The convening of the Constituent Assembly in Russia was the main problem of the country at the beginning of the 20th century. This body was supposed to solve the most important issues of a crumbling state, only they couldn’t collect it ...
The idea of convening such a representative body was put forward even in their requirements by the Decembrists: they proposed creating, or rather, reviving the Zemsky Sobors, the predecessors of the Constituent Assembly. The Constituent Assembly is a kind of parliamentary institution designed to solve the problems of the state system of the country and adopt the Constitution of Russia. Such an organ was extremely necessary in the revolutionary situation prevailing at that time. However, neither the Soviets nor the Provisional Government wanted the convocation, since these bodies were afraid to lose their power.
For the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, there was everything: first of all, the law. The regulation on elections to this representative body was created already in August 1917. It established several rules, namely: age qualification (all citizens - only from 20 years old, military - from 18 years old) and election procedure: universal, equal and secret suffrage. Elections to the Constituent Assembly were held only in November of that year. According to their results, the majority of places were taught by the Russian Socialist Revolutionaries - Socialist Revolutionaries (they had about 40% of the vote), the Bolsheviks took the second place by the majority - more than 23%. The rest were distributed among the cadets, the Mensheviks and other few parties.
Despite the fact that the elections to the new long-awaited body were held at the end of 1917, he gathered only at the beginning of next year - January 5.
The convening of the Constituent Assembly meant the hope of all parties and the people to resolve the main problems: the structure of the country, namely, the form of its government.
The Bolsheviks who had already seized power by that time, who had not received a majority in the new parliament, were very afraid for their positions, and it was not in vain. Deputies sat all day.
This meeting took place in the famous Tauride Palace in revolutionary St. Petersburg.
Members of the numerous parties of Russia elected by the people could not come to a consensus, plus everything, the Constituent Assembly refused to accept the Bolshevik Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People.
This meant that it refused to accept both Soviet power and all the decrees it adopted. The famous statement of the sailor Zheleznyak, addressed to the deputies that “the guard was tired of guarding”, marked the beginning of the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly. This happened on the night of January 5-6, and in the evening of the same day, having again come to the Tauride Palace, the deputies saw that it was closed. The decree on the dissolution of the long-awaited Russian parliament was published and adopted at the end of January 1918.
The convening of the Constituent Assembly in Russia is only a cover for the Soviet government, just an excuse to be considered legitimate. The meeting, which had been sitting for just over a day, could not solve the main issues; it was dispersed by the Bolsheviks who were afraid of losing power.