2. The formation of Soviet power
2.1 Introduction
The process of creating a new state covered the period from October 1917, the time of the beginning of the October Revolution, to the summer of 1818, when Soviet statehood was enshrined in the Constitution. The central thesis of the new government was the idea of exporting the world revolution and creating a socialist state. As part of this idea, the slogan “Workers of all countries, unite!” was put forward. The main task of the Bolsheviks was the issue of power, so the main attention was paid not to socio-economic transformations, but to the strengthening of central and regional authorities.
2.2 Supreme bodies of Soviet power
On October 25, 1917, the Second Congress of Soviets adopted the Decree on Power, which declared the transfer of all power to the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies. The arrest of the Provisional Government and the liquidation of local zemstvo and city councils were the first steps towards the destruction of the administration created by the previous government. On October 27, 1917, it was decided to form a Soviet government - the Council of People's Commissars (S/W), which should operate until the election of the Constituent Assembly. It included 62 Bolsheviks and 29 Left Socialist Revolutionaries. Instead of ministries, more than 20 people's commissariats (people's commissariats) were created. The highest legislative body was the Congress of Soviets, headed by Lenin. In between its meetings, legislative functions were carried out by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK), headed by L. Kamenev and M. Sverdlov. To combat counter-revolution and sabotage, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK) was formed, headed by F. Dzerzhinsky. Revolutionary courts were created for the same purpose. These bodies played a major role in the establishment of Soviet power and the dictatorship of the proletariat.
1.3 Constituent Assembly
In November-December 1917, elections to the Constituent Assembly were held, during which the Social Revolutionaries received 40% of the votes, the Bolsheviks - 24%, and the Mensheviks - 2%. Thus, the Bolsheviks did not receive a majority and, realizing the threat to one-man rule, were forced to disperse the Constituent Assembly. On November 28, a blow was dealt to the Cadet Party - members of the Constituent Assembly who were members of the Central Committee of the Cadet Party, P. Dolgorukov, F. Kokoshkin, V. Stepanov, A. Shingarev and others were arrested. At the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly, which opened on January 5, 1918 .in the Tauride Palace, the Bolsheviks and the Left Socialist Revolutionaries who supported them found themselves in the minority. The majority of delegates refused to recognize the Council of People's Commissars as the government and demanded the transfer of full power to the Constituent Assembly. Therefore, on the night of January 6-7, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee approved a decree dissolving the Constituent Assembly. Demonstrations in its support were dispersed. Thus, the last democratically elected body collapsed. The repressions that began with the Cadet Party showed that the Bolsheviks were striving for dictatorship and individual rule. Civil war became inevitable.
The Decree on Peace is the first decree of Soviet power. Developed by V. I. Ulyanov (Lenin) and unanimously adopted on October 26 (November 8), 1917 at the Second Congress of Soviets of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies after the Provisional Government of Russia was overthrown as a result of an armed coup.
Main provisions of the decree:
The Soviet workers' and peasants' government proposes "to all warring peoples and their governments to immediately begin negotiations on a just democratic peace" - namely, on "immediate peace without annexations and indemnities", that is, without the seizure of foreign territories and without violent recovery of material or monetary property from the vanquished compensation. Continuing the war is seen as "the greatest crime against humanity."
The Soviet government abolishes secret diplomacy, “expressing its firm intention to conduct all negotiations completely openly before all the people, proceeding immediately to the full publication of secret agreements confirmed or concluded by the government of landowners and capitalists from February to October 25, 1917,” and “declares unconditionally and immediately canceled "The entire content of these secret agreements.
The Soviet government proposes that “all governments and peoples of all warring countries immediately conclude a truce” in order to negotiate peace and finalize the terms of peace.
1.5 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
On October 25, 1917, power in Petrograd passed into the hands of the Bolsheviks, who spoke under the slogan: “Peace without annexations and indemnities! " They proposed to conclude such a peace to all the warring powers in the very first decree of the new government - the Decree on Peace. Since mid-November, at the proposal of the Soviet government, a truce was established on the Russian-German front. It was officially signed on December 2.
Bolshevik Konstantin Eremeev wrote: “The truce at the front made the soldiers’ desire to go home to the village uncontrollable. If after the February Revolution leaving the front was a common occurrence, now 12 million soldiers, the flower of the peasantry, felt superfluous in army units and extremely needed there, at home, where they “divide the land.”
The leakage occurred spontaneously, taking a wide variety of forms: many simply absented themselves without permission, leaving their units, most of them taking rifles and cartridges. No less a number used any legal means - on vacation, on various business trips... The timing did not matter, since everyone understood that it was only important to get out of military captivity, and there they were unlikely to demand it back.” The Russian trenches quickly emptied. In some sectors of the front, by January 1918, not a single soldier remained in the trenches, only here and there were isolated military posts.
Going home, the soldiers took their weapons, and sometimes even sold them to the enemy. On December 9, 1917, peace negotiations began in Brest-Litovsk, where the headquarters of the German command was located. The Soviet delegation tried to defend the idea of “peace without annexations and indemnities.” On January 28, 1918, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia. She demanded to sign an agreement under which Russia would lose Poland, Belarus and part of the Baltic states - a total of 150 thousand square kilometers. This confronted the Soviet delegation with a severe dilemma between the proclaimed principles and the demands of life. In accordance with the principles, it was necessary to wage war, and not to conclude a shameful peace with Germany. But there was no strength to fight. The head of the Soviet delegation, Leon Trotsky, like other Bolsheviks, painfully tried to resolve this contradiction. Finally it seemed to him that he had found a brilliant way out of the situation. On January 28, he delivered his famous peace speech at the negotiations. Briefly, it boiled down to the well-known formula: “Do not sign peace, do not wage war, disband the army.” Leon Trotsky stated: “We are withdrawing our army and our people from the war. Our soldier-plowman must return to his arable land in order to peacefully cultivate the land this spring, which the revolution transferred from the hands of the landowners to the hands of the peasant. We are leaving the war. We refuse to sanction the conditions that German and Austro-Hungarian imperialism are writing with a sword on the bodies of living peoples. We cannot put the signature of the Russian revolution under conditions that bring with them oppression, grief and misfortune to millions of human beings. The governments of Germany and Austria-Hungary want to own lands and peoples by right of military conquest. Let them do their work openly. We cannot sanctify violence. We are leaving the war, but we are forced to refuse to sign a peace treaty. “After this, he announced the official statement of the Soviet delegation: “By refusing to sign the annexationist treaty, Russia, for its part, declares the state of war ended. Russian troops are simultaneously given an order for complete demobilization along the entire front.”
German and Austrian diplomats were initially truly shocked by this incredible statement. There was complete silence in the room for several minutes. Then the German General M. Hoffmann exclaimed: “Unheard of!” The head of the German delegation, R. Kühlmann, immediately concluded: “Consequently, the state of war continues.” “Empty threats! “- said L. Trotsky, leaving the meeting room.
However, contrary to the expectations of the Soviet leadership, on February 18, Austro-Hungarian troops launched an offensive along the entire front. Almost no one opposed them: the advance of the armies was only hampered by bad roads. On the evening of February 23, they occupied Pskov, and on March 3, Narva. The Red Guard detachment of sailor Pavel Dybenko left this city without a fight. General Mikhail Bonch-Bruevich wrote about him: “Dybenko’s detachment did not inspire confidence in me; It was enough to look at these sailor freemen with mother-of-pearl buttons sewn onto their wide bell-bottoms and their rollicking manners to understand that they would not be able to fight with regular German units. My fears were justified... “On February 25, Vladimir Lenin wrote bitterly in the Pravda newspaper: “Painfully shameful reports about the refusal of the regiments to maintain positions, about the refusal to defend even the Narva line, about the failure to comply with the order to destroy everything and everyone during the retreat; Let’s not even talk about flight, chaos, lack of hands, helplessness, sloppiness.”
On February 19, the Soviet leadership agreed to accept German peace terms. But now Germany has put forward much more difficult conditions, demanding five times the territory. About 50 million people lived on these lands; Over 70% of iron ore and about 90% of coal in the country were mined here. In addition, Russia had to pay a huge indemnity.
Soviet Russia was forced to accept these very difficult conditions. The head of the new Soviet delegation, Grigory Sokolnikov, announced its statement: “Under the current conditions, Russia has no choice. By the fact of the demobilization of its troops, the Russian revolution seemed to transfer its fate into the hands of the German people. We do not doubt for a minute that this triumph of imperialism and militarism over the international proletarian revolution will turn out to be only temporary and transitory.” After these words, General Hoffmann exclaimed indignantly: “Again the same nonsense! " “We are ready,” G. Sokolnikov concluded, “to immediately sign a peace treaty, refusing any discussion of it as completely useless under the current conditions.”
On March 3, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed. Russia lost Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, part of Belarus... In addition, under the agreement, Russia transferred more than 90 tons of gold to Germany. The Brest-Litovsk Treaty did not last long; in November, after the revolution in Germany, Soviet Russia annulled it.
1.6 Policy towards the peasantry
The development of events largely depended on the Bolsheviks’ choice of the relationship between strategic and tactical tasks. The strategic meaning of the Bolsheviks’ actions was recorded by Lenin in the words about the October revolution: “We began our work solely with the expectation of a world revolution.” At the same time, the slogans of the coup itself were not of a purely socialist nature. The Bolsheviks (despite the fact that in February 1917 their party had less than 24 thousand members) managed to take power relatively easily. The liberalism of the Provisional Government was perceived by the masses as something inadequate to the realities of the moment. With the Peace Decree, the Bolsheviks secured armed support from the capital's garrisons. Trotsky openly admitted that the reluctance of the rear units to move from barracks to trench positions was taken advantage of. The slogans “All power to the Soviets” and “Land to the peasants” were also tactical in nature and corresponded to the sentiments of the peasantry, who made up the overwhelming majority of the population. The “Decree on Land” was based on the orders of peasant voters, borrowed from the Socialist Revolutionary program and provided for communal ownership of land with its redistribution according to the labor standard (the Bolshevik program was aimed at the nationalization of land and large-scale agricultural production with the displacement of commodity relations from it). The slogan “All power to the Soviets” in the minds of rural residents meant the complete predominance of the community world, village gatherings and meetings in resolving all local issues. Finally, the demand for the immediate convening of the Constituent Assembly played an important role in the implementation of the October coup.
With the help of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries who entered the Council of People's Commissars, the Bolsheviks tried to put the slogans of the October Revolution into practice. In an effort to attract peasants, they did not limit themselves to declarations, transferring to them landowners, monasteries and cabinet lands, supporting land redistribution on equalizing principles.
The tactics that were correctly “found” at the time of the coup could also contribute to the retention of power. The favor of the peasantry provided the Bolsheviks with a relative advantage in the inter-party struggle, and for the time being prevented the social conflict from developing into a massacre. However, the October tactics of the Bolsheviks inevitably came into conflict with their own strategy - the course towards a world proletarian revolution. Guided by theoretical schemes, the Bolsheviks declared the inevitability of a revolutionary explosion, if not on a global scale, then on a European scale. In his works “Imperialism, as the highest stage of capitalism” (1916) and “State and Revolution” (1917), Lenin spoke about socialism as a system that naturally follows from imperialism on the basis of the process of monopolization: “Socialism is a general state monopoly, but aimed at good for everyone."
The second part of Lenin’s formula implied the special role of the proletarian revolution, which is designed to deprive private individuals of the right to own a monopoly. At the same time, it was considered quite obvious that a complete monopoly was outside the national-state framework, taking on a planetary scale. From such theoretical constructions flowed the conviction of an impending “revolutionary fire” in Europe, for which the October events in Russia served only as a kind of “fuse.”
The Bolshevik strategy was reflected by the thesis about the dictatorship of the proletariat as a stage of transition to a communist system (that is, one in which there will be no state structures, commodity-money mechanisms, and differences between people will be reduced to a minimum). The dictatorship of the proletariat was identified with socialism. as a short-term stage of suppression of all anti-proletarian elements and destruction of private property. October tactics, therefore, had nothing in common with the thesis of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The consistent implementation of the tactical slogans “All power to the Soviets” and “Land to the peasants” in practice led to the removal of barriers to the “petty-bourgeois element”, to the triumph of the Socialist Revolutionary agrarian program, to the isolation of individual rural worlds, since with the omnipotence of local councils in a peasant country there is no There was no question of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The implementation of the October tactics quickly fizzled out.
In essence, the Bolsheviks did not raise the question of the priority of tactics at the expense of strategy. They connected the task of maintaining power not so much with the peasantry, but with the revolution they expected a hundredfold in the West. Back in September 1917, in the article “The Russian Revolution and the Civil War,” Lenin argued: “Having won power, the proletariat of Russia has every chance of retaining it and bringing Russia to a victorious revolution in the West.”
The task of maintaining power was solved by the dictatorship of the proletariat. The creation of its apparatus included the dispersal of old institutions or their organizational and personnel renewal, but the main thing was the emergence of bodies that performed the function of suppression. Since October 1917, revolutionary tribunals functioned - volost, district, provincial. 7 (20) December 191? The Cheka was created.
In January 1918, the Bolsheviks openly rejected the October tactics. Not receiving the desired majority in the Constituent Assembly, they dispersed it and refused the promise to transfer power to it. The emotional and psychological “lining” of Bolshevism was the indisputable conviction in the correctness of the theory adopted, that its implementation guarantees “universal happiness.” This conviction forced us to reject compromises with those who were historically doomed. Lenin, in his work “The Military Program of the Proletarian Revolution,” wrote: “To deny civil wars or forget about them would mean falling into extreme opportunism and renouncing the socialist revolution,”
The policy of suppressing entire classes could not but give rise to resistance. In a large part of society, in addition. elements of Russophobia and Bolshevik ideology caused rejection. People with a developed patriotic consciousness opposed the outright denial of Russian statehood. Anti-Bolshevik sentiment exploded in society after the “obscene” Brest Peace. However, the tension grew into a phase of active hostilities throughout the country, when the fundamental interests of the bulk of the population - the peasantry - were affected.
The inertia of the October tactics of the Bolsheviks in relation to the peasantry was felt approximately until May 1918, when surplus appropriation was introduced. Its implementation was accompanied by an ideological attack on the peasantry, criticism of its inertia, unwillingness to understand Marxist schemes and “fit in” with revolutionary progress. Lenin declared the peasantry as the bearer of the “petty-bourgeois element” to be the “main danger” for the socialist revolution. Trotsky “practically” assigned the role of “fertilizer for the world revolution” to the Russian peasantry.
The decree of June 11, 1918 introduced committees of the poor (kombedas), created as a counterweight to village councils. Lenin connected the beginning of the class struggle in the countryside with this decree (the cry “Death to the fist” was thrown), emphasizing that from October 1917 until the decree on the Communist Party was issued, the Bolsheviks “went with the entire peasantry. In this sense... the revolution then was bourgeois.” The committees of the poor took part in the confiscation of grain reserves and the confiscation of land plots from wealthy peasants. Peasant state farms and communes were forcefully created, the high degree of socialization in which deprived villagers of even personal property. The pressure on the Cossacks of the Don, Kuban, Terek, and Orenburg regions increased. Peasant and Cossack uprisings began to flare up.
9) 1 – d, 2 – c, 3 – a, 4 – b
10) 1 – c, 2 – a, 3 – d, 4 – b
Immediately after taking power, the Bolsheviks began to form a new political system.
The II All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies formed a Provisional (until the convening of the constituent assembly) government - the Council of People's Commissars headed by V. I. Ulyanov (Lenin) and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee headed by L. B. Kamenev. From that moment on, the process of organizing central power in Petrograd began, as well as its approval locally.
Since the Bolsheviks took power by force, it was initially important for them to give it a legitimate character, to show that it was supported by various political forces. For this purpose, despite many fundamental differences with the left Socialist Revolutionaries (leader - M.A. Spiridonova), Lenin entered into an alliance with them, which lasted until July 1918.
Locally, Bolshevik power was established until February 1918, and out of 97 large cities in the country, this transition was peaceful in 79 cases. In Moscow, the formation of a new government took place during fierce battles that ended only on November 3.
At first, few people believed that the Bolsheviks would hold out at least until the convening of the Constituent Assembly (their chances of success seemed too insignificant). Representatives of the overthrown government also tried to “help” them. The head of the Provisional Government, A.F. Kerensky, arriving at the headquarters of the Northern Front, directed the troops to Petrograd, but they were defeated. The attempts of the “Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution”, formed in the capital from all opponents of the armed seizure of power, also did not find support among the population.
Military revolutionary committees under the leadership of the Bolsheviks were created in all armies and at the fronts. Instead of General N.N. Dukhonin, N.V. Krylenko was appointed Supreme Commander.
Rejection of the new government led to the beginning of the formation of the first centers of resistance to it. They arose initially in the Don, Kuban and Southern Urals - in places with a large proportion of the Cossack population. Already in November 1917, the Volunteer Army began to form on the Don, the core of which consisted of officers of the tsarist army and the Cossack elite, and was headed by the ataman of the Don Army A. M. Kaledin. However, the first performances of this new force were repulsed by revolutionary troops at the beginning of 1918. The performance of armed detachments led by the ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army A.I. Dutov had a similar result.
After the adoption of the “Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia” on November 2, 1917, Soviet power was established in Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states, and Baku. At the same time, in December 1917, a new government; had to recognize the independence of Poland and Finland.
At this stage, all attempts by anti-Bolshevik forces to find mass support in the fight against the new government were in vain. The main reason for this was that, unlike the Provisional Government, the Council of People's Commissars began to solve almost all the main tasks, which were only talked about throughout 1917.
In November 1917, elections to the Constituent Assembly took place. It was the most democratic elected body created in the entire previous history of the country. Leaders of all political parties and large public organizations, many deputies of the State Duma, famous scientists, etc. were elected as deputies. The opening of the meeting took place on January 5, 1918. The leader of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, V. M. Chernov, was elected as its chairman. . The Bolshevik leadership first demanded to approve all the decrees of the Council of People's Commissars adopted after the Second Congress of Soviets, and thereby approve the actions of the Bolsheviks. The next logical step should have been to confirm the powers of the Bolshevik leadership. However, the deputies refused to comply. Then the Constituent Assembly was dissolved, and to legitimize their power, the Bolsheviks convened the Third Congress of Soviets. It saw the unification of the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies with the Soviets of Peasants' Deputies. The “Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People” was adopted, which was based on the decisions made in the first decrees of the Soviet government: the class system was abolished; the church was separated from the state, and the school from the church; women were given equal legal rights with men; The Congress of Soviets was declared the highest legislative body, and between congresses the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was declared. Ya. M. Sverdlov was elected Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Lenin was re-elected as the head of the now permanent government - the Council of People's Commissars (SNK).
In December 1917, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK) was created, whose functions were to “fight counter-revolution and sabotage,” and in January 1918, the Red Army (formed on a voluntary basis according to the class principle).
In the regions, the Soviets dissolved city dumas and zemstvos and took full power into their own hands.
However, the main feature of the organization of the new government, both in the center and locally, was that it was based on party leadership, exercised at all levels through members of the Bolshevik Party delegated to the bodies of Soviet power. Taking into account the majority that they had while maintaining a bloc with the Left Social Revolutionaries, any decision of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) or the local party body was adopted, if necessary, as a decision of the Council. From the very beginning of the existence of the new government, the merging of the party and Soviet apparatus began in the center and locally.
The base of the socialist revolution was internal Russia with its industrial, cultural and political centers. During the first days of the revolution - from October 25 to October 31 (November 7-13), 1917 - the power of the Soviets was established in 16 provincial centers, and by the end of November - in all the most important industrial centers and on the main fronts of the active army. The workers of Petrograd, Moscow and other proletarian centers played a major role in the establishment of Soviet power locally. The Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee sent more than 600 agitators, 106 commissars and 61 instructors to various provinces. The Soviet government sent about 10 thousand workers to the villages to carry out revolutionary work.
The establishment of Soviet power in various regions of the country had its own characteristics. In a number of large industrial and political centers of the country, where the Soviets, even during the preparation of the socialist revolution, went over to the side of the Bolsheviks and were actually the masters of the situation, Soviet power was established quickly and mostly peacefully. This was the case in Lugansk, in Ivanovo-Voznesensk and throughout the Ivanovo-Kineshma working district, in Yekaterinburg, Ufa, most other cities of the Urals, in the cities of the Volga region - Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Tsaritsyn. But in some cities the counter-revolution imposed armed struggle on the workers and peasants.
The establishment of Soviet power in the vast territories of Siberia and the Far East took place under difficult conditions. Here, due to the absence of landownership and developed industry, the class struggle was not yet so acute. The village was dominated by a strong layer of kulaks. The few workers were scattered in isolated industrial oases, mainly along the Siberian Railway. There were few Bolshevik organizations; Among the workers and especially among the peasants, the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks still enjoyed significant influence. In Omsk, Irkutsk, Chita and other places, until the autumn of 1917, there were united social democratic organizations, which included Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, which also slowed down the struggle for Soviet power.
Under the leadership of the Central Committee of the Party, the Bolsheviks of Siberia and the Far East quickly created military organizations and launched a successful struggle for the victory of the socialist revolution. On October 29 (November 11), Soviet power was established in Krasnoyarsk, and on November 29 (December 12) in Vladivostok. Having defeated the counter-revolutionary forces in armed struggle, on November 30 (December 13) the Omsk Council took power into its own hands. On December 10 (23), the III Regional Congress of Soviets of Western Siberia, which met in Omsk, proclaimed the establishment of Soviet power throughout Western Siberia. With the support of the Red Guard detachments of Krasnoyarsk and other cities, the workers of Irkutsk at the end of December 1917 defeated the White Guards who rebelled against Soviet power. On December 6 (19), power passed to the Council in Khabarovsk. On December 14 (27), the III Regional Congress of Soviets of the Far East, which met there, adopted a declaration on the transfer of all power to the Soviets in the Primorsky and Amur regions. By the end of January 1918, the so-called Siberian Regional Duma, which claimed power in Siberia, was liquidated and expelled from Tomsk. The victory of Soviet power in Siberia and the Far East was consolidated by the Second All-Siberian Congress of Soviets, held in February 1918 in Irkutsk.
The defeat of the Cossack counter-revolution on the Don, led by Ataman Kaledin, required great efforts from the Soviet government. Having declared the Don Army’s disobedience to the Soviet government, Kaledin took the path of open war against Soviet power. The leaders of the Russian counter-revolution - Miliukov, Kornilov, Denikin and their accomplices - rushed to the Don. Kaledin established contacts with the counter-revolutionary Cossacks of Kuban, Terek, Astrakhan, with the Cossack ataman Dutov in Orenburg and other counter-revolutionary forces. The imperialist states sent Kaledin money and weapons.
The governments of England, France and the United States hoped to overthrow Soviet power with Kaledin's help. United States Secretary of State Lansing wrote in a report to President Wilson: “The most organized force capable of putting an end to Bolshevism and strangling the government is the group of General Kaledin... Its defeat will mean the transfer of the entire country into the hands of the Bolsheviks... It is necessary to strengthen the hope among Kaledin’s allies that they will receive moral and material assistance from our government if their movement becomes strong enough.”
American financiers, the French and British governments provided Kaledin with large sums of money to organize an anti-Soviet rebellion. The American Red Cross mission tried to transport armored cars and vehicles to the Don. At the same time, with the money of foreign imperialists, the tsarist generals Alekseev and Kornilov began forming the White Guard, the so-called volunteer army.
Kaledin managed to capture Rostov-on-Don in November, and then Taganrog. Having established a regime of bloody terror in these cities, Kaledin announced that he intended to launch a campaign against Moscow.
The Soviet government sent Red Guard detachments and revolutionary units from Moscow, Petrograd and Donbass to defeat Kaledin. The Bolshevik Party launched explanatory work among the Cossacks. In January, a congress of front-line Cossacks took place in the village of Kamenskaya. It was attended by representatives of the Central Committee and the Rostov Underground Committee of the Bolshevik Party. The Congress recognized Soviet power, formed the Don Revolutionary Committee headed by the Cossack F. G. Podtelkov, elected a delegation to the upcoming III All-Russian Congress of Soviets and declared war on Kaledin. Kaledin found himself attacked from the front and rear. Convinced that the situation was hopeless, Kaledin shot himself.
In early February, the workers of Taganrog rebelled and established Soviet power in the city. Detachments of the Red Guard came close to Rostov and Novocherkassk. On February 24, Soviet troops took Rostov, and a day later Novocherkassk. Soviet power was established on the Don.
Together with the Russian people, numerous peoples of the national borderlands of Russia selflessly fought for the establishment of Soviet power. The unification of the revolutionary forces of the various peoples and nationalities of Russia was ensured by Lenin's national policy. Its basic principles were legally enshrined in the Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia, adopted by the Council of People's Commissars on November 2 (15), 1917. The Declaration proclaimed the equality and sovereignty of the peoples of Russia, their right to free self-determination, up to the separation and formation of an independent state, the abolition of all national and national-religious privileges and restrictions, free development of national minorities and ethnic groups inhabiting the territory of Russia. In the appeal “To all working Muslims of Russia and the East”, in the Manifesto to the Ukrainian people and other acts, the Soviet government clearly showed the radical, fundamental difference between its national liberation policy and the policy of the Provisional Government.
The policy of proletarian internationalism rallied the working people of all nations around Soviet power. However, the peculiarities of the socio-economic and political development of the national outskirts affected the course of the struggle for the establishment of Soviet power. The socialist revolution met here with fierce resistance from bourgeois-nationalist organizations that arose even before the October Revolution (Ukrainian and Belarusian Radas, Kurultai in Crimea, Alash-Orda in Kazakhstan, etc.), which now, having created counter-revolutionary nationalist “governments” and hiding behind the flag struggle for national independence, declared war on Soviet power. Active counter-revolutionary elements who rushed here after the October Revolution formed blocs with bourgeois nationalists and tried to turn national regions into centers of counter-revolution. The revolutionary forces in the national regions also experienced incomparably greater pressure from foreign imperialists than in the center. The difficulties of the struggle for Soviet power were also associated with the absence or small number of the proletariat and the weakness of the Bolshevik organizations, which in turn led to a relatively greater influence of the conciliatory and nationalist parties on the working masses.
Soviet power quickly won in the part of Belarus and the Baltic states not occupied by the Germans. On the territory of Belarus, in Mogilev, there were the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the bourgeois-nationalist Belarusian Rada, a large number of counter-revolutionary formations, the corps of General Dovbor-Musnitsky, formed from Poles - soldiers of the old army, shock battalions, etc. These counter-revolutionary forces posed a serious threat to Soviet power, since they could be used against Petrograd and Moscow at any moment. But they did not have any support among the people. Even on the eve of the October Revolution, the Bolshevik organizations of Belarus and the Western Front had a majority in the Soviets and soldiers' committees, which allowed the Minsk Council to take power in the city on October 25 (November 7), 1917. Soon this was done by Gomel, Mogilev, Vitebsk and other Soviets. As the Executive Committee of the Soviets of the Western Region indicated in its report to the Soviet government, the transfer of power to the Soviets in all more or less large points took only two weeks.
In the second half of November, a regional congress of Soviets of workers' and soldiers' deputies, a front-line congress and a congress of peasant councils took place in Minsk. Representatives of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party, the Council of People's Commissars and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee G.K. Ordzhonikidze and V. Volodarsky participated in the work of these congresses. In Belarus, the Council of People's Commissars of the Western Region was formed, headed by a prominent figure of the Bolshevik Party A.F. Myasnikov.
The struggle for the establishment of Soviet power in the unoccupied part of the Baltic States ended successfully. On October 24 (November 6) an uprising began in Reval (Tallinn), and on October 26 (November 8) the Military Revolutionary Committee published an appeal about the victory of the revolution and the establishment of Soviet power in Estonia. In Latvia, in the city of Valk (Valga), on December 16-17 (29-30), under the leadership of the Bolsheviks, a congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Farmers' Deputies was held. The congress elected the first Soviet government of Latvia.
The working people of Ukraine strongly supported the initiative of the Russian proletariat. The revolutionary workers and soldiers of Kyiv already on October 25 (November 7) came out with a demand for the immediate transfer of power into the hands of the Soviets. But in response to this, counter-revolutionary representatives of the Provisional Government published an appeal calling for a fight against Soviet power.
The working class of Ukraine, under the leadership of the Bolsheviks, rose to defend the Soviets. Workers of the Arsenal plant, the 3rd aircraft park and other enterprises in Kyiv insisted on taking decisive measures against the counter-revolution. On October 27 (November 9), at a joint meeting of the Council of Workers' Deputies and the Council of Soldiers' Deputies, the Military Revolutionary Committee was created. The next day its members were arrested, but this blow did not break the will of the masses. A new revolutionary committee was formed, under whose leadership the workers and revolutionary soldiers of Kyiv began an armed uprising on October 29 (November 11). In three days of fighting they suppressed resistance to the counter-revolution. However, the Central Rada summoned regiments from the front that were under the influence of Ukrainian bourgeois nationalists, and, having created a superiority in forces, seized power in Kyiv. The Rada, with the help of demagoguery, attracted to its side a significant part of the peasantry, mainly the wealthy, and proclaimed its power over the whole of Ukraine. On November 7 (20), she published the so-called Third Universal, in which she declared disobedience to the Soviet government of Russia. The Rada entered into an agreement with the commander of the Romanian Front, General Shcherbachev, to merge the Romanian and Southwestern Fronts into a single Ukrainian Front under the command of the same Shcherbachev and entered into an alliance with Ataman Kaledin.
The hostile actions of the Central Rada forced the Council of People's Commissars to present it with December 4 (17). 1917 ultimatum demanding to stop the disorganization of the front, not to allow counter-revolutionary units to enter the Don, to renounce the alliance with Kaledin, to return weapons to the revolutionary regiments and Red Guard detachments in Ukraine. The Soviet government warned the Rada that if it did not receive a satisfactory response, it would consider the Rada in a state of open war with Soviet power. At the same time, the Council of People's Commissars, in a manifesto to the Ukrainian people, recognized the independence of Ukraine and
exposed the counter-revolutionary character of the Rada, its anti-Soviet and anti-national policies.
The Rada did not give a satisfactory answer to the ultimatum of the Soviet government and turned for support to the governments of the Entente countries, who hastened to recognize it and come to its aid. The masses of Ukraine were convinced from experience that the Rada is an organ of the dictatorship of the nationalist Ukrainian bourgeoisie, a servant of foreign capital.
In Ukraine, the flame of the people's struggle flared up against the Rada and its imperialist patrons. The revolutionary Donbass did not recognize the power of the Rada. The Kharkov Bolsheviks, under the leadership of a member of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party Artem (F.A. Sergeev), having suppressed the local counter-revolution and established Soviet power in the city, set out together with the Donbass Soviets to fight for Soviet power throughout Ukraine.
On December 11 (24), 1917, the First Congress of Soviets of Ukraine opened in Kharkov. On December 12 (25), he proclaimed Soviet power in Ukraine, elected the Central Executive Committee and formed the Soviet Government of Ukraine - the People's Secretariat, which included Artem (F. A. Sergeev), E. B. Bosh, Yu. M. Kotsyubinsky and other. The congress announced the establishment of a close union between Soviet Ukraine and Soviet Russia. The Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Republic welcomed the Soviet government of Ukraine and promised it full support in the fight against counter-revolution.
Soviet power won in Ekaterinoslav, Odessa, Chernigov and a number of other Ukrainian cities. On January 16 (29), 1918, a new armed uprising began in Kyiv. This made the task easier for the revolutionary detachments advancing on Kyiv. On January 26 (February 8) they captured Kiev. The Rada fled to Volyn. Soviet power established itself throughout almost the entire territory of Ukraine, Crimea and Moldova.
At the beginning of 1918, after a stubborn struggle, Soviet power was also established in
many large centers of Kuban, the Black Sea region, and in March throughout the North Caucasus. Outstanding organizers of the struggle for Soviet power in the North Caucasus were S. G. Buachidze, U. D. Buinaksky, S. M. Kirov, G. K. Ordzhonikidze.
In Transcaucasia, the struggle for Soviet power was particularly complex and protracted. This was due to many reasons: the absence of large industrial centers, except Baku, and the small number of the proletariat; interethnic enmity fueled by the exploiters for a long time; the weakness of local Bolshevik organizations and the great activity of long-established bourgeois-nationalist parties, which, with the help of nationalist and social demagoguery, acquired significant influence on the masses; direct intervention of foreign imperialists.
In Baku, the proletarian center of Transcaucasia, where the workers’ struggle was led by a strong Bolshevik organization headed by S. G. Shaumyan, P. A. Japaridze, M. Azyzbekov and others, Soviet power was established on October 31 (November 13). The Soviets soon won almost all of Azerbaijan. But on November 15 (28), counter-revolutionary nationalist parties - Georgian Mensheviks, Armenian Dashnaks and Azerbaijani Musavatists - with the direct support of foreign imperialists, created their own body of bourgeois power in Tbilisi, the so-called Transcaucasian Commissariat. They launched fierce anti-Soviet propaganda, organized armed gangs with the help of White Guard generals and foreign agents, and villainously shot revolutionary soldiers returning from the Turkish front in January 1918.
The struggle for Soviet power in Transcaucasia dragged on for a long time. The working people of Transcaucasia completed it victoriously only in 1920-1921.
In the Urals, the Cossack ataman Dutov raised an anti-Soviet rebellion in December 1917 in the Orenburg region. He was supported by the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, the bourgeoisie and landowners, Kazakh and Bashkir nationalists, and foreign imperialists. By capturing Orenburg, Dutov cut off Central Asia from Soviet Russia and created a threat to the existence of Soviet power in the industrial centers of the Urals and Volga region. Dutov tried to establish direct contact with Kaledin.
The Soviet government sent detachments of Red Guards, revolutionary sailors and soldiers from Petrograd and Moscow to fight Dutov. The workers of the Urals, Volga region, Central Asia, and Kazakhstan took part in the defeat of the Dutovism. A prominent member of the Bolshevik organization in the Urals, P. A. Kobozev, was appointed extraordinary commissar for the fight against Dutovism.
On January 18 (31), 1918, revolutionary troops, with the support of the rebel workers, captured Orenburg and defeated the Cossack counter-revolution. Dutov with a handful of his followers disappeared into the Turgai steppe. The Council of Workers', Soldiers', Peasants' and Cossacks' Deputies took control of power in Orenburg.
The defeat of Dutov’s troops played a big role in the establishment of Soviet power in Kazakhstan and Central Asia.
In Central Asia, the center of the socialist revolution was Tashkent. On October 28 (November 10), 1917, railway workers and revolutionary soldiers rose up in armed struggle. Fierce fighting raged in the city for four days. Fighting squads from a number of cities in Central Asia and Kazakhstan arrived to help the rebel workers of Tashkent. On October 31 (November 13), the armed uprising in Tashkent was victorious. The power of the Turkestan Committee of the Provisional Government fell. At the III Regional Congress of Soviets held in mid-November in Tashkent, the Soviet government was formed - the Council of People's Commissars of Turkestan.
The different balance of class forces in different regions of Central Asia and Kazakhstan led to the fact that in some cities and regions the struggle for Soviet power dragged on for several months. Basically, this process was completed by March 1918, when the main forces and centers of the bourgeois-nationalist counter-revolution in Central Asia (Kokand Autonomy) and Kazakhstan (Alash Horde), as well as the Ural, Orenburg and Semirechensk White Cossacks were defeated.
Thus, in the period from October 1917 to March 1918, Soviet power was established throughout almost the entire territory of Russia. Characterizing this triumphal march, V.I. Lenin wrote: “A wave of civil war rose throughout Russia, and everywhere we won with extraordinary ease precisely because the fruit was ripe, because the masses had already gone through all the experience of coming to terms with the bourgeoisie. Our slogan “All power to the Soviets,” practically tested by the masses through long historical experience, has become their flesh and blood.”
The October Revolution and fundamental changes in the state and
social system of Russia. Constitution of the RSFSR of 1918.
After the fall of the autocracy in February 1917, Russia developed along the path of a parliamentary republic. However, the democratization of public administration, judicial bodies and public life in the crisis conditions of war and growing economic devastation resulted in a total collapse of the institutions of power. The provisional government was never able to cope with this destructive process.
As a result of the political and economic crisis that developed in the fall of 1917 in Russia, events occurred that radically changed the course of development of the Russian state.
These and many other factors predetermined the October Revolution of 1917, the transfer of full power to the Soviets, and the creation of the Soviet state. The Soviet state and law were fundamentally different from all that had previously existed. But it was not born by chance, but became a consequence of certain historical factors, the main one of which was Great October Socialist Revolution.
The October Revolution and fundamental changes in the state and social system of Russia.
The revolution was caused by certain objective and subjective reasons. This is discussed in most detail in the monograph of the famous Russian historian, Professor I.Ya. Froyanov “October the Seventeenth” (looking from the present). St. Petersburg, 1997.
First of all, this class antagonisms between labor and capital, which is typical for any bourgeois society. The Russian bourgeoisie was unable or unwilling to reduce the intensity of the class struggle as much as possible.
has not been resolved peasant question. The peasants were not satisfied with either the reform of 1861 or Stolypin's transformations. They openly wanted to get all the land. In addition, as a result of the differentiation of the peasantry in the countryside, a new contradiction has intensified. Along with the landowner, there also appeared a kulak who came out of the community and became rich as a result of the redistribution of peasant lands.
By 1917, the national contradictions, the national liberation movement grew sharply.
It was also important World War, in which Russia was one of the warring parties. The bulk of the population and, especially, the soldiers suffered from the diverse hardships of the war and wanted peace to be concluded as quickly as possible. Only the top of the bourgeoisie, who made enormous capital from military supplies, advocated continuing the war to a victorious end.
On the other hand, the war armed the millions of people, taught them how to use weapons, and created a psychological prerequisite for overcoming the moral barrier that prohibits a person from killing other people.
Another important prerequisite was that Provisional Government lost its authority among the bulk of the population, without solving a single most important issue posed by the revolution.
Among the subjective factors, a number of the most important should be noted:
Wide popularity in society of socialist ideas in the elections to the Constituent Assembly; all socialist parties together received 85% of the mandates);
Unpopularity of bourgeois and monarchist views among the broad masses (the Kadet Party received only 5% of the mandates in the elections);
The existence in Russia of a party ready to lead the masses to revolution - the Bolshevik, the presence of a strong leader, authoritative both in the party itself and among the people (V.I. Ulyanova-Lenin).
The historical prerequisite for the emergence of Soviet statehood were the views of K. Marx, F. Engels, developed politically by V.I. Lenin. The course of Lenin's thought was such that the revolution for our country is not a national catastrophe, but a means of preventing or saving it, a new political basis for the comprehensive development of civilization.
According to academician P.G. Volobuev, the October Revolution in those conditions was a Russian version of the path to modern industrial civilization, different from the Western European one.
In this regard, the thought of the American scientist A.E. is interesting. Rabinovich, professor at Indiana University, USA. He believes that the October Revolution is one of the most important events of the twentieth century. In his opinion, it became a turning point in the history not only of Russia itself, but also had a huge, both positive and negative impact on the fate of Europe.
A.E. Rabinovich notes two main reasons for the Bolshevik victory. First is that the Bolshevik Party in 1917 was a democratic and decentralized organization that had broad connections with the masses. The Bolsheviks knew better the mood of the masses and their aspirations. Second the reason, directly following from the first, is that the program of action of the Bolsheviks proceeded from the knowledge of the masses. The slogans put forward by them most of all reflected the desires of the people: peace, land for the peasants, power for the Soviets.
The October Revolution opened up the opportunity to implement the ideal state-legal concept in practice on a national scale.
The October armed uprising won victory in Petrograd with great ease and almost bloodlessly. Its result was the emergence of the Soviet state.
Events in October 1917 developed very rapidly. On October 12, on the initiative of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party, the Military Revolutionary Committee under the Petrograd Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies and existed until December 5, 1917. It was a non-partisan body.
Created as a legal body to counter the counter-revolutionary plans of the Provisional Government, it soon became the body for preparing and carrying out the uprising in Petrograd.
On October 21, 1917, after rallies and resolutions, the St. Petersburg garrison recognized the Council as its supreme power and named the Military Revolutionary Committee as its immediate leader.
The Military Revolutionary Committee was the highest authority in the country from 10 a.m. on October 25, 1917 until the adoption at 5 a.m. on October 26, 1917 by the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies of the appeal “To Workers, Soldiers and Peasants,” which stated that “ ...the congress takes power into its own hands...”
In fact, the Military Revolutionary Committee was one for much longer, gradually losing these powers with the opening of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, with the formation of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars. with the creation of departments of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the apparatus of the People's Commissariats.
The Military Revolutionary Committee had real power, relying on Red Guard detachments, army units loyal to the Bolsheviks, navy sailors, regional and Petrograd Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, Soviets and local military revolutionary committees.
The Military Revolutionary Committee appointed its commissars to military units, individual institutions, enterprises in Petrograd and to the provinces. From its creation until November 10, 1917, it appointed 184 commissioners to civilian institutions, 85 to military units and 72 to the provinces.
The commissars of the Military Revolutionary Committee were given powers to reorganize the state apparatus, dismiss personnel, and the right to arrest “obvious counter-revolutionaries.” They had to act in close contact with general meetings and committees of soldiers and workers, with the Soviets.
This was, in essence, the only well-established apparatus (along with the Soviets) through which the new government carried out all state activities. In terms of its competence, it was a comprehensive emergency body of the Soviet state.
After the victory of the October Uprising, the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee became an all-Russian body. His connections and relations with other authorities (the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars) were determined by the requirements of the moment.
The first task of any revolutionary government is to prevent its liquidation by military means until it has taken shape and received a minimum of popular support. The most dangerous period is the first hours and days, when even information about the seizure of power has not yet spread in society.
Immediately after October 25, 1917, the Soviet government had to repulse the attack on Petrograd by Kerensky-Krasnov's troops, and in Petrograd itself - eliminate the cadets' performance. These counter-revolutionary actions were not successful; they revealed the decline in strength and spirit of the Provisional Government, which had exhausted its potential.
The problem faced the new state with all its severity exit from the world imperialist war. Even in the summer of 1917, it became obvious that after the destruction of the statehood of Tsarist Russia, it was impossible to continue the war. Having taken power under the slogan of “peace without annexations and indemnities,” the Soviets began peace negotiations, and on March 3, 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed with Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey (with annexations and indemnities).
Against the background of the continuous emergence and solution of critical, urgent problems that threatened complete collapse, the formation of a new state began.
The state apparatus of Tsarist Russia was largely broken in February. The new order has not yet taken shape; it was replaced by “temporary structures”, because The leaders of the liberal-bourgeois revolution took the position of “non-decision”.
The processes of breaking down the bourgeois state apparatus and creating a new one were interconnected.
Let us consider the practice of the formation of the Soviet state after October.
The creation of the Soviet state system proper began with II All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which began its work on the night of October 25-26.
The absolute majority of the Soviets represented at the congress demanded the elimination of the power of landowners and capitalists and its transfer into the hands of the Soviets.
A group of Menshevik and Right Socialist Revolutionary leaders who objected to the armed uprising demanded that the congress be suspended, but was not supported by the majority of delegates. Hoping to disrupt the work of the congress, their supporters (about 10% of the congress delegates) left it. In this regard, among a certain part of domestic and foreign historians there is a point of view about the unrepresentativeness of the congress. However, the facts indicate the opposite. The entire Russia of that time, including its national regions, was represented at the congress. Not even all the rank and file members of the Menshevik and Right Socialist Revolutionary Party left the congress.
The very first document of the congress - the Address: “To Workers, Soldiers and Peasants” - stated that “... the congress takes power into its own hands,” and the Provisional Government was overthrown. The congress decided that local power would pass to the Soviets of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies. Thus, the congress legally formalized the Republic of Soviets.
The congress adopted two important decrees: “On Peace” and “On Land”. All warring peoples and their governments were asked to immediately conclude a truce and begin negotiations for a just, democratic peace.
The congress elected All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK), which consisted mainly of Bolsheviks and representatives of some other left parties (left Socialist Revolutionaries, Ukrainian socialists), since the Mensheviks and right Socialist Revolutionaries left the congress in protest against the usurpation of power by the Bolsheviks. L.B. Rosenfeld (Kamenev) became the Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee was declared the highest authority in the country during the breaks between congresses of Soviets.
It consisted of 101 people, among whom were 62 Bolsheviks and 29 Left Socialist Revolutionaries. The working body of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was its Presidium, which prepared materials for the meetings of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Trying to find a compromise among all left forces, the congress decided that the All-Russian Central Executive Committee could be replenished with representatives of groups that left the congress.
At the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets, it was created Council of People's Commissars(SNK) headed by V.I. Lenin, called upon to play the role of the Russian government until the Constituent Assembly.
The government was headed by V.I. Lenin, L.D. became People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs. Bronstein (Trotsky), People's Commissar for Internal Affairs - A.I. Rykov, People's Commissar for Nationalities - I.V. Dzhugashvili (Stalin). The creation of the apparatus of the People's Commissariats was greatly complicated by the massive sabotage of officials of the previous ministries and the lack of personnel.
At the end of October 1917, the Mensheviks and Right Socialist Revolutionaries, who stood in opposition to the Bolsheviks, decided to liquidate the Bolshevik monopoly on power using extra-parliamentary methods. Occupying a dominant position in the All-Russian Executive Committee of the Railway Workers' Trade Union (Vikzhel), they, threatening a general strike in transport, demanded in an ultimatum the creation of a “uniform socialist government” from representatives of all socialist parties. This idea was supported by some Bolshevik leaders: Kamenev, Rykov and others.
As a result of the internal party discussion, supporters of V.I. won. Lenin and L.D. Trotsky, and 15 members of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b) and the Council of People's Commissars, who were inclined towards the option of creating a coalition government, were forced to resign. Ya.M. became the Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Sverdlov.
On November 1, 1917, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a resolution on the terms of an agreement with other parties: their recognition of the program of the Soviet state, expressed in the above-mentioned decrees; recognition of the need to fight counter-revolution (Kerensky, Kornilov, Kaledin); recognition of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies as the only source of power and responsibility of the government to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.
At the Extraordinary All-Russian Congress of Railway Workers held in December 1917, the policies of the Vikzhel leadership were condemned, and the delegates spoke out in favor of supporting the Soviet government. Thus, the crisis was eliminated.
On November 4, 1917, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a resolution on the right of the Council of People's Commissars to issue urgent decrees within the framework of the general program of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets. Thus, three bodies were endowed with legislative powers: the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars.
On November 15, 1917, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, elected by the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, merged with the Executive Committee (108 people), elected at the Extraordinary All-Russian Peasants' Congress.
This significantly strengthened the position of the new government. A joint meeting of these Central Executive Committees and the Petrograd Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies unanimously confirmed the laws “On Land”, “On Peace” and “Regulations on Workers' Control” adopted by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.
An important document of a constitutional nature was adopted by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on January 3, 1918. Declaration of the Rights of Working and Exploited People. It determined the geographical scope of the competence of the Soviet state (Russia) and the type of state (Soviet Republic).
Local authorities and management. On the eve of the October Revolution, city and zemstvo bodies of self-government existed locally. Councils of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, Councils of Peasants' Deputies, Commissars of the Provisional Government, bodies of class self-government.
The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies approved the principle of sovereignty and autocracy of the Soviets at the local level, and also announced the abolition of the positions of commissars of the Provisional Government. By the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of November 10, 1917, all classes and class divisions of citizens and class organizations and institutions were abolished.
Local power passed to the Soviets. Thus, during the period from October 25, 1917 to February 11, 1918, Soviet power was established in 90 provincial and other large cities. The process of merging the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies with the Soviets of Peasants' Deputies began.
The Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of November 24, 1917 established the right of voters to recall their elected representatives, including from local Soviets. Local Soviets created their own armed formations (workers' militia), which strengthened their power.
The Soviets were a form of power that most corresponded to the level of political culture, the traditions of life of the Russian people, and the conditions of 1917.
They were characterized by such features as election, collective decision-making, delegation of powers from lower bodies to higher ones, unity of legislative, executive, judicial powers (less bureaucracy), and omnipotence in solving everyday problems.
The Soviet state took a selective approach to zemstvo and city self-government bodies: those who actively opposed Soviet power were abolished, loyalists were temporarily retained until local Soviets created their own apparatus. This process was completed by August 1918.
In order to unify local authorities, the NKVD addressed all Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', Peasants' and Farmers' Deputies on December 24, 1917 and sent out instructions “On the rights and responsibilities of the Soviets.” It noted that the Councils are independent in resolving local issues, but must act in accordance with the regulations of central bodies and higher Councils. This was an important step towards a unified state system with a hierarchy of powers.
The Councils and their bodies were entrusted with the tasks of managing and servicing the administrative, economic, financial, cultural and educational aspects of local life. They were given the right to issue decrees, i.e. local regulations. The councils elected an executive body (executive committee, presidium) from among their members, to which they entrusted the implementation of resolutions and all current management work.
Local Soviets could make requisitions and confiscations, impose fines, close counter-revolutionary press organs, make arrests, dissolve public organizations that called for active opposition or the overthrow of Soviet power. As a temporary measure, it was allowed to appoint commissars to those provinces and districts where the power of the Soviets was not sufficiently strengthened. The councils were government funded.
The Bolsheviks were the first party in terms of the number of deputies in local Soviets. Thus, in the composition of the congresses of provincial councils in 19 provinces in the first half of 1918, the Bolsheviks were about 47.5%, and representatives of other parties, mainly the left Socialist Revolutionaries - about 25%. On June 14, 1918, representatives of the Socialist Revolutionaries (right and center) and the RSDLP (Mensheviks) were expelled from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and all Soviets were asked to “remove representatives of these factions from their midst.”
constituent Assembly. On October 27, 1917, at its first meeting, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to hold elections to the Constituent Assembly on the date appointed by the Provisional Government - November 12, 1917. The elections took place according to lists drawn up before the revolution.
For example, the left and right Socialist Revolutionaries, divided into two parties with different attitudes towards Soviet power, were on the same list as Socialist Revolutionaries. Historians, including bourgeois ones, admit that the ratio of the number of deputies of the right Socialist Revolutionaries (370) and the left Socialist Revolutionaries (40) was random and did not reflect the position of the peasantry towards these two different parties. Among the delegates to the peasant congresses, to which the right and left Socialist-Revolutionaries were elected on separate lists, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries predominated, and in the elections to the Soviets in the cities the Socialist-Revolutionaries were inferior even to the Cadets.
The attitude towards the Constituent Assembly was a matter of principle, since it was a body that in its type corresponded to the bourgeois-liberal path of development of the revolution.
It said that the possibility of coexistence of two types of statehood had been exhausted, since the peasantry and the army definitely went over to the side of Soviet power, and the bourgeois forces began an armed struggle against it (the Kaledin uprising, the actions of the bourgeois regimes in Ukraine, Belarus, Finland and the Caucasus) . Therefore, the question of relation to the Constituent Assembly is not a legal one. It can be included in state construction only if it recognizes Soviet power. Being the pinnacle of democracy during the bourgeois revolution, the Constituent Assembly was “late.”
There are discrepancies in the data provided by historians on the number of votes cast for certain parties in the elections. Apparently, about 44 million voters took part in the elections, 715 deputies were elected (according to other sources - 703). About 60% voted for the Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, and various national parties, about 25% for the Bolsheviks, and about 15% for the Cadets and other right-wing parties.
Thus, parties with a fundamentally bourgeois program received about 15% of the votes of those who took part in the elections, parties with different socialist programs - 85%.
The conflict that arose in connection with the Constituent Assembly is a conflict between the socialists, and, above all, between the two revolutionary socialist parties - the Bolsheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries (the Mensheviks had 16 seats, and the Socialist Revolutionaries -410). V.M. Chernov, as Chairman of the Assembly, even declared “the will to socialism.”
On the eve of the convening of the Constituent Assembly, on January 3, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a resolution “On recognizing as counter-revolutionary actions all attempts to appropriate the functions of state power,” which stated that all power belongs to the Soviets and Soviet institutions and therefore any attempt to appropriate the functions of state power will be suppressed until before the use of armed force.
The Constituent Assembly began its work on January 5, 1918 in Petrograd, in the Tauride Palace, about 410 deputies were present with a quorum of 400. Right Socialist Revolutionary V.M. was elected chairman. Chernov (former minister of the Provisional Government). Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Ya.M. Sverdlov read out the Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People and invited the meeting to accept it, i.e. recognize Soviet power and its most important decrees: on peace, land, etc. The Left Social Revolutionaries also called on the assembly to adopt the Declaration and transfer power to the Soviets.
The Constituent Assembly rejected the Declaration (237 votes against 138), after which the Bolsheviks, left Socialist Revolutionaries, Muslim nationalists and Ukrainian Socialist Revolutionaries left it. However, the Assembly, no longer having a quorum, adopted a resolution that the supreme power in the country belonged to it.
At five o'clock in the morning, the anarchist sailor A.G., who commanded the guard. Zheleznyakov suggested V.M. Chernov to stop the work of the Assembly, declaring: “The guard is tired.” At 4:40 am the Constituent Assembly interrupted its activities. On January 6, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a decree “On the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly.” There was no need to shoot the Tauride Palace; its doors were simply locked.
The refusal of the right Socialist Revolutionaries to cooperate with the Soviet government directed the development of events towards the worst option. A compromise, according to V.I. Lenin, would prevent a civil war.
The Constituent Assembly as an alternative to the Soviets in those historical conditions was not viable. It did not have a social base that could support it, although the Socialist Revolutionaries worked in the troops and in factories. Judging by the recollections of eyewitnesses, the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly did not attract much attention at that moment (it became an important topic in the recent anti-Soviet ideological campaign).
The further fate of the deputies is eloquent. Some of them, having created the illegal “Inter-factional Council of the Constituent Assembly”, in the summer of 1918 formed anti-Soviet governments in the Volga and the Urals, where Soviet power was liquidated by the White Czechs (Komuch, the Provisional Siberian Government, then the Directory, declared an all-Russian government, the Provisional Regional Government of the Urals , Supreme Administration of the Northern Region). After Kolchak came to power, some of the deputies - “founders” were expelled abroad, others were arrested. On December 23, they were shot in Omsk on the orders of Kolchak.
January 10, 1918 gathered III All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, which looked like the successor to the Constituent Assembly. On January 13, the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Peasant Deputies began its work. These congresses united, and thus a single supreme authority arose in the country. The Congress approved the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, and also decided to remove the word “temporary” from the name of the Soviet government.
At the congress, the Declaration of the Rights of Working and Exploited People was adopted, in which for the first time the name of the country was given and its federal structure was announced: “The Soviet Russian Republic is established on the basis of a free union of free nations as a federation of Soviet national republics.”
In the resolution “On the Federal Institutions of the Russian Republic,” the congress instructed the All-Russian Central Executive Committee to develop the main provisions of the Constitution for submission to the next Congress of Soviets. At the congress, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was elected with 306 members, among whom were 160 Bolsheviks, 125 left Socialist Revolutionaries and representatives of other parties: Mensheviks (internationalists and defencists), right Socialist Revolutionaries, anarchist communists.
Customs. After the October Revolution, the Central Committee of the Trade Union of Customs Officers and its grassroots organizations adopted the platform of Soviet power. Customs authorities and institutions of Russia continued to fulfill their functional responsibilities.
The first government document that established the subordination of customs authorities and their functional responsibilities, as well as the procedure for the import and export of goods, was the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of December 29, 1917 “On the procedure for issuing permits for the import and export of goods.” It stated that permission to export goods abroad and import goods from abroad is issued by the foreign trade department of the Commissariat of Trade and Industry.
The declaration of foreign trade as a monopoly of the Soviet state required a revision of legislative acts on customs affairs.
May 29, 1918 V.I. Lenin signed a decree “On the delimitation of the rights of central and local authorities to collect duties and regulate the activities of local customs institutions.”
The preamble of the decree stated that in the interests of accurately delineating the rights of the central and local Soviet authorities to collect duties, as well as regulating the activities of local customs institutions, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR decided that the imposition of customs duties and other fees on goods transported across the border belongs exclusively to the central government. Customs institutions are bodies of the central Soviet government and are managed directly by the Commissariat of Finance for the Department of Customs Duties. No civil or military authorities, as well as professional organizations, have the right to interfere within the scope of customs operations with orders arising from their progress in customs affairs. On the contrary, all authorities provide full support to the legitimate demands of customs authorities.
The decree of May 29, 1918 regulated the relationship between customs institutions and local authorities. Regional and local Councils of Deputies had the right to supervise the activities of customs institutions, without interfering with the technical, regulatory and administrative part of customs work.
This decree obligated the customs authorities to be guided in their work by all existing provisions on the nationalization of foreign trade, and allowed the use of procedural norms, pending the revision of the tsarist customs charter, relating to traditional inspection operations, assessment of duties, and release of goods.
In essence, the decree was an act of creation of Soviet customs institutions. On June 29, 1918, a decree was signed according to which the Department of Customs Duties was renamed the Main Directorate of Customs Control under the People's Commissariat of Trade and Industry: from now on, not only in essence, but also in form, control over all property transported across the border, and not steel fees, became the main in the work of customs. This main department was headed by G.I. Kharkiv.
Changes in the social system. The October Revolution made fundamental changes in the social structure of Russia. The main thing was the transition from the previous socio-economic formation to a new one - socialist. The proletariat, which took power, had to create a new system on the ruins of the old.
The socialization of the means of production was carried out primarily through their nationalization, i.e. transfer of property of the bourgeoisie and landowners into state ownership.
Historically, the first object of nationalization was land. This task has already been solved by the well-known decree of the Second Congress of Soviets. The law converted not only the property of the exploiters, but also the lands of the peasants into public property. The latter were not worried about this, because... the nationalized land remained in their use, and with a huge increase at the expense of the landowners' lands.
The socialization of the means of production in the countryside also followed the line industrial cooperation. Collective farms arose already in the first days of Soviet power. Their most common form at that time was communes. They were usually created on landowners' estates, from where their former owners were expelled. Distribution in the communes was equal.
The socialization of the means of production in cities was more difficult. The nationalization of industry took place gradually and in stages. The transitional stage in this process was worker control. After October, it was declared a state institution and played a big role in the fight against sabotage by entrepreneurs. Workers' control bodies also performed such an important function as training workers in the ability to manage production.
This transition period was short-lived. The Likinsky manufactory in the Moscow region was the very first to be nationalized at the end of 1917. By the summer of 1918, almost all large and medium-sized industry was socialized.
As a result of economic transformations, a multi-structured Soviet economy emerged with socialist, state-capitalist, capitalist, small-scale commodity and patriarchal sectors.
The idea of eliminating private property also entailed the abolition of the exploiting classes by depriving them of their property. These issues were resolved during the nationalization process. The kulaks in the countryside were squeezed out, but not eliminated.
The revolution also changed the situation of the working classes. The dictatorship of the proletariat was initially carried out in alliance with the poor peasantry, which made up the bulk of the country's rural population.
The fate of the intelligentsia was not easy. She greeted October mostly negatively. She feared, and not without reason, that the revolution would cause irreparable damage to culture. Most of the intellectuals took a wait-and-see attitude, and its elite, closely associated with the former government, showed open hostility and emigrated from the country.
The Soviet government soon began to take measures to win her over to its side. And life itself forced intellectuals to serve the new government.
Immediately after the victory of the October Revolution, for the first time in the history of the country, a decisive step was taken to eliminate class and other privileges and to establish equal rights for citizens.
The Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of November 11, 1917 stated that all ranks (nobles, merchants, burghers, peasants), titles (count, prince, baron, etc.) and names of civil ranks were destroyed, one common one was established for the entire population the title “citizen of the Russian Republic”.
By decree of the Council of People's Commissars of December 16, 1917, all ranks and ranks in the army were abolished, all benefits associated with previous ranks, as well as titles, orders and other insignia, were abolished.
Along with the elimination of class restrictions, the inequality of men and women in all areas of state, social and economic life was eliminated, and the special position of the church in society was abolished. It was separated from the state, and the school from the church.
The first step in resolving the national issue, which was acute in Russia, was the “Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia” and the Appeal “To all working Muslims of Russia and the East.” These were politically important documents. They proclaimed: equality and sovereignty of the peoples of Russia; the right to free self-determination; abolition of national and national-religious privileges and restrictions; free development of national minorities and ethnic groups; freedom and inviolability of beliefs and customs of working Muslims of Russia and the East.
Thus, as a result of the October Revolution of 1917, significant changes occurred in the country’s social and government system. The form of government was declared to be the Republic of Soviets, the form of government was the Soviet federation, the political regime was defined as socialist democracy for the working classes.
Constitution of the RSFSR of 1918. Starting from the first day of its existence. The Soviet state issues a number of acts of a constitutional nature. They were mentioned above. But the forms of power and control largely emerged spontaneously, during the revolutionary process. In order to regulate this process and consolidate those forms that corresponded to the main foundations of the new statehood, an official Constitution was needed. Its creation is a turning point in the formation of the Soviet state.
At the initiative of the Left Social Revolutionaries, the Third All-Russian Congress of Soviets instructed the All-Russian Central Executive Committee to develop the main provisions of the Constitution of the RSFSR and present them to the next Congress of Soviets. However, in conditions of an acute crisis (the breakdown of peace negotiations in Brest-Litovsk, the German offensive at the front, the strengthening of the opposition of the left communists and left socialist revolutionaries), the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was unable to fulfill this order.
An inter-party commission was created (proportional to the representation of parties in the All-Russian Central Executive Committee), which in three months prepared the agreed text of the draft Constitution; it was published on July 3, 1918 and submitted for approval to the Central Committee of the RCP (b) for subsequent discussion at the V All-Russian Congress of Soviets. Prior to this, the commission’s materials were published in Izvestia of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and draft sections were discussed in the press.
The debates in the commission were fundamental, but it was still possible to create a document that did not hinder the search for state forms: the main provisions of this Constitution, despite amendments and additions, survived until 1936, during 18 very turbulent years. The main contradictions that caused controversy were between supporters of weakening the central power of the state, developing the initiative of local authorities, and those who sought to concentrate power in the center. Another plane of, in principle, the same problem concerned the type of federation: some demanded, in today’s language, greater “sovereignty of the regions,” others sought to strengthen, under a new ideological design, a “united and indivisible” Russia. The first set of principles (“less state”), reflecting syndicalism’s hostility to any statehood, was mainly defended by the left Socialist Revolutionaries, as well as by a prominent member of the People’s Commissariat of Justice, M.A. Reisner, who believed that the RSFSR should become an association of “labor communes.” Practical Bolsheviks (primarily I.V. Stalin) stood for a stronger statehood. The latter won, but the topic of the dispute itself anticipated many future contradictions in state building.
On July 10, 1918, the V All-Russian Congress of Soviets adopted the Constitution. At the suggestion of V.I. Lenin, the first section of the Constitution was adopted by the Third Congress of Soviets in January 1918, “Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People.”
This declaration, consisting of 16 articles, was the first constitutional act of the Soviet Republic, which consolidated the results of the October Revolution and proclaimed the basic principles of the new socialist state. The draft declaration was written by V.I. Lenin.
The text of the declaration consists of 4 sections:
Section 1 establishes the political foundations of the Soviet socialist state. Russia was proclaimed a Republic of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, which held all power in the center and locally. The Soviet Republic was established on the basis of a free Union of Free Nations as a federation of Soviet national republics.
Section 2 defined the main task declared by the Soviet government - the destruction of all exploitation of man by man, the complete elimination of the division of society into classes, the suppression of the resistance of exploiters and the establishment of a socialist organization of society. Further, the abolition of private ownership of land, decrees on workers' control, the organization of the Supreme Economic Council, and the nationalization of banks were confirmed. Universal labor conscription was introduced; to protect the results of the revolution, the formation of the Red Army and the complete and complete disarmament of the propertied classes were decreed.
Section 3 declared the principles of Soviet foreign policy - the struggle for peace, the abolition of secret treaties, respect for the national sovereignty of all peoples, a complete break with the policies of developed bourgeois states that enslave the working people of colonies and dependent states, approved the proclamation of the independence of Finland by the Council of People's Commissars, the withdrawal of troops from Persia , introduced there during the 1st World War, declared freedom of choice in the self-determination of Turkish Armenia, the annulment of loans concluded by the tsarist and then the Provisional Government.
Section 4 proclaimed the elimination of the exploiting classes from participation in the management of the Soviet state, emphasized the ownership of power by the working people and their authorized representatives - the Soviets, it was emphasized that Soviet power is limited to establishing the fundamental principles of the federation of Soviet republics, allowing the workers and peasants of each nation to take independent part in the federal government and other federal agencies.
The Declaration laid the cornerstone of the foundations of the constitutional system of the RSFSR and the main directions of economic and social policy. While expressing the aspirations of the working people, the main provisions of the declaration nevertheless bore a pronounced class overtones, which significantly limited its democratic potential.
Section “Construction of Soviet Power” consolidated the relationship between government and management.
The Soviet state apparatus was based on the principle of democratic centralism. It should be emphasized that the Constitution vested the executive body of the Council of People's Commissars with legislative powers (just as the body of the Congress of Soviets of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee with executive powers). This was dictated not only by the emergency situation, but also by the very idea of overcoming the weaknesses of bourgeois parliamentarism, whose task was to achieve a balance of class interests, through the reunification of legislative and executive functions.
The Soviet government did not intend to seek such a balance, since it declared itself as a “dictatorship of the proletariat,” which, as it strengthened, would lead to the construction of a classless society. The Constitution did not specifically stipulate the principles for the performance of the judicial function. However, the fact that the organization of judicial activities and control over them was entrusted to the NKJ clearly showed its subordination to the executive body.
This idea had theoretical and ideological justification in Marxism. But, in essence, the establishment of a single and indivisible power (“dictatorship of the proletariat”) meant the unconscious restoration of the autocratic state in its conciliar, Soviet image. The significance of this decision was extremely important - the entire development of Soviet statehood was directed towards a path that rejected the main principle of the liberal state of civil society, the principle of separation of powers. The fact that this cardinal decision did not cause debate and attracted almost no attention among the existing opposition suggests that it was very consonant with culturally rooted ideas about power and the state.
The real problem in the formation of the Soviet state was that the Soviets arose spontaneously, without clearly defined functions and powers, in factories and villages. Small Soviets were a model of direct democracy (for example, the factory council included all factory workers).
The major Soviets consisted of representatives citizens or workers. For some time, such Soviets were even called “sovdep” - as opposed to simply Soviets.
Turning the Soviets into system state power was a complex and completely new task. The Constitution, which was supposed to solve this problem, managed to reflect the existing contradiction and leave open ways to resolve it: “all power” belongs to the Soviets, but “supreme power” belongs to the central bodies, whose powers the Constitution did not limit, but only illustrated with a list of “issues of the general state” meanings."
And then came Art. 50, which warned that “in addition to the listed issues, all issues that they recognize as subject to their resolution are subject to the jurisdiction of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.”
The Constitution enshrined the most important measures of the Soviet state in economics: nationalization of banks and land; the introduction of workers' control as the first step towards the nationalization of factories and transport; cancellation of foreign loans concluded before the revolution. The Constitution reflected the federal principle of the state structure of the RSFSR.
The Constitution proclaimed class, proletarian democracy is for the working people. In other words, it did not recognize formal equality of rights (although the class differences that existed in Tsarist Russia were abolished and a single category of citizens was established). About 5 million people were deprived of a number of civil rights. A separate article justified this discrimination as a temporary measure to prevent “damage to the interests of the socialist revolution.”
The goal was to provide workers with “complete, comprehensive and free education.” Equal rights of citizens were recognized regardless of their race and nationality. The church was separated from the state and the school from the church, and freedom of religious and anti-religious propaganda was recognized for all citizens.
The Constitution does not contain the right to work, rest, education, etc., since it was decided to write into it only those rights that could be exercised under those conditions.
There was some discrimination in the suffrage of workers and peasants: one delegate from 25 thousand was elected to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets in the cities. voters, and in the village - from 125 thousand. residents. This was done so as not to change the usual methods of calculation, according to which they had previously elected to separate congresses: one for workers and soldiers, and the other for peasant deputies (however, previously there was one delegate from the peasants from 150 thousand inhabitants).
Elections to all levels of the Soviets, except for urban and rural ones, were multi-level and indirect. The right to vote and be elected to the Soviets was enjoyed by workers who had reached 18 years of age by election day, regardless of religion, nationality, gender, residence, etc. Military personnel also enjoyed this right. Voters had the right to recall the elected deputy.
The Constitution outlined program tasks for the transition period from capitalism to communism: the destruction of the exploitation of man by man, the merciless suppression of the resistance of exploiters, the elimination of the division of society into classes, and the construction of socialism.
Creation of the foundations of Soviet law. Sources of Soviet law. The first legal acts of the Soviet state can be considered the appeal of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee “To the Citizens of Russia” and the appeal of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets “To Workers, Soldiers and Peasants”. An important legal act, which was almost entirely included in the first Soviet Constitution, was the Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People, adopted by the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets on January 12, 1918.
This Declaration was not a traditional liberal state document about the rights of the individual. It proclaimed the principles of social and economic policy, and already in this document the main idea was expressed that distinguished the Soviet state from the bourgeois liberal one: human freedom must be protected not from the state, but with the help of the state.
Of course, the restructuring of the entire legal system could not be immediate, and in 1917-1918. along with the laws of the Soviet state were in force rules of old law, which gradually lost their force as new legislation became established.
The All-Russian Congress of Soviets, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and the Council of People's Commissars had the right to issue legislative acts. and since 1919 also the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Legal acts were also issued by central government bodies and local councils. In a number of cases, public organizations of workers took part in the development of regulations (for example, trade unions in the field of labor law). Most often, legislative acts were called decrees.
Until the end of the civil war, the Soviet state operated in a state of emergency. Neither a complete system of legal norms nor a system of law enforcement agencies has yet been created.
In the absence of established legal norms, practical issues were resolved either on the basis of old norms, or based on “revolutionary legal consciousness,” the source of which was class consciousness (or even “class instinct”). In reality, this often meant making decisions under the pressure of circumstances, based on “revolutionary expediency.” In general, common sense and general cultural norms prevailed, but all parties to the multidimensional conflict that erupted in Russia repeatedly resorted to extreme measures and terrible excesses characteristic of any revolution and civil war.
Civil law. During the first measures of Soviet power, land and its subsoil, banks, industrial enterprises, railways and fleet, etc. were successively transferred to the ownership of the state. The sphere of citizens' private ownership of tools and means of production, used to generate income, has sharply decreased.
Many acts were directly aimed at undermining private property and, especially, at stopping the growing wave of transactions aimed at selling and dividing large property in order to remove it from the threat of nationalization.
Law of obligations. Contractual relations were reduced. At the same time, back in December 1917, the Council of People's Commissars confirmed that all obligations arising from contracts for the supply and procurement of food for the army remained in force. Relations between enterprises that became state property were built mainly on administrative law, rather than on civil law.
Inheritance law. The Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee “On the abolition of inheritance” (April 27, 1918) abolished inheritance both by law and by will.
After the death of the owner, both movable and immovable property became state property. Only part of the property, worth no more than 10 thousand rubles, was transferred to the spouse or immediate relatives (the instructions of the NKJ explained that the main thing is not the established limit, but the source of acquisition of the inherited property). However, the property of the deceased could be received by his needy and disabled relatives.
In reality, the decree abolished the inheritance of bourgeois private property, but not labor property. A special decree prohibited donation and any other gratuitous provision, transfer, assignment, etc. property worth over 10 thousand rubles. In the field of intellectual property, the state was given the right to nationalize copyrighted works and inventions. Copyright could not be passed on by inheritance.
Labor law. In the previous legal systems of Russia, labor law was not distinguished as a special branch; it constituted a short part of civil law. Now it is being formed as an independent branch of law. Issues of labor relations constituted an important section of the political economy of Marxism and were discussed in the documents of the RSDLP from its very inception. The general provisions of the Bolsheviks' views on labor relations were reflected in the decrees of 1917-1918.
The categories of labor power, labor, surplus value and wages inherent in Marxism were developed in relation to the market economy of the West in its pure, even abstract version. They did not reflect real labor relations in Russia and were perceived by the public consciousness significantly differently than in theory.
At the revolutionary stage of development of the Soviet state, this did not matter much, because From Marxism, mainly topical ideas of equality, justice and liberation from the exploitation of man by man were taken. Subsequently, the discrepancy between the theory of Marxism and Soviet reality began to increasingly harm the health of Soviet society.
The first legal act on labor was the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of October 29, 1917 “On the eight-hour working day, duration and distribution of working time.” The Soviet state was the first in the world to legally establish 8 hour work day for all persons engaged in paid work. The length of the working week should not exceed 46 hours.
Night work of women and teenagers under 16 years of age was prohibited (this, by the way, caused protests from some factory committees). Women and teenagers under 18 were not allowed to work underground or overtime. The working day of teenagers under 18 years of age was limited to 6 hours. Overtime work was paid double, etc.
This resolution was transmitted to the localities by telegraph and came into force immediately. In December 1917, by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, sickness insurance was introduced. In June 1918, the Council of People's Commissars introduced paid two-week holidays for workers and employees.
The Declaration of the Rights of Working and Exploited People introduced universal labor conscription. Later, this provision was included in the first Constitution of the RSFSR, which declared work to be the duty of all citizens and proclaimed the slogan: “He who does not work, let him not eat!”
In December 1918, the first Labor Code(Laws). It regulated in detail labor relations and related social rights (for example, rights to unemployment benefits). The Labor Code was in effect at both state and private enterprises. He determined the place of trade unions, their powers in regulating hiring and firing, wages, etc. The Code replaced social insurance with social security from state funds.
State provision of pensions and disability payments has become important social law, which, after the extraordinary period of the civil war, was strictly observed throughout the existence of the Soviet state.
Family law. In the Soviet state, family law began to emerge for the first time as an independent branch; previously it was part of civil law.
Already in December 1917, two decrees were issued: “On civil marriage”, “On children and on maintaining civil registers” and “On divorce”.
A monogamous form of marriage and voluntary marriage were established, and many previous restrictions were abolished. To enter into marriage, the consent of parents and superiors was not required; affiliation with class, religion, or nationality was not affected.
Illegitimate children were equal to those born in marriage in terms of rights and responsibilities both in relation to parents to children and children to parents. The parents of the child were recorded as the persons who submitted the application. A judicial procedure for establishing paternity was allowed.
A free divorce was introduced at the request of one or both spouses (with mutual consent - without trial, right at the registry office). Who the minor children stay with, how the responsibilities of the spouses for their upbringing and maintenance are distributed, the court decided.
On September 16, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted Code of Laws on Civil Status, Marriage, Family and Guardianship Law- the first code in Soviet law. It noted that church marriages concluded before December 20, 1917 had the force of registered marriages. However, a marriage performed after the revolution according to religious rites did not give rise to any rights and obligations if it was not registered in the registry office.
Marriage did not create community of property between the spouses. Spouses could enter into all property and contractual relations permitted by law. The needy (i.e., one who did not have a living wage and was disabled) spouse had the right to support from the other spouse if the latter was able to provide him with support.
Interested persons were given the right to prove or challenge paternity in court. The court that recognized paternity determined the father's participation in the costs associated with pregnancy, childbirth, birth and maintenance of the child. If the mother was in close relationships with several people at the same time, then the court imposed the obligation on all of them to participate in the above expenses.
The Code stated that parental rights are exercised exclusively in the interests of children, and if this was not done, the court was given the right to deprive parents of these rights. Parents were obliged to take care of minor children, their upbringing and preparation for useful activities. Parents were obliged to support minors, disabled and needy children, and they, in turn, were obliged to support disabled and needy parents if they did not receive maintenance from the state.
The Code did not allow the adoption of either one's own or other people's children, for fear of their exploitation by the adoptive parents. The implementation of this Code in a multinational country was a difficult task, especially in the Muslim regions of the RSFSR. For example, the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the Kyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic adopted a decree banning kalym only on December 20, 1920.
Customs law. As noted above, on December 29, 1917, V.I. Lenin signed the decree of the Council of People's Commissars “On permits for the import and export of goods,” according to which control functions over the transportation of goods became of paramount importance in the activities of customs authorities.
Permits for the import and export of goods began to be issued exclusively by the department of foreign trade and industry of the Commissariat of Trade and Industry; the export and import of goods without such destruction was recognized as smuggling. This decree set the customs authorities the task of combating smuggling, which was recognized for the first time as a dangerous crime.
This decree came into effect on January 1 (January 14), 1918. All previously issued import and export documents were considered invalid.
On April 22, 1918, the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars “On the nationalization of foreign trade” was adopted. According to the Decree, trade transactions with foreign states and individual enterprises abroad were carried out by authorized representatives on behalf of the Russian Republic. Any other trade operations abroad were prohibited.
The solution to customs issues in foreign trade was legislated by the Constitution of the RSFSR of 1918. The right to conclude customs and trade agreements was assigned to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.
This is how the customs law of Soviet Russia began to take shape.
Criminal law. The first act of the new state in the field of criminal law was the resolution of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets “On the abolition of the death penalty.”
In fact, the death penalty, starting in February 1918, was applied by the Cheka. In June 1918, the Revolutionary Tribunal sentenced to death Admiral A. Shchasny, accused of attempting to surrender the Baltic Fleet to the Germans. The Left Social Revolutionaries sharply protested against this verdict. It is noteworthy that, being supporters of terror and executions without trial in the Cheka, they rejected the court verdict as a “revival of bourgeois statehood.”
On June 16, 1918, a decree was issued by the People's Commissariat of Justice, which gave the revolutionary tribunals the right to apply capital punishment.
By April 1918, 17 criminal law decrees and 15 acts on individual crimes were adopted, by the end of July 1918 - 40 and 69, respectively.
Legal acts include guidelines and instructions of the People's Commissariat of Justice for revolutionary tribunals. They created the norms of the Special Part of Criminal Law in relation to cases within the jurisdiction of the tribunals. October 6, 1918
The Cassation Department of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee systematized these norms. An attempt was made to formulate the elements of crimes referred by law to the competence of the tribunals, to reveal the content of the concept counter-revolutionary activities.
The list of acts falling under this category was very wide and unequal (from counter-revolutionary actions aimed at overthrowing the Soviet government, to threats against officials of Soviet or economic bodies).
A feature of the legal acts of this period is the ability to bring to trial before the Revolutionary Tribunal provocateurs, informants or other employees of the old regime, whose activities before the establishment of Soviet power were recognized as harmful to the revolution.
However, for this each time a special resolution of the local Council or executive committee was required; formally in this part the law was given retroactive effect - an unacceptable thing by the standards of a modern state. In fact, it was more of a preventive measure in order to neutralize a potential enemy.
In 1919, the NKJ, summarizing the legislation and judicial practice of the general courts and revolutionary tribunals, issued an act on the General Part of Criminal Law: Guidelines on criminal law of the RSFSR.
The guiding principles give a general definition of law and criminal law in class phraseology. Thus, the task of Soviet criminal law is to protect, through repression, a system of social relations that corresponds to the interests of the working masses.
The document included eight sections: on criminal law, on criminal justice, on crime and punishment, on the stages of crime, on complicity, on types of punishment, on conditional sentencing, and on the scope of action of criminal law.
In general, if we ignore the ideological (“class”) coloring, the basic principles of the Guiding Principles are quite consistent with those ideas about crime and punishment that have developed in modern times in civil society, and not in traditional law.
The crime was defined as a violation public relations, and punishment as a measure by which the authorities protect a given order public relationships. That is, the purpose of punishment was defined as community protection from future possible crimes, both of this person and of other persons, i.e. as a general warning task - and not as revenge,“eliminating” a crime.
When determining the punishment, the court had to assess the danger to society identity of the criminal, and not just the act he committed.
Thus, from the very beginning of Soviet criminal law, the possibility of preventive punishments was allowed - before crimes were committed.
The signs by which it was possible to predict the likelihood of acts dangerous to society were class. Thus, all criminal law was implicitly divided into two completely different sections. There were “ordinary” crimes, for which humane methods of education and correction could be applied, and “counter-revolutionary” crimes, which had to be punished and suppressed with the most extreme measures. Thus, from the very first steps, the category of “state crimes”, formalized later, began to stand out.
At the same time, “class” discrimination against criminals arose. It was believed that even a proletarian and a peasant could commit general crimes, while state crimes could be committed by a “class enemy,” even if disguised as a worker. Based on these categories, both the court system and the process were built. The circumstances that the court had to take into account were listed. For example, the revolutionary tribunal found out whether the criminal belonged to the propertied class, whether the crime was aimed at restoring, preserving or acquiring any privilege associated with property, or whether it was committed by the poor in a state of hunger and need, etc.
Criminal liability began at the age of 14. In a special section, approximate types of punishments - indoctrination, public censure, boycott, compensation for damage caused, removal from office, prohibition from holding one or another position, confiscation of property or part of it, deprivation of political rights, declaring an enemy of the revolution or the people, forced labor without placement in prison, imprisonment for a certain period or for an indefinite period until the occurrence of a known event, outlawing, execution (by verdict only of the revolutionary tribunal).
Provided suspended sentence who committed a crime for the first time under difficult circumstances of his life, when the safety of society does not require his isolation.
Note that Soviet criminal law from the very beginning included forced labor among the most important types of punishment. The Decree of the People's Commissariat of Justice of July 23, 1918 established that imprisonment Always involves forced labor. The same decree established “special purpose isolation wards” - for prisoners guilty of disciplinary violations, “incorrigibles” (potentially all class enemies during the emergency period were considered “incorrigible”).
The criminal law of the RSFSR was in effect both in relation to Russian citizens and foreigners who committed crimes on its territory, as well as in relation to those who committed crimes in the territory of another state, but evaded trial at the place where the crime was committed and was within the RSFSR.
Modern researchers note that the Guidelines played a big role in improving the activities of the judiciary, in the development of criminal law, and were an important step towards the creation of the Criminal Code.
Thus, the Soviet state and law arose as a result of the October Revolution, which was caused by certain objective and subjective factors. It led to a radical breakdown in social relations. Russian society has set a course towards building socialism, i.e. a social system based on the socialization of the means of production, a planned economy, the exclusion of private property, market relations and the exploitation of man by man.
The revolution led to the destruction of the old and the creation of a fundamentally new state mechanism, the basis of which was the Councils of Workers, Peasants, Red Army and Cossack Deputies.
The emergence of a new state also predetermined the emergence of the corresponding law. Its branches began to take shape, creating together a new legal system. A certain milestone in the process of legal construction was the adoption of the Constitution of the RSFSR of 1918, which became not only the first Soviet, but also the first in the history of Russia.
Those sections of Russian society and foreign countries that lost a lot as a result of these events could not come to terms with the victory of the revolution and the creation of the Soviet state, which predetermined the start of the civil war and foreign military intervention.
Lecture 12. THE SOVIET STATE AND LAW DURING THE PERIOD OF THE CIVIL WAR AND FOREIGN MILITARY INTERVENTION (1918-1921).
Causes and prerequisites of the Civil War and foreign military intervention
(1918-1922). Creation and development of the system of emergency bodies of Soviet power. Judicial system. Development of alternative statehood projects on the territory of Russia.
Causes and prerequisites of the Civil War and foreign military intervention (1918 - 1920). The civil war in Russia is more complex than the contradictions between workers and capitalists, peasants and landowners. It included the struggle of socialist, anarchist, bourgeois-democratic, reactionary-monarchist forces, centrifugal and centripetal tendencies, national and political currents.
Unlike ordinary wars, a civil war has no clear boundaries - neither temporal nor spatial. It is difficult to set a specific date for its beginning and to clearly draw the front line.
Applying the principles of the civilizational approach to the knowledge of history, it should be noted that civil wars have been known in history since ancient times. There is a general belief that a civil war is a war between citizens of one state or the most acute form of class struggle (V.I. Lenin). At the same time, civil wars, for example, in England (17th century), in the USA (1861-1865), in Spain (30s of the 20th century), although they had some common features, had their own characteristics, they were completely different opposing forces, their relationship, their goals.
In this regard, we can agree with the definition of the civil war in Russia of 1917-1922 given by Academician Yu.A. Polyakov: “The civil war in Russia is an armed confrontation that lasted about 6 years between times
2. The formation of Soviet power
2.1 Introduction
The process of creating a new state covered the period from October 1917, the time of the beginning of the October Revolution, to the summer of 1818, when Soviet statehood was enshrined in the Constitution. The central thesis of the new government was the idea of exporting the world revolution and creating a socialist state. As part of this idea, the slogan “Workers of all countries, unite!” was put forward. The main task of the Bolsheviks was the issue of power, so the main attention was paid not to socio-economic transformations, but to the strengthening of central and regional authorities.
2.2 Supreme bodies of Soviet power
On October 25, 1917, the Second Congress of Soviets adopted the Decree on Power, which declared the transfer of all power to the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies. The arrest of the Provisional Government and the liquidation of local zemstvo and city councils were the first steps towards the destruction of the administration created by the previous government. On October 27, 1917, it was decided to form a Soviet government - the Council of People's Commissars (S/W), which should operate until the election of the Constituent Assembly. It included 62 Bolsheviks and 29 Left Socialist Revolutionaries. Instead of ministries, more than 20 people's commissariats (people's commissariats) were created. The highest legislative body was the Congress of Soviets, headed by Lenin. In between its meetings, legislative functions were carried out by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK), headed by L. Kamenev and M. Sverdlov. To combat counter-revolution and sabotage, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK) was formed, headed by F. Dzerzhinsky. Revolutionary courts were created for the same purpose. These bodies played a major role in the establishment of Soviet power and the dictatorship of the proletariat.
1.3 Constituent Assembly
In November-December 1917, elections to the Constituent Assembly were held, during which the Social Revolutionaries received 40% of the votes, the Bolsheviks - 24%, and the Mensheviks - 2%. Thus, the Bolsheviks did not receive a majority and, realizing the threat to one-man rule, were forced to disperse the Constituent Assembly. On November 28, a blow was dealt to the Cadet Party - members of the Constituent Assembly who were members of the Central Committee of the Cadet Party, P. Dolgorukov, F. Kokoshkin, V. Stepanov, A. Shingarev and others were arrested. At the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly, which opened on January 5, 1918 .in the Tauride Palace, the Bolsheviks and the Left Socialist Revolutionaries who supported them found themselves in the minority. The majority of delegates refused to recognize the Council of People's Commissars as the government and demanded the transfer of full power to the Constituent Assembly. Therefore, on the night of January 6-7, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee approved a decree dissolving the Constituent Assembly. Demonstrations in its support were dispersed. Thus, the last democratically elected body collapsed. The repressions that began with the Cadet Party showed that the Bolsheviks were striving for dictatorship and individual rule. Civil war became inevitable.
The Decree on Peace is the first decree of Soviet power. Developed by V. I. Ulyanov (Lenin) and unanimously adopted on October 26 (November 8), 1917 at the Second Congress of Soviets of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies after the Provisional Government of Russia was overthrown as a result of an armed coup.
Main provisions of the decree:
The Soviet workers' and peasants' government proposes "to all warring peoples and their governments to immediately begin negotiations on a just democratic peace" - namely, on "immediate peace without annexations and indemnities", that is, without the seizure of foreign territories and without violent recovery of material or monetary property from the vanquished compensation. Continuing the war is seen as "the greatest crime against humanity."
The Soviet government abolishes secret diplomacy, “expressing its firm intention to conduct all negotiations completely openly before all the people, proceeding immediately to the full publication of secret agreements confirmed or concluded by the government of landowners and capitalists from February to October 25, 1917,” and “declares unconditionally and immediately canceled "The entire content of these secret agreements.
The Soviet government proposes that “all governments and peoples of all warring countries immediately conclude a truce” in order to negotiate peace and finalize the terms of peace.
1.5 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
On October 25, 1917, power in Petrograd passed into the hands of the Bolsheviks, who spoke under the slogan: “Peace without annexations and indemnities!” They proposed to conclude such a peace to all the warring powers in the very first decree of the new government - the Decree on Peace. Since mid-November, at the proposal of the Soviet government, a truce was established on the Russian-German front. It was officially signed on December 2.
Bolshevik Konstantin Eremeev wrote: “The truce at the front made the soldiers’ craving home, to the village, unstoppable. If after the February Revolution leaving the front was a common occurrence, now 12 million soldiers, the flower of the peasantry, felt superfluous in the army units and extremely needed there, at home, where they “divide the land.”
The leakage occurred spontaneously, taking a wide variety of forms: many simply absented themselves without permission, leaving their units, most of them taking rifles and cartridges. No less a number used any legal means - on vacation, on various business trips... The timing did not matter, since everyone understood that it was only important to get out of military captivity, and there they were unlikely to demand it back." The Russian trenches were rapidly emptying. In some sectors of the front, by January 1918, not a single soldier remained in the trenches, only here and there were isolated military posts.
Going home, the soldiers took their weapons, and sometimes even sold them to the enemy. On December 9, 1917, peace negotiations began in Brest-Litovsk, where the headquarters of the German command was located. The Soviet delegation tried to defend the idea of “peace without annexations and indemnities.” On January 28, 1918, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia. She demanded to sign an agreement under which Russia would lose Poland, Belarus and part of the Baltic states - a total of 150 thousand square kilometers. This confronted the Soviet delegation with a severe dilemma between the proclaimed principles and the demands of life. In accordance with the principles, it was necessary to wage war, and not to conclude a shameful peace with Germany. But there was no strength to fight. The head of the Soviet delegation, Leon Trotsky, like other Bolsheviks, painfully tried to resolve this contradiction. Finally it seemed to him that he had found a brilliant way out of the situation. On January 28, he delivered his famous peace speech at the negotiations. Briefly, it boiled down to the well-known formula: “Do not sign peace, do not wage war, disband the army.” Leon Trotsky stated: “We are withdrawing our army and our people from the war. Our soldier-plowman must return to his arable land in order to peacefully cultivate the land which the revolution transferred from the hands of the landowners to the hands of the peasants. We are withdrawing from the war. We refuse to sanction the conditions that German and Austro-Hungarian imperialism are writing with a sword on the body of living peoples. We cannot put the signature of the Russian revolution under the conditions that are carried by bring oppression, grief and misfortune to millions of human beings. The governments of Germany and Austria-Hungary want to own lands and peoples by right of military conquest. Let them do their work openly. We cannot sanctify violence. We are leaving the war, but we are forced to refuse to sign peace treaty." After this, he read out the official statement of the Soviet delegation: "By refusing to sign the annexationist treaty, Russia, for its part, declares the state of war ended. Russian troops are simultaneously given orders for complete demobilization along the entire front."
German and Austrian diplomats were initially truly shocked by this incredible statement. There was complete silence in the room for several minutes. Then the German General M. Hoffmann exclaimed: “Unheard of!” The head of the German delegation, R. Kühlmann, immediately concluded: “Consequently, the state of war continues.” “Empty threats!” said L. Trotsky, leaving the meeting room.
However, contrary to the expectations of the Soviet leadership, on February 18, Austro-Hungarian troops launched an offensive along the entire front. Almost no one opposed them: the advance of the armies was only hampered by bad roads. On the evening of February 23, they occupied Pskov, and on March 3, Narva. The Red Guard detachment of sailor Pavel Dybenko left this city without a fight. General Mikhail Bonch-Bruevich wrote about him: “Dybenko’s detachment did not inspire confidence in me; it was enough to look at this sailor’s freemen with mother-of-pearl buttons sewn onto their wide bell-bottoms, with rollicking manners, to understand that they would not be able to fight with regular German units. My fears were justified... “On February 25, Vladimir Lenin wrote bitterly in the newspaper Pravda: “Painfully shameful reports about the refusal of the regiments to maintain positions, about the refusal to defend even the Narva line, about the failure to comply with the order to destroy everything and everyone during the retreat; Let’s not even talk about flight, chaos, lack of hands, helplessness, sloppiness.”
On February 19, the Soviet leadership agreed to accept German peace terms. But now Germany has put forward much more difficult conditions, demanding five times the territory. About 50 million people lived on these lands; Over 70% of iron ore and about 90% of coal in the country were mined here. In addition, Russia had to pay a huge indemnity.
Soviet Russia was forced to accept these very difficult conditions. The head of the new Soviet delegation, Grigory Sokolnikov, read out its statement: “Under the current conditions, Russia has no choice. By the fact of the demobilization of its troops, the Russian revolution, as it were, transferred its fate into the hands of the German people. We do not doubt for a minute that this is the triumph of imperialism and militarism over The international proletarian revolution will turn out to be only temporary and temporary." After these words, General Hoffmann exclaimed indignantly: “Again the same nonsense!” “We are ready,” G. Sokolnikov concluded, “to immediately sign a peace treaty, refusing any discussion of it as completely useless under the current conditions.”