The October Revolution, carried out by the Bolshevik Party in 1917, opened a new page in the history of our country. The point is not only and not so much that as a result of the armed coup the Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik Provisional Government was replaced by the Council of People's Commissars of the Bolsheviks, but that, starting from this significant October night, the basic principle of the organization of power changed in the Russian Republic, a radical coup in the relationship between the state and society.
In the first hours, days, months of the Bolsheviks coming to power, they adopted a series of legislative acts that created the legal basis for the exercise of their power. Until the adoption of the first official Constitution in 1918, it was the first decrees of the Soviet government in 1917 that constituted the basis of the constitutional legislation of our country. The beginning of this process was laid at the Second Congress, which included workers 'and soldiers' deputies, held in the alarming atmosphere of the October uprising. The first decrees of the Soviet government were adopted by this congress in the early morning of October 26, they dealt with three main questions of the current moment - about peace, about land and about power.
By decree “On Peace”, the newly emerging Soviet state called on all warring countries to conclude a truce and sit at the negotiating table. Moreover, these negotiations should be conducted without any requirements for annexations and indemnities. In addition, this decree declared Russia's rejection of secret diplomacy, and also talked about the desire of the new government to fight for the liberation of countries and peoples from colonial oppression. The first decrees of the Soviet government could not but touch upon the country's most important internal problem - the issue of land.
The Decree “On Land”, adopted at the same congress, was in many of its provisions copied from the Social Revolutionary program, which did not dare to bring it to life. In particular, the cornerstone of this decree was the rejection of private ownership of land, the so-called "socialization of the land" was proclaimed, that is, its transfer to the ownership of the whole people. In fact, this meant two most important consequences for the peasants: firstly, they could not dispose of land at their discretion, but had to coordinate their actions with local authorities or collective farms. Secondly, peasants were supposed to receive income from common ownership of land in the form of direct subsidies, as well as in the form of various social projects. The first decrees of the Soviet government and, first of all, the “Land Decree” gave a clear understanding that all the subsoil would belong to the state, which would take upon itself the responsibility not only to develop them, but also to redistribute the income received from their exploitation.
The first decrees of the Soviet government were obliged to make it clear to the population, and to foreigners who carefully watched the development of events, what this very Soviet power would mean in practice. The first brick in this process was the decree "On the establishment of the Council of People's Commissars", also adopted on October 26. The Council of People's Commissars, the first composition of which consisted exclusively of representatives of the Bolsheviks, was declared the highest executive authority in Soviet Russia. At the same time, the same decree specifically emphasized that control over the activities of the Council of People's Commissars, including the right to amend its composition, belongs to the congress of workers', soldiers' and peasants' deputies, and thus has become nominally the highest authority in the state .
At the same time, the concept of “first decrees of the Soviet government” cannot be limited to only these three legal acts. In the first weeks and months after the revolution, a number of decrees were adopted that laid the foundations of the Soviet system. All of them can be divided into the following groups:
1. Decrees of the Soviet government, which laid the economic foundation of the new system. These include the “Regulation on labor control”, the decrees “On the nationalization of banks” and “On the nationalization of foreign trade”. In fact, it was these decrees that became the basis for the further introduction of the policy of "war communism".
2. Decrees of the Soviet government, which formulated the legal foundations of the new state. This is primarily the decrees “On the approval of laws”, “On the court”, “On the Supreme Economic Council”.
3. The first decrees of the Soviet government that paid attention to the legal status of various groups and sections of the population. This is the decree “On the eight-hour working day”, decrees “On the press”, and “On the destruction of the estates”.
Thus, the first decrees of the Soviet government in 1917 laid a certain foundation in the formation of the young Soviet state. At the same time, it should be emphasized that the rapidly changing internal and external conditions very quickly forced Lenin and his colleagues to amend their initial decisions.