Formation, flourishing and collapse of the Russian Empire.
Before considering this topic, it is necessary to decide what the concept of “empire” itself means. An empire is considered to be a powerful power that unites multiple peoples and the lands of their residence; this unitary state has a single powerful political center and has a leading role in world politics.
The Russian state in the pre-imperial period
The Russian state did not always have the status of an empire. After the beginning of the Tatar-Mongol invasion at the beginning of the 13th century, the great era of Ancient Rus' ended, the administrative and spiritual center of the Russian state moved from Kyiv, first to Vladimir, and then to Moscow. The Grand Duchy of Moscow consistently pursues a policy of unifying nearby lands and over time becomes the center of the Russian state. In 1547, Ivan the Terrible, who sat on the throne in Moscow, proclaimed himself tsar, and the Moscow state began to be called Russia. It should be noted that the name of the Russian state Russia was initially unofficial, just as France is called Gaul or Greece Hellas.Russia in the status of an empire
Peter the Great renounces the name of the state as Moscow, and the power he created receives the status of the Russian Empire. Much has changed since the founding of the Moscow Principality; Russia has vast territories. In January 1654, Ukraine swore allegiance to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Ivan the Terrible dealt a crushing blow to what remained of the once powerful Golden Horde, and conquered the Kazan and Astrakhan Khanates. Under him, the vast expanses of Siberia, which were under the rule of the Siberian Khanate, were conquered. Peter, having defeated the army of Charles XII, returns the Russian lands, previously captured by the Swedes, to the fold of the state. In 1721, the period of the Russian Tsardom ends and the great era of the Russian Empire begins.For the sake of historical justice, one cannot help but recall that the Crimean Khanate, until its absorption by the Russian Empire during the time of Catherine the Great, did not recognize the status of the Russian state. The Crimean khans perceived Russia as a tributary, in the status of a Moscow ulus of the Crimean Khanate. The royal title, starting with Ivan the Terrible, was not recognized by the Tatars. Crimea did not want to accept the fact that with the beginning of the reign of Peter, Russia was becoming one of the most powerful European powers. Khan Davlet-Girey did not fail to take advantage of the opportunity and forced the Russian Tsar, who found himself in a hopeless situation during the inglorious Prut campaign, to sign an oath confirming Russia’s vassal dependence on the Crimean Khanate.
Particular achievements in expanding the empire's possessions were achieved during the reign of Catherine the Great, which historians call the “golden age” of the Russian Empire. For 34 years, Russia managed to reach the Black Sea and the Black Sea lands, take possession of Crimea, Moldova, gain a foothold in the Baltic states, on the left bank of the Kuban, and annex Belarus and Right Bank Ukraine to its possessions.
Having succeeded his mother on the throne, in 1800 Paul signed the Manifesto on the annexation of Georgia to Russia. The young emperor had ambitious plans to conquer India. He frees one of Potemkin’s favorites, the Cossack general Platov, who is popular on the Don, from captivity and instructs him to prepare and lead this military operation. In 1801, 13 assembled and trained Cossack regiments and several horse artillery batteries set off on a campaign to distant India. It is unknown how this doomed company would have ended if the violent death of the emperor had not occurred.
The result of the last war with the Swedes, which ended in the victory of Russia, was the entry of Finland into its composition in 1809. After the war with Napoleon, most of the territory of Poland became the possessions of the Russian Empire.
The voluntary acceptance of Russian citizenship by Georgia, which included part of the territory of Azerbaijan, in 1801 marked the beginning of the conquest of the entire Transcaucasus. Over time, the Ottomans lost influence over Armenia, as a result of which it became part of the Russian Empire.
Created under Catherine I, along the lines of the Kuban, Terek and Sunzha rivers, the Caucasian Line divided the region into two irreconcilable camps. The mountain peoples of the Caucasus carried out predatory raids on the lands subject to the Russian Empire. Emperor Alexander I at first advocated a lenient attitude towards the mountaineers; General A.P. Ermolov, who took office as manager of affairs in the Caucasus in 1816, managed to change the king’s peace-loving mood; as a result, Russia unleashed the Caucasian War, which ended in 1864 with the complete annexation of the Northern Caucasus.
Since the reign of Peter the Great, the Russian Empire has been expanding its possessions in the Central Asian region. To designate and consolidate their presence in Kazakhstan, the Russian cities of Kokchetav and Akmolinsk, renamed Tselinograd in Soviet times, were founded. After the collapse of the USSR, the city received the status of the capital of the Kazakhstan state and the name Astana. The entire vast Kazakhstan steppe was equipped with so-called military fortifications. By the end of the 19th century, the Khanate of Kokand, the Emirate of Bukhara, Tashkent, the Khanate of Khiva, and Turkmenistan were finally brought into submission and accepted into the fold of the empire as provinces and regions.
It is impossible not to mention that from the middle of the 18th century, for more than 120 years, Russia belonged to Alaska, the Aleutian Islands and lands on the territory of modern California.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian Empire represented a huge state in terms of area, with a population of about 130 million people, the country had the status of an authoritative world power. The supreme power in it belongs to the All-Russian Emperor; the empire includes 78 provinces, 2 districts and 21 regions.
Collapse of a great empire
Russia's entry into the First World War served as the main prerequisite for the collapse of the great empire. In 1915, the Kingdom of Poland found itself in territory occupied by Germany; immediately after the end of the war in November 1918, the Entente recognized Poland as an independent state.With the beginning of the First World War, the Finns, with the complicity of Germany, intensified their national liberation activities. Two days before the October coup in Russia, Finland declared independence. The emerging young Soviet Republic did not have the opportunity to resist this political demarche, and it was forced to recognize a fait accompli.
After the February Revolution in 1917, the established Russian state systems collapsed, with the abolition of the monarchy and the proclamation of a republic. Well-known revolutionary events in October of the same year will cause the outbreak of a Civil War in the country, during which the great Russian Empire, created over several centuries, breaks up into eight dozen small states, most of which will be destined to unite under the flag of the USSR.
On the question of who squandered the country in 1917.
In 1865, the area of the Russian Empire reached its maximum - 24 million square kilometers. It was from this moment that the history of the reduction in the area of the state began, the history of territorial losses. The first major loss was Alaska, which was sold in 1867. Further, the empire lost territories only during military conflicts, but in 1917, after February, it was faced with a new phenomenon - separatism.
The main impetus for the start of the first “Parade of Sovereignties” in the history of our country was the February Revolution of 1917, and not the Great October Revolution. The Soviets of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies, which came to power in October 1917, received from the Provisional Government "inheritance" the already fully spun up flywheel of the centrifugal collapse of the country. From that moment on, a long and painful process of collecting lands began, which after 5 years in 1922 united the main lands of the former empire in the USSR, and by 1946 the country had recovered as much as possible.
We will indicate the main stages of the collapse of the Russian Empire until October 1917 in order to understand which country fell to the Soviet government and whether it was realistic for the young Soviet Republic not to make temporary territorial concessions to the enemies who surrounded it on all sides, in order to subsequently restore most of what was actually lost on October 1917. To complete the picture, we will also indicate losses before 1917.
1. Russian California (Fort Ross). Sold in 1841 to the Mexican Sutter for 42 thousand rubles in silver. Only 8 thousand rubles were received from Sutter in the form of food supplies.
2. Alaska. Sold to USA in 1867. The treasury did not receive any money from the sale. Whether they were stolen, drowned or spent on steam locomotives is still an open question.
3. Southern Sakhalin, Kuril Islands. Transferred to Japan following the war of 1904-1905.
4. Poland. November 5, 1916, creation of the Kingdom of Poland, recognized by the Provisional Government on March 17, 1917.
5. Finland. March 2, 1917 - dissolution of the Personal Union with the Principality of Finland. In July 1917, the restoration of Finnish independence was announced. Final recognition of Finland's secession in November 1917.
6. Ukraine. March 4, 1917 – formation of the Ukrainian Central Rada; July 2, 1917, the Provisional Government recognizes Ukraine’s right to self-determination.
7. Belarus. July 1917, the Central Rada was formed in Belarus and the Declaration of Autonomy was drawn up.
8. Baltic states. February 1917, the Baltic states are completely occupied by German troops. Government bodies are being formed on the territory of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.
9. Bashkiria (Ufa province). July 1917, Bashkiria. The All-Bashkir Kurultai creates a government in Bashkiria, which is entrusted with formalizing the autonomy of the region.
10. Crimea. On March 25, 1917, the All-Crimean Muslim Congress was convened in Simferopol, in which 1,500 representatives of the Crimean population took part. At the congress, the Provisional Crimean-Muslim Executive Committee was elected, which received recognition from the Provisional Government as the only authorized and legitimate administrative body representing all Crimean Tatars.
11. Tatarstan (Kazan province). The 1st All-Russian Muslim Congress in early May 1917 in Moscow adopted a resolution on territorial autonomy and a federal structure.
12. Kuban and the North Caucasus. May 1917. Creation of territorial bodies of self-government within the framework of autonomy.
13. Siberia. The conference in Tomsk (August 2-9), 1917, adopted a resolution “On the autonomous structure of Siberia” within the framework of a federation with self-determination of regions and nationalities. On October 8, 1917, the First Siberian Government was created, headed by Potanin, and autonomy was declared.
From September 21 to September 28, 1917, on the initiative of the Ukrainian Central Rada, the Congress of the Peoples of Russia, represented mainly by separatist movements, was held in Kyiv. At the congress, issues of future forms of division of Russian territory were discussed.
Pre-revolutionary Russia was a multinational state, therefore the most important issue of the Second Russian Revolution was the national question - the question of relations between the Russian people and other peoples of Russia. Most of them did not have autonomy at the beginning of the twentieth century, and therefore demanded equal rights with the Russians and the right to autonomy within Russia, which had been turned into a federal state. Only the Poles and Finns sought to secede from it and create their own independent states. After the October Revolution, the demands of non-Russian peoples became more radical. Frightened by the anarchy in the Russian provinces and the cruelty of the Bolshevik regime, they began to secede from Russia and create their own national states. This process was accelerated by German and Turkish intervention in 1918, when Germany and Turkey set a course for creating small states on the outskirts of Russia, dependent on the Quadruple Alliance.
Even before the revolution, the creation of such a state began in Poland. The “independent” Polish state created by the Germans and Austrians (proclaimed in November 1916) and its government, the Provisional State Council (created in January 1917) were under the complete control of the occupiers. In Finland, independence was proclaimed on December 6, 1917. On November 7, 1917, after the suppression of the Bolshevik putsch in Kiev, the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR) was proclaimed, formally an autonomous republic within Russia, in fact a sovereign state. But on December 11, 1917 in Kharkov, at the All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets, the Soviet “People's Ukrainian Republic” was proclaimed. On January 1, 1919, the “temporary Workers’ and Peasants’ Government of the Belarusian Soviet Independent Republic” was created in Minsk and Soviet power was proclaimed, and on February 4, the First Belarusian Congress of Soviets adopted the Constitution of the BSSR. In Lithuania, on November 28, 1917, the “independent State of Lithuania” was proclaimed. The situation in the Baltic states was more complex. After Germany's defeat in World War I, the situation in this region changed again. As a result of the offensive of the Red Army, three Soviet republics were created here - the Estonian Labor Commune (November 29, 1918), the Lithuanian Soviet Republic (December 16, 1918) and the Soviet Socialist Republic of Latvia (December 17, 1917), immediately recognized by the RSFSR. In Transcaucasia, the first step towards separating this region from Russia was taken on November 15, 1917. On November 27, 1920, the Reds crossed the border into Armenia, and on November 29 it was proclaimed a “Soviet Socialist Republic.” On February 25, Tiflis was captured and the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed. Thus, in 1917 - 1918. The Russian Empire collapsed, and a number of new nationalist states arose from its ruins, but only five of them (Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) managed to maintain their independence. The rest were defeated by the Red Army and fell under Bolshevik rule.
The development of Soviet national statehood during the years of the revolution and the Civil War proceeded in two directions:
1. Creation of autonomous national state units (republics, regions, states, etc.) within the RSFSR. The first such entity, the Ural-Volga State, was created in February 1918 by decision of the Kazan Council and included Tatar and Bashkir lands. In March 1918, this “state” was reorganized into the Tatar-Bashkir Soviet Republic, but it was soon divided into two new republics. In April 1918, the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed, in October 1918 - the Labor Commune of the Volga Germans, in June 1920 - the Chuvash Autonomous Region, in November 1920 - the Votyak (Udmurt), Mari and Kalmyk Autonomous Regions, in January 1921 - Dagestan and Mountain Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics. As a result, by 1922 the RSFSR included 10 autonomous republics (ASSR) and 11 autonomous regions (AO). 2.Creation of “independent” Soviet republics (in fact, they were completely dependent on Moscow). The first such republic, the "People's Ukrainian Republic", was proclaimed in December 1917, and by 1922 there were nine such republics - the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Byelorussian SSR, the Azerbaijan SSR, the Armenian SSR, the Georgian SSR, the Khorezm People's Soviet Republic , Bukhara People's Soviet Republic and Far Eastern Republic (FER). The three Soviet republics in the Baltic states, created in November-December 1918, were already destroyed by May 1919 by local nationalists with the help of the English fleet, German volunteers, Russian White Guards and the Polish army.
Along with the collapse of the Russian Empire, the majority of the population chose to create independent national states. Many of them were never destined to remain sovereign, and they became part of the USSR. Others were incorporated into the Soviet state later. What was the Russian Empire like at the beginning? XXcenturies?
By the end of the 19th century, the territory of the Russian Empire was 22.4 million km 2. According to the 1897 census, the population was 128.2 million people, including the population of European Russia - 93.4 million people; Kingdom of Poland - 9.5 million, - 2.6 million, Caucasus Territory - 9.3 million, Siberia - 5.8 million, Central Asia - 7.7 million people. Over 100 peoples lived; 57% of the population were non-Russian peoples. The territory of the Russian Empire in 1914 was divided into 81 provinces and 20 regions; there were 931 cities. Some provinces and regions were united into governorates-general (Warsaw, Irkutsk, Kiev, Moscow, Amur, Stepnoe, Turkestan and Finland).
By 1914, the length of the territory of the Russian Empire was 4383.2 versts (4675.9 km) from north to south and 10,060 versts (10,732.3 km) from east to west. The total length of the land and sea borders is 64,909.5 versts (69,245 km), of which the land borders accounted for 18,639.5 versts (19,941.5 km), and the sea borders accounted for about 46,270 versts (49,360 .4 km).
The entire population was considered subjects of the Russian Empire, the male population (from 20 years old) swore allegiance to the emperor. The subjects of the Russian Empire were divided into four estates (“states”): nobility, clergy, urban and rural inhabitants. The local population of Kazakhstan, Siberia and a number of other regions were distinguished into an independent “state” (foreigners). The coat of arms of the Russian Empire was a double-headed eagle with royal regalia; the state flag is a cloth with white, blue and red horizontal stripes; The national anthem is “God Save the Tsar.” National language - Russian.
Administratively, the Russian Empire by 1914 was divided into 78 provinces, 21 regions and 2 independent districts. The provinces and regions were divided into 777 counties and districts and in Finland - into 51 parishes. Counties, districts and parishes, in turn, were divided into camps, departments and sections (2523 in total), as well as 274 landmanships in Finland.
Territories that were important in military-political terms (metropolitan and border) were united into viceroyalties and general governorships. Some cities were allocated into special administrative units - city governments.
Even before the transformation of the Grand Duchy of Moscow into the Russian Kingdom in 1547, at the beginning of the 16th century, Russian expansion began to expand beyond its ethnic territory and began to absorb the following territories (the table does not include lands lost before the beginning of the 19th century):
|
Territory |
Date (year) of accession to the Russian Empire |
Data |
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Western Armenia (Asia Minor) |
The territory was ceded in 1917-1918 |
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Eastern Galicia, Bukovina (Eastern Europe) |
ceded in 1915, partially recaptured in 1916, lost in 1917 |
|
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Uriankhai region (Southern Siberia) |
Currently part of the Republic of Tuva |
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Franz Josef Land, Emperor Nicholas II Land, New Siberian Islands (Arctic) |
The archipelagos of the Arctic Ocean are designated as Russian territory by a note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs |
|
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Northern Iran (Middle East) |
Lost as a result of revolutionary events and the Russian Civil War. Currently owned by the State of Iran |
|
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Concession in Tianjin |
Lost in 1920. Currently a city directly under the People's Republic of China |
|
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Kwantung Peninsula (Far East) |
Lost as a result of defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. Currently Liaoning Province, China |
|
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Badakhshan (Central Asia) |
Currently, Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Okrug of Tajikistan |
|
|
Concession in Hankou (Wuhan, East Asia) |
Currently Hubei Province, China |
|
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Transcaspian region (Central Asia) |
Currently belongs to Turkmenistan |
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Adjarian and Kars-Childyr sanjaks (Transcaucasia) |
In 1921 they were ceded to Turkey. Currently Adjara Autonomous Okrug of Georgia; silts of Kars and Ardahan in Turkey |
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Bayazit (Dogubayazit) sanjak (Transcaucasia) |
In the same year, 1878, it was ceded to Turkey following the results of the Berlin Congress. |
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Principality of Bulgaria, Eastern Rumelia, Adrianople Sanjak (Balkans) |
Abolished following the results of the Berlin Congress in 1879. Currently Bulgaria, Marmara region of Turkey |
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Khanate of Kokand (Central Asia) |
Currently Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan |
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Khiva (Khorezm) Khanate (Central Asia) |
Currently Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan |
|
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including Åland Islands |
Currently Finland, the Republic of Karelia, Murmansk, Leningrad regions |
|
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Tarnopol District of Austria (Eastern Europe) |
Currently, Ternopil region of Ukraine |
|
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Bialystok District of Prussia (Eastern Europe) |
Currently Podlaskie Voivodeship of Poland |
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Ganja (1804), Karabakh (1805), Sheki (1805), Shirvan (1805), Baku (1806), Kuba (1806), Derbent (1806), northern part of the Talysh (1809) Khanate (Transcaucasia) |
Vassal khanates of Persia, capture and voluntary entry. Secured in 1813 by a treaty with Persia following the war. Limited autonomy until the 1840s. Currently Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic |
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Imeretian kingdom (1810), Megrelian (1803) and Gurian (1804) principalities (Transcaucasia) |
Kingdom and principalities of Western Georgia (independent from Turkey since 1774). Protectorates and voluntary entries. Secured in 1812 by a treaty with Turkey and in 1813 by a treaty with Persia. Self-government until the end of the 1860s. Currently Georgia, Samegrelo-Upper Svaneti, Guria, Imereti, Samtskhe-Javakheti |
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Minsk, Kiev, Bratslav, eastern parts of Vilna, Novogrudok, Berestey, Volyn and Podolsk voivodeships of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Eastern Europe) |
Currently, Vitebsk, Minsk, Gomel regions of Belarus; Rivne, Khmelnitsky, Zhytomyr, Vinnitsa, Kiev, Cherkassy, Kirovograd regions of Ukraine |
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Crimea, Edisan, Dzhambayluk, Yedishkul, Little Nogai Horde (Kuban, Taman) (Northern Black Sea region) |
Khanate (independent from Turkey since 1772) and nomadic Nogai tribal unions. Annexation, secured in 1792 by treaty as a result of the war. Currently Rostov region, Krasnodar region, Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol; Zaporozhye, Kherson, Nikolaev, Odessa regions of Ukraine |
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Kuril Islands (Far East) |
Tribal unions of the Ainu, bringing into Russian citizenship, finally by 1782. According to the treaty of 1855, the Southern Kuril Islands are in Japan, according to the treaty of 1875 - all the islands. Currently, the North Kuril, Kuril and South Kuril urban districts of the Sakhalin region |
|
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Chukotka (Far East) |
Currently Chukotka Autonomous Okrug |
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Tarkov Shamkhaldom (North Caucasus) |
Currently the Republic of Dagestan |
|
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Ossetia (Caucasus) |
Currently the Republic of North Ossetia - Alania, the Republic of South Ossetia |
|
|
Big and Small Kabarda |
Principalities. In 1552-1570, a military alliance with the Russian state, later vassals of Turkey. In 1739-1774, according to the agreement, it became a buffer principality. Since 1774 in Russian citizenship. Currently Stavropol Territory, Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, Chechen Republic |
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Inflyantskoe, Mstislavskoe, large parts of Polotsk, Vitebsk voivodeships of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Eastern Europe) |
Currently, Vitebsk, Mogilev, Gomel regions of Belarus, Daugavpils region of Latvia, Pskov, Smolensk regions of Russia |
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|
Kerch, Yenikale, Kinburn (Northern Black Sea region) |
Fortresses, from the Crimean Khanate by agreement. Recognized by Turkey in 1774 by treaty as a result of war. The Crimean Khanate gained independence from the Ottoman Empire under the patronage of Russia. Currently, the urban district of Kerch of the Republic of Crimea of Russia, Ochakovsky district of the Nikolaev region of Ukraine |
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Ingushetia (North Caucasus) |
Currently the Republic of Ingushetia |
|
|
Altai (Southern Siberia) |
Currently, the Altai Territory, the Altai Republic, the Novosibirsk, Kemerovo, and Tomsk regions of Russia, the East Kazakhstan region of Kazakhstan |
|
|
Kymenygard and Neyshlot fiefs - Neyshlot, Vilmanstrand and Friedrichsgam (Baltics) |
Flax, from Sweden by treaty as a result of the war. Since 1809 in the Russian Grand Duchy of Finland. Currently Leningrad region of Russia, Finland (region of South Karelia) |
|
|
Junior Zhuz (Central Asia) |
Currently, the West Kazakhstan region of Kazakhstan |
|
|
(Kyrgyz land, etc.) (Southern Siberia) |
Currently the Republic of Khakassia |
|
|
Novaya Zemlya, Taimyr, Kamchatka, Commander Islands (Arctic, Far East) |
Currently Arkhangelsk region, Kamchatka, Krasnoyarsk territories |
She had a huge influence on the development of the national liberation struggle in Finland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, Belarus, Transcaucasia, Central Asia, and Kazakhstan.
Democratic changes contributed to the growth of self-awareness. Attempts to revive a “united and indivisible” Russia distracted from the peoples who fought for their independence.
Ukraine
In Ukraine the situation was difficult. Along with the bodies of the Provisional Government and the councils of workers and soldiers, the Central Rada arose, which was created by the Ukrainian National Democratic Forces.
Central Rada At first she tried to get rid of imperial dependence and raised the question of the national-territorial autonomy of Ukraine in the democratic Russian Federative Republic. This policy of the Central Council displeased the Provisional Government. Relations between Ukraine and Russia have worsened.
The Central Rada came to the conclusion that it was necessary to fight for the national and social liberation of Ukraine and the creation of its own conciliar independent state.
Belarus
A National Congress was convened in Belarus in March 1917, which spoke out for the autonomy of Belarus in a democratic federal Russia.
This position of the Belarusian national forces was voiced at the Congress of the Peoples of Russia, which took place in September 1917 in Kyiv. Representatives of Belarus entered the Council of Peoples, which advocated that Russia become an equal federation.
Transcaucasia
In Transcaucasia, the Transcaucasian Commissariat was created - a government that pursued a policy of separating Transcaucasia from Russia. On April 22, 1918, the Transcaucasian Sejm proclaimed an independent Transcaucasian Federative Republic, but it lasted only a month due to contradictions of a national-religious nature.
In May 1918 The Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani democratic republics were proclaimed. In Georgia, the Social Democratic Menshevik Party came to power. In Azerbaijan, power was seized by the nationalist Musavat (equality) party, which tried to create an independent Azerbaijani state.
A revolutionary party came to power in Armenia, advocating the creation of a national state and the struggle against Turkey. During the period from 1915 to 1918, almost 2 million people died in the fight against the Turks. However, a few weeks later the Armenian and Azerbaijani republics were occupied by Turkish troops. Georgia still retained its independence with the help of Germany. Turkey, Germany, and the Entente countries constantly intervened in the affairs of Georgia, offering their assistance.
Finland
After the February events of 1917, Finland fought for its independence in Petrograd. The Finnish Sejm demanded autonomy.
In March 1917, the government temporarily issued an act restoring the Constitution of the Grand Duchy of Finland, and the issue of autonomy was postponed until the convening of the Constituent Assembly.
Baltics
In the Baltics, after the February events in Russia, National Councils were formed, first raising the issue of autonomy, and then independence.
After the Bolsheviks came to power, Soviet power was established twice in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. However, relying on the help of Western countries, primarily England, the Baltic peoples defended their independence.
Tatars and Bashkirs
After the February events in Russia, National Councils were created and autonomous governments of the Tatars and Bashkirs were proclaimed.
At the beginning of 1918, the Bolsheviks dissolved the Tatar and Bashkir National Councils, arrested the leaders of the Tatars and Bashkirs and established Soviet power.
middle Asia
The situation in Central Asia was more complex than in the center. The backward, illiterate peasant population was under the influence of local feudal lords and the Muslim clergy. Various groups acted under national and religious slogans. The center of revolutionary events was Tashkent.
In November 1917, a regional congress of councils was convened, at which the Council of People's Commissars of the Turkestan region was created.