After the end of the October Revolution, the first Soviet power was established in most of the country. This happened in a fairly short time - until March 1918. In most provincial and other large cities, the establishment of Soviet power passed peacefully. In the article, we will consider how this happened.
The establishment of Soviet power
First of all, the victory of the revolutionary forces entrenched in the Central region. The army at the front congresses identified further events. It was here that the Soviet government began to establish itself. 1917 was quite bloody. The Baltic Fleet played the main role in supporting the revolution in the Baltic states and Petrograd. By November 1917, Black Sea sailors overcame the resistance of the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries and adopted a resolution which recognized the Council of People's Commissars, headed by V. I. Lenin. At the same time, in the Far East and North of the country, the Soviet government did not receive much support. This subsequently contributed to the beginning of the intervention in these areas.
Cossacks
It had a fairly active resistance. The core of the army of volunteers was formed in the Don and a center of whites was created. The latter was attended by the leaders of the Cadets and Octobrists Milyukov, Struve, as well as the Social Revolutionary Savinkov. They developed a political program. They advocated the indivisibility of Russia, the Constituent Assembly, as well as the liberation of the country from the dictatorship of the Bolsheviks. The "White Movement" in a short time received the support of the French, English and American diplomatic representatives, as well as the Ukrainian Rada. The offensive of the volunteer army began in January 1918. The White Guards acted on the orders of Kornilov, who forbade taking prisoners. This is where the White Terror began.
Victory of the Red Guards in the Don
On the tenth of January 1918, at the Cossack Front Congress, supporters of the Soviet regime formed a military revolutionary committee. Its head was F. G. Podtelkov. Most of the Cossacks followed him. Along with this, detachments of the Red Guards were sent to the Don, which immediately went on the offensive. The White-Cossack troops had to retreat to the Salsk steppes. The volunteer army retreated to the Kuban. On March 23, the Soviet Don Republic was created.
Orenburg Cossacks
He was led by the chieftain Dutov. In early November, he disarmed the Orenburg Council and announced mobilization. After that, Dutov, along with Kazakh and Bashkir nationalists, moved to Verkhneuralsk and Chelyabinsk. From that moment, the connection between Moscow and Petrograd with Central Asia and the southern territory of Siberia was interrupted. By decision of the Soviet government, detachments of Red Guards from the Urals, Ufa, Samara, and Petrograd were sent against Dutov. They were supported by groups of the Kazakh, Tatar and Bashkir poor. At the end of February 1918, the army of Dutov was defeated.
Confrontation in national areas
In these territories, Soviet power fought not only with the Provisional Government. The revolutionary forces tried to crush the resistance of both the Socialist-Revolutionary Menshevik forces and the nationalist bourgeoisie. In October-November 1917, Soviet power won in Estonia, the unoccupied areas of Belarus and Latvia. Resistance in Baku was also suppressed. Here, Soviet power lasted until August 1918. The rest of Transcaucasia came under the influence of the separatists. So, in Georgia the power was in the hands of the Mensheviks, in Armenia and Azerbaijan - the Musavatists and Dashnaks (petty-bourgeois parties). By May 1918, bourgeois-democratic republics were formed in these territories.
Changes have occurred in Ukraine. So, in Kharkov in December 1917 the Soviet Ukrainian Republic was proclaimed. The revolutionary forces managed to overthrow the Central Rada. She, in turn, announced the formation of a people's independent republic. Leaving Kiev, Rada settled down in Zhytomyr. There she was protected by German troops. By March 1918, Soviet power had established itself in Central Asia and the Crimea, except for the Bukhara emirate and the Khiva khanate.
Political struggle in the central regions
Despite the fact that in the first years of Soviet power, volunteer and rebel armies were defeated in the main regions of the country, the confrontation in the center still continued. The culmination of political struggle was the convening of the Third Congress and the Constituent Assembly. An interim government of the Soviets was formed. It was supposed to act before the Constituent Assembly. The broad masses associated with him the formation of a new system in the state on a democratic basis. Along with this, opponents of the power of the Soviets pinned hopes on the Constituent Assembly. It was beneficial to the Bolsheviks, since their consent would destroy the political foundation of the militias.
After Romanov abdicated, the Constituent Assembly was to determine the form of government in the country. However, the Provisional Government postponed its convocation. It tried to find a replacement for the Assembly by creating the Democratic and State Meetings, the Pre-Parliament. All this was due to the Cadets' insecurity in obtaining a majority of the votes. The Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, meanwhile, were satisfied with their position in the Provisional Government. However, after the Revolution, they also began to seek the convening of a Constituent Assembly in the hope of seizing power.
Elections
Their dates were set on November 12 by the Provisional Government. The date of the convocation of the meeting was determined on January 5, 1918. By that time, the Soviet government included 2 parties - the Left Social Revolutionaries and the Bolsheviks. The first stood out as an independent association at the First Congress. Voting took place on party lists. The composition of the Constituent Assembly elected democratically from the entire population of the country is very indicative. The lists were compiled before the revolution. The constituent assembly included:
- Socialist-Revolutionaries (52.5%) - 370 seats.
- Bolsheviks (24.5%) - 175.
- Left Social Revolutionaries (5.7%) - 40.
- Cadets - 17 seats.
- Mensheviks (2.1%) - 15.
- Enes (0.3%) - 2.
- Representatives from various national associations - 86 seats.
Left Social Revolutionaries, who had formed a new party at the time of the election, participated in the elections according to the unified lists drawn up before the revolution. The right Social Revolutionaries included a large number of their representatives in them. From the above figures it becomes clear that the country's population gave preference to the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries - socialist associations, the number of representatives of which in the Constituent Assembly was more than 86%. Thus, the citizens of Russia quite clearly outlined the choice of the future path. From this began the speech at the opening of the Constituent Assembly, Chernov, the leader of the Socialist Revolutionaries. The assessment of this figure clearly illustrates historical reality, refuting the words of a number of historians that the population rejected the socialist path.
Meeting
At the Constituent Assembly, either the chosen development path at the Second Congress could be approved, decrees on land and peace, the activities of the Soviet government, or attempts were made to liquidate its conquests. The opposing forces, which had a majority in the assembly, refused to compromise. At a meeting on January 5, the Bolshevik program was rejected, the activities of the government of the Soviets were not approved. In that situation, the threat of a return to the Socialist-Revolutionary-bourgeois regime arose. In response to this, the Bolshevik delegation , and after it the left Socialist-Revolutionaries, left the meeting. The remaining members stayed until five in the morning. 160 delegates from 705 were present in the hall. At 5 in the morning, the sailor-anarchist Zheleznyakov - the head of the guard - went up to Chernov and said: "The guard is tired!" This phrase has gone down in history. Chernov announced that the meeting was adjourned the next day. However, already on January 6, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee issued a Decree dissolving the Constituent Assembly. The situation could not be changed by the demonstrations organized by the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks. There were no casualties in Moscow and Petrograd. These events laid the foundation for a split in the socialist parties into two warring camps.
The end of the confrontation
The final decision regarding the Constituent Assembly and the further state structure of the country was made at the Third Congress. On January 10, a meeting of soldiers' deputies and workers was convened. On the 13th, the All-Russian Congress of Peasant Representatives joined him. From that moment, the years of Soviet power began their reckoning.
Finally
The congress approved both the policies and the activities carried out by the Soviet authorities - the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars, the dissolution of the meeting. Also at the meeting, constitutional acts were approved that legitimized Soviet power. Among the most important of them are the Declaration "On the Rights of Workers and the Exploited People", "On the Federal Institutions of the Republic", as well as the Law on the Socialization of the Earth. The interim government of workers and peasants was renamed SNK. Before this, the Declaration on the Rights of the Russian Peoples was adopted. In addition, the Council of People's Commissars appealed to working Muslims in the East and in Russia. They, in turn, proclaimed the rights and freedoms of citizens, attracted workers of various nationalities to the common cause of affirming socialism. In 1921 coins of the Soviet power began to be minted.