All-Russian Constituent Assembly opened

18 January 1918

In the act of rejection of the throne dated March 3 (16), 1917, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich agreed to accept power only by the decision of the Russian people, who were granted the right to establish a new way of governing the country. Until then, he called for submission to the Provisional Government. It, in turn, undertook to immediately begin preparations for the convocation of the Constituent Assembly on the basis of universal, equal, direct suffrage by secret ballot. The exact deadline was not set, since it was assumed that it would take up to six months to prepare the meeting.

On March 25 (April 7), 1917, The Provisional Government organized a Special Meeting to draft the Election Regulations. One of the founders of the Constitutional Democratic Party, jurist F. F. Kokoshkin, was appointed its chairman. The search for the building and its accommodation to the assembly was taken by the special committee set up on May 24 (June 6), 1917 by the government.  On July 22 (August 4), 1917, the Election Regulations were published. The right to vote was granted to all citizens of both regiments (except those in prison), who had reached the age of 20. For the first time in world practice, military personnel (from the age of 18) could also vote.

The dates of the elections and the convocation of the assembly have been repeatedly postponed. As a result, the All-Russian elections began on November 12 (25), 1917. They were held for 3 days: on November 12 (25), 13 (26), and 14 (27), 1917. In a number of districts, the elections were postponed to December and even to January. The Bolsheviks who came to power as a result of the October Revolution did not abandon the idea of holding the Constituent Assembly and even declared themselves the sole guarantor of its convocation. The Bolshevik M. S. Uritsky was put in charge of the Election Commission.

Following the results of the elections, the Socialist Revolutionary Party won the majority in the Constituent Assembly. The Bolsheviks began to delay the convocation of the assembly, seeking to weaken its opposition core. On November 26 (December 9), 1917, the chairman of the SNK, V. I. Lenin, signed a decree On the opening of the Constituent Assembly, which required a quorum of 400 people for its opening, thus delaying the start of the meeting until all the delegates gathered in Petrograd. It was also said that the meeting should be opened by a representative of the Bolshevik Party. On November 28 (December 11), the decree On the arrest of the leaders of the Civil War against the Revolution outlawed the People's Freedom Party (Cadets). Any “private meetings” of the delegates of the Constituent Assembly were prohibited. In response to these actions, the right-wing Social Revolutionaries formed the Union for the Protection of the Constituent Assembly.

On December 22, 1917 (January 3, 1918), the All-Russian Central Executive Committee appointed the opening of the Constituent Assembly on January 5 (18), 1918. On January 8 (21), 1918, the convocation of the Third All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies was appointed as a counterbalance to the assembly. On December 23, 1917 (January 4, 1918), martial law was declared in Petrograd. On January 4 and 5 (17, 18), 1918, Izvestia and Pravda published a resolution of the Central Executive Committee stating that any attempt by any institution to appropriate the functions of state power would be suppressed by all means, up to the use of armed force. A peaceful demonstration in support of the assembly, which took place on January 5 (18), 1918, was dispersed with the use of weapons. According to various sources, from 20 to 50 people were killed.

In such conditions, by 4 p.m. on January 5 (18), 1918, the delegates gathered in the building of the Tauride Palace. The right SRs offered to open the first meeting to a member of their party, the editor of the newspaper Golos Donskoy Zemli S. P. Shvetsov, while the Bolsheviks and left SRs instructed Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Y. M. Sverdlov to do it instead. Since the latter was late, the right SRs tried to take the initiative into their own hands. However, the appearance of S. P. Shvetsov on the podium was met with obstruction from the Bolsheviks and left SRs. Nevertheless, he managed to announce the opening of the meeting, and then Y. M. Sverdlov repeatedly invited the deputies to get to work. The leader of the Socialist Revolutionary Party V. M. Chernov was elected chairman of the meeting.

During the debate on the agenda, the Bolsheviks and left SRs, at the suggestion of Y. M. Sverdlov, called for focusing on the discussion and approval of the Declaration of Rights of the Working and Exploited People prepared by V. I. Lenin. However, the assembly refused to discuss it by a majority of votes. The agenda of the meeting was approved, proposed by the right-wing SR fraction, which included an appeal to the Russian people, and questions about peace, land, form of the state structure of Russia, state regulation of industry, measures of combating unemployment and solving the food problem, the immunity of the Constituent Assembly and its deputies.

At three o'clock in the morning, the Bolshevik fraction left the meeting in protest against the refusal of the delegates to approve the Declaration. Left SRs joined them. At 4:40 a.m. on January 6 (19), 1918, the head of the guard, anarchist A. Zheleznyakov, invited the deputies to disperse, indicating that the guard was tired. Nevertheless, Chairman V. M. Chernov, despite the absence of a quorum, managed to conduct a vote on the main provisions of the law on land, proclaiming land as public property. An appeal was made to the allies regarding the conclusion of a just universal peace, as well as a decree on the state structure, according to which Russia became Russian Democratic Federal Republic. The delegates dispersed, deciding to gather on the same day at 5 p.m., however, by that time they found the doors of the palace closed and under heavy guard. On the same day, the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly was published.

 

Lit.: Всероссийское Учредительное собрание (1917 г. в документах и материалах). М., – Л., 1930; Декреты Советской власти. Т. I. 25 октября 1917 г.–16 марта 1918 г. М., 1957; Знаменский О. Н. В. И. Ленин об Учредительном собрании // В. И. Ленин в Октябре и в первые годы Советской власти. Л., 1970; Знаменский О. Н. Всероссийское Учредительное собрание: История созыва и политического крушения. Л., 1976; Лапандин В. А. Комитет членов Учредительного собрания: структура власти и политическая деятельность. Самара, 2003; Протасов Л. Г. Всероссийское Учредительное собрание. М., 1997; Он же. Люди Учредительного собрания: Портрет в интерьере эпохи. М., 2008; Учредительное собрание // Большая Российская энциклопедия; Черкесова Н. Н. Всероссийская по делам о выборах в Учредительное Собрание комиссия (Всевыборы), 3 марта 1917 г.–1 марта 1918 г. М., 2002.

 

Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

Beginning a run-up to the Constituent Assembly. An accommodation of a building of the Tauride Palace // 1917: [digital collection];

Elections to the Constituent Assembly // 1917 [digital collection];

All-Russian Constituent Assembly // 1918 [digital collection].