... "

Bewildered, Chernov tried to object, and exclamations were heard from the hall: “We don’t need a guard!”

Zheleznyakov snapped: “Your chatter is not needed by the working people. I repeat: the guard is tired!”

However, there were no major conflicts. The deputies themselves were tired, so they gradually began to disperse.

The palace is closed, there will be no meeting

The next meeting was scheduled for 17:00 on January 6. However, the deputies, approaching the Tauride Palace, found armed guards near it, who announced that the meeting would not take place.

On January 9, the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly was published. By decision of the Council of People's Commissars, references to the Constituent Assembly were removed from all decrees and other official documents. On January 10, all in the same Tauride Palace of Petrograd, the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets began its work, which became the Bolshevik alternative to the Constituent Assembly. The Congress of Soviets approved a decree dissolving the Constituent Assembly.

The situation in the Tauride Palace after the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly. Photo: RIA Novosti / Steinberg

A short history of Komuch: the second time the members of the Constituent Assembly were dispersed by Kolchak

For some participants in the White movement, including those who were not elected to the Constituent Assembly, the demand for the resumption of its work became the slogan of armed struggle.

On June 8, 1918, the Komuch (Committee of Members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly) was formed in Samara, declaring itself the All-Russian government in defiance of the Bolsheviks. The People's Army of Komuch was formed, one of the commanders of which was the notorious General Vladimir Kappel.

Komuch managed to take control of a significant territory of the country. On September 23, 1918, Komuch merged with the Provisional Siberian Government. This happened at the State Conference in Ufa, as a result of which the so-called "Ufa directory" was created.

It was difficult to call this government stable. The politicians who created Komuch were SRs, while the military, who constituted the main force of the Directory, professed much more right-wing views.

This alliance was put to an end by a military coup on the night of November 17-18, 1918, during which the Socialist-Revolutionaries, who were part of the government, were arrested, and Admiral Kolchak came to power.

In November, about 25 former deputies of the Constituent Assembly, on the orders of Kolchak, were court-martialed "for attempting to raise an uprising and conduct destructive agitation among the troops." They were imprisoned, and later some of them were killed by Black Hundred officers.

Preparations for elections to the constituent assembly began immediately after the February revolution. However, the self-proclaimed Provisional Government of Russia, which, in fact, was called "Provisional", since it was supposed to act only until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, was in no hurry to hold elections. On June 14, 1917, September 17 was announced as the date of elections to the Constituent Assembly, and the convocation of the Constituent Assembly was scheduled for September 30. However, on August 9, the Provisional Government, chaired by A.F. Kerensky on August 9 decided to schedule elections for November 12, and the convocation of the Constituent Assembly - for November 28, 1917.

Immediately after the October Revolution on October 27, 1917, the Council of People's Commissars adopted and published signed by V.I. Lenin's decree on holding elections to the Constituent Assembly on November 12, 1917. In accordance with this resolution, "all election commissions, institutions of local self-government, the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies and soldiers' organizations at the front must intensify their efforts to ensure the free and correct conduct of elections to the Constituent Assembly at the appointed time." Thus, the formed Soviet government remained temporary - until the convocation of the constituent assembly.

In the elections to the Constituent Assembly on November 12 (24), 1917, the Bolsheviks received only about a quarter of the votes, losing to the Socialist-Revolutionaries.

On November 12, 1917, elections began. During the elections, troops loyal to the Bolsheviks gathered in Petrograd. The Constituent Assembly met in (Petrograd, January 5 (January 18), 1918) and by a majority of votes demanded the transfer of power into their own hands, although according to the statutory documents, it was an exclusively legislative, and not an executive body, and did not have either an apparatus or opportunities to prevent a crisis.

The Right SRs, who constituted the majority, refused to discuss the proposals of the Bolsheviks, after which the Bolsheviks, the Left SRs and several small factions and associations left the meeting room. This deprived the meeting of a quorum, however, the remaining deputies continued their work and announced the cancellation of the decisions of the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets. The meeting continued until the morning, at 5 o'clock the security of the meeting room, headed by the anarchist sailor Zheleznyak, brought to the attention of the deputies that they were unable to protect the meeting room from popular wrath, and demanded that the meeting be stopped, because " The guard is tired". In the evening of the same day, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee issued a decree dissolving the Constituent Assembly, which was later confirmed by the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets. A number of members of the Constituent Assembly moved to Samara, where they created the so-called Komuch (the other part created a committee in Omsk), and began armed struggle against the self-proclaimed Bolshevik government. Later, Admiral Kolchak, having dispersed Komuch, put an end to the claims of members of the Constituent Assembly to power.

After the elections, the Bolsheviks began repressions against the Cadets. The Constitutional Democratic Party was officially declared the party of "enemies of the people", and arrests of its members began, all indiscriminately. Constituting one-seventh of the deputies of the Assembly, the Cadets were neutralized and did not take part in its activities. On January 18 (31), the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets approved the decree on the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly and decided to remove from the legislation indications of its temporary nature ("until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly").

January 9 (22) - the execution of a demonstration in support of the Constituent Assembly in Moscow. According to official data (Izvestia of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, 1918. January 11), the number of those killed was more than 50, and more than 200 were wounded.

1. The first events of the Soviet government in late 1917 - early 1918.

Creation revolutionary committees (revolutionary committees)- temporary emergency bodies of Soviet power, which operated during the Civil War and foreign military intervention 1918-21. They concentrated all the fullness of civil and military power.

The experience of the military revolutionary committees of the period of the October Revolution of 1917 was used in their organization and activities.

There were also provincial, district, volost and rural revolutionary committees. On January 2, 1920, the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense decided to abolish gubernia and uyezd R. to. They could be preserved only as an exception and where it was dictated by necessity.

Peace Decree was the first decree of the Soviet government.

It was developed by Lenin and was unanimously adopted on October 26, 1917 at the Congress of Soviets of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies and published by the Izvestia newspaper.

As a result, negotiations began with Germany and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was concluded.

Land Decree- a legal act adopted at the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets on October 26 (November 8), 1917, which had constitutional, fundamental significance in the field of land use.

His sources were:

1. The so-called peasant orders formulated by the Soviets and land committees in August 1917.
2. Socialist-Revolutionary agrarian program.
3. Variety of forms of land use (household, farm, communal, artel).
4. Confiscation of landowners' lands and estates. And it was noted that "The lands of ordinary peasants and ordinary Cossacks will not be confiscated."
5. The transfer of confiscated lands and estates to the disposal of volost land committees and district Soviets of peasant deputies.
6. The transfer of land to the property of the state with the subsequent gratuitous transfer of it to the peasants. “All land, after its alienation, goes to the nationwide land fund. The distribution of it among the working people is managed by local and central self-governments, ranging from democratically organized non-estate rural and urban communities to the central regional institutions.
7. Cancellation of the right private property to the ground. “Pomeshchik ownership of land is abolished immediately without any redemption. For those affected by the property coup, only the right to public support is recognized for the time necessary to adapt to the new conditions of existence.
8. The prohibition of the use of hired labor.

In January 1918, these provisions were enshrined in the Decree on the Socialization of the Land.

The Decree on Land clearly defined the attitude of the new government to private property, to hired labor. These formulations became the basis of the land policy of the USSR and the countries of the socialist camp for a long time.

However, not all of these principles were followed in practice. Thus, state property was declared public property, that is, belonging to the whole of society. Actually, it remained state-owned until the announcement of private ownership of land in 1993.

Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia- one of the first documents of the Soviet power. Adopted by the Congress of Soviets on November 2 (15), 1917.

Were proclaimed:

1. Equality and sovereignty of the peoples of Russia.

2. The right of the peoples of Russia to free self-determination up to secession and formation of an independent state.

3. Cancellation of all and any national and national-religious privileges and restrictions.

4. Free development of national minorities and ethnographic groups inhabiting the territory of Russia.

Decree on the destruction of estates and civil ranks (1917) - decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of November 11 (24), 1917 Abolished estates and estate divisions; ranks, titles and ranks of the Russian Empire.

1. Brest peace.

Brest Peace(Brest peace treaty, Brest-Litovsk peace treaty) - peace treaties between the participants of the First World War: Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, on the one hand, and Soviet Russia on the other, signed on March 3, 1918 in Brest-Litovsk. Ratified by the Extraordinary IV All-Russian Congress of Soviets.

According to the terms of the Brest Peace:

• Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States and Finland were torn away from Russia. In the Caucasus: Kars, Ardagan and Batum.
• The Soviet government ended the war with the Ukrainian People's Republic and made peace with it.
• The army and navy were demobilized.
• The Baltic Fleet was withdrawn from its bases in Finland and the Baltic.
• The Black Sea Fleet with all the infrastructure was transferred to the Central Powers.
• Russia paid 6 billion marks in reparations, plus the payment of losses incurred by Germany during the revolution - 500 million gold rubles.
• The Soviet government undertook to stop revolutionary propaganda in the Central Powers and allied states formed on the territory of the Russian Empire.

The victory of the Entente in the First World War and the signing of the Armistice of Compiègne on November 11, 1918, by which all agreements previously concluded by Germany were declared invalid, allowed Soviet Russia to annul the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on November 13, 1918 and return most of the territories. German troops left the territory of Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus.

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, as a result of which huge territories were torn away from Russia, which consolidated the loss of a significant part of the country's agricultural and industrial base, aroused opposition to the Bolsheviks from almost all political forces, both from the right and from the left.

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk served as a catalyst for the formation of a "democratic counter-revolution", expressed in the proclamation of the Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik governments in Siberia and the Volga region, and the uprising of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries in July 1918 in Moscow. The suppression of these protests, in turn, led to the formation of a one-party Bolshevik dictatorship and a full-scale civil war.

1. Civil war in Russia. Causes, course of hostilities in 1918. Red and white terror.

Krasnov-Kerensky's campaign against Petrograd- an attempt to restore the power of the Provisional Government after the October Revolution, organized by the Minister-Chairman Kerensky with the active assistance of the Don Cossack units led by Peter Krasnov in November 1917. The Cossack units occupied Gatchina and Tsarskoye Selo without a fight and entered into a clash with the Bolshevik detachments of Baltic sailors and Red Guards in the Pulkovo area. The battle ended in a draw, but further peace negotiations revealed the unwillingness of the Cossacks to restore Kerensky's power. Kerensky fled, and the campaign was stopped.

Black Guard- armed detachments of workers acting in the interests of the anarchists that existed in Russia between the October Revolution and the Left SR rebellions. During the latter, Moscow was at the mercy of anarchists who robbed banks and staged brawls. The anarchists took possession of 26 mansions and hid a large number of weapons in them. Chekists appealed to the population with a request to help restore order in Moscow. On April 12, 1918, the Black Guard was disarmed. The “house of anarchy” resisted the longest (now the famous Lenkom Theater is located there).

Soon a wave of conspiracies passed through the country - the Lockhart case, the Mirbach case, anti-Bolshevik uprisings in Astrakhan, Perm, Ryazan, Vyatka. High-profile murders of Uritsky and Volodarsky were committed, and soon there was an attempt on the life of Fanny Kaplan, the founder of the RSFSR, Lenin.

On December 2 (15), 1917, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR signed an agreement on the temporary cessation of hostilities with Germany and on December 9 (22) began negotiations, during which Germany, Turkey, Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary presented Soviet Russia with very difficult peace conditions. In March, after the military defeat near Pskov and Narva, the Council of People's Commissars was forced to sign a separate peace treaty with Germany, ensuring the rights of a number of nations to self-determination, with which the Council of People's Commissars agreed, but containing extremely difficult conditions for Russia (for example, the transfer of Russian naval forces on the Black sea ​​of ​​Turkey, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Germany). About 1 million square meters were torn away from the country. km. The Entente countries sent troops to the territory of Russia and announced their support for anti-government forces. This led to the transition of the confrontation between the Bolsheviks and the opposition to a new level - a full-scale civil war began in the country.

On the side of the Bolsheviks were the workers of Petrograd, Moscow and other industrial centers, the small-land peasants of the densely populated Chernozem region and Central Russia. An important factor in the victory of the Bolsheviks was the appearance on their side of a considerable part of the officers of the former tsarist army. In particular, the officers of the General Staff were distributed among the belligerents almost equally, with a slight advantage among the opponents of the Bolsheviks. Some of them were repressed in 1937.

This, as well as the lack of a unified leadership and constructive goals of the White movement, led to the defeat of all anti-Bolshevik forces during the war and the suppression of a number of peasant uprisings caused by disappointment in the agrarian policy of the country of the Soviets. In 1922, in most of the territory of the former Russian Empire, a Soviet Union. In Poland, which also captured Vilnius, part of Belarus and Ukraine, Finland, which captured part of Karelia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as a result of the Civil War, local white nationalists won. In addition, part of Armenia was captured by Turkey, part of Moldova - by Romania, and some Far Eastern territories - by Japan and Chinese militarists.