|
|
| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| − | {{Infobox legislature
| + | #REDIRECT[[Constituent Assembly (Russia)]] |
| − | | name = All-Russian Constituent Assembly
| |
| − | | native_name = Всероссийское Учредительное собрание
| |
| − | | house_type = [[Constituent assembly]]<ref>Declared by the Assembly to be ''Russian Democratic Federative Republic'', but its foundation was interrupted by Bolshevik-controlled [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian Soviet Republic]].</ref>
| |
| − | | house1 =
| |
| − | | house2 =
| |
| − | | coa_pic = [[File:Russian coa 1917 vrem.png|150px]]
| |
| − | | coa_res = 150px
| |
| − | | coa_caption = The [[double-headed eagle]], which remained the ''[[de jure]]'' [[coat of arms of Russia]] until 10 July 1918. Never formally used prior to the dissolution of the Assembly.
| |
| − | | leader1_type = [[Chairman]] of the Constituent Assembly
| |
| − | | leader1 = [[Viktor Chernov]]
| |
| − | | term_leader1 = 18–19 January 1918
| |
| − | | members = 767
| |
| − | | meeting_place = [[Tauride Palace]]
| |
| − | | last_election1 = [[1917 Russian Constituent Assembly election|25 November 1917]]
| |
| − | | established = 1917
| |
| − | | preceded_by = [[Council of the Russian Republic]]
| |
| − | | disbanded = 1918
| |
| − | | succeeded_by = [[VTsIK]]<br />[[All-Russian Congress of Soviets]]<br />[[Provisional All-Russian Government]]
| |
| − | *[[All-Russian Congress of Soviets#Third All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies (23–31 January 1918)|Third All-Russian Congress of Soviets]] {{small|(as [[constituent assembly]])}}
| |
| − | {{small|Both VTsIK and Congress also governs Russia since [[October Revolution]]}}
| |
| − | | voting_system1 = Direct multi-party elections via the [[proportional representation]] system ([[D'Hondt method]] was used to allocate seats in 81 multi-winner constituencies)
| |
| − | | session_room = [[File:Tauridepalace.gif|300px]]
| |
| − | }}
| |
| − | | |
| − | The '''All Russian Constituent Assembly''' (Всероссийское Учредительное собрание, Vserossiyskoye Uchreditelnoye sobraniye) was a legislative body proposed by the [[Russian Provisional Government|Provisional Government]] after the [[February Revolution]] and the abdication of [[Tsar Nicholas II]]. The purpose of the Assembly was to write a constitution that would govern Russia after the end of the Romanov dynasty. The Provisional Government was committed to universal sufferage, but its continued participation in [[World War I]] as well as the political situation in Russia held up the vote for months. By the time the vote was organized, the Provisional Government had already declared a Russian Republic. That republic would not last long as the [[October Revolution]] swept away the Provisional Government and replaced it with a Soviet government. The vote for the Constituent Assembly, which was already scheduled, occurred only days after the revolution. [[Vladimir Lenin]] allowed the Assembly to meet. The delegates convened for 13 hours, from 4 p.m. to 5 a.m., {{OldStyleDate|January 18-19|1918|January 5-6}}, but when they did not approve the changes promoted by the [[Bolshevik]]s, they shut the Assembly down.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ==Background==
| |
| − | A democratically elected Constituent Assembly to create a Russian constitution was one of the main demands of all Russian revolutionary parties prior to the [[Russian Revolution of 1905]]. In the wake of that revolution, in 1906 the [[Tsar]] granted basic civil liberties and held elections for a newly created legislative body, the [[State Duma (Russian Empire)|State Duma]]. The government dissolved the Duma, as was their legal agreement, in July 1906 and, after a new election, in June 1907. The [[Coup of June 1907|final election law]] written by the government after the second dissolution on {{OldStyleDate|June 16|1907|June 3}} favored the landed and ruling classes. What little the Duma could do after 1907 was often vetoed by the Tsar or the appointed upper house of the Russian parliament. The Duma was therefore widely seen as unrepresentative of the working class and peasantry. The demands for a Constituent Assembly that would be elected on the basis of [[universal suffrage]] remained the goal of many liberals and socialists.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ===The Provisional Government (February–October 1917)===
| |
| − | {{main|Russian Provisional Government}}
| |
| − | | |
| − | With the abdication of Tsar [[Nicholas II of Russia|Nicholas II]] in the [[February Revolution]] of 1917, power in Russia initially passed to a [[Russian Provisional Government|Provisional Government]] formed by the liberal leadership of the Duma.
| |
| − | | |
| − | The Provisional Government was made up of parliamentary figures from the last elected Duma (the [[Fourth Duma]]) in 1912, who asserted provisional authority for managing the revolutionary situation in the midst of the [[World War I|First World War]] until a more permanent government could be established by an elected Constituent Assembly based on universal suffrage.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [[Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia|Grand Duke Michael]] had agreed to ascend to his older brother Nicholas II's throne only with the consent of an elected [[Constituent Assembly]]. The Constituent Assembly was to be tasked with forming a new government and creating a new constitution. The Provisional Government planned to organize elections once the First World War had concluded, but they faced mounting challenges. The war drug on, resulting in greater privations for the Russian people and discontent among the soldiers. The aspiration of the Provisional Government was for the freest election possible but there was no electoral infrastructure for such a effort, and the need to govern and prevent chaos only grew as time passed. There was a dramatic turn after the Kerensky's June Offensive to bring the war to a successful conclusion failed. It resulted in the [[July Days]], as workers and soldiers took to the streets and demanded power to the Soviets. The government was temporarily successful in accusing the Bolsheviks of treason, arresting Trotsky and forcing Lenin to flee to Finland.
| |
| − | | |
| − | In July 1917 Kerensky became Prime Minister and formed a new government. He brought General Kornilov into the government as his military commander. This arrangement was short-lived as in August General Kornilov attempted a coup d'etat. The origins of the coup remain mysterious, but they changed the political dynamic in the country. The failed coup, known as the [[Kornilov affair]], undermined confidence in Kerensky's government. He was forced to attack Kornilov, weakening his position with the army. He also had to turn to the Bolsheviks for support, strengthening their position. The government declared Russia a republic and began preparations for elections in the "[[Preparliament]]," later named the [[Council of the Russian Republic]].<ref>[[Louise Bryant]], [http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bryant/russia/russia-VII.html "Six Red Months in Russia",] Chapter VII. ''digital.library.upenn.edu'', Retrieved April 28, 2022.</ref> These actions triggered criticism from both left and right. Monarchists saw the declaration of a republican form of government in Russia as unacceptable, while the left considered the declaration a power grab intended to weaken the influence of the Soviets.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ===The Bolsheviks and the Constituent Assembly===
| |
| − | The Bolsheviks' position on the Constituent Assembly changed over the course of time from March to October, 1917. Like all the other socialist parties, the Bolsheviks originally supported the election of a Constituent Assembly. [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]] himself later argued: 'The demand for the [[convocation]] of a Constituent Assembly was a perfectly legitimate part of the programme of revolutionary Social-Democracy, because in a bourgeois republic the Constituent Assembly represents the highest form of democracy'.<ref>V. I. Lenin, [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/dec/11a.htm "Theses on the Constituent Assembly,"], ''http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/ Lenin Internet Archive'', December 11 or 12, 1917. Retrieved May 20, 2022.</ref>
| |
| − | | |
| − | But there was a potential contradiction in Bolshevik policy. Since Lenin's return from Switzerland in April 1917, the Bolsheviks had distinguished themselves from other socialists by calling for "All Power to the [[Soviet (council)|Soviets]]." The Bolsheviks thus opposed "bourgeois" parliamentary bodies, like the Provisional Government and the Constituent Assembly, in favor of the Soviets (directly elected revolutionary councils of workers, soldiers and peasants) which had arisen after the [[February Revolution]].<ref>Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/apr/04.htm "The Tasks of the Proletariat in the Present Revolution (a.k.a. The April Theses),"] ''Lenin Internet Archive'', April 17, 1917. Retrieved May 20, 2022.</ref>
| |
| − | | |
| − | As tensions between the Provisional Government and the Bolsheviks escalated, Kerensky was pressured to take action against the Bolsheviks. In response Lenin, at Trotsky's urging, decided to move against the government. On {{OldStyleDate|November 7|1917|October 25}}, the Red Guard took control of positions in Petrograd. The Provisional Government had been weakened to the extent that when these soldiers stormed the Winter Palace, the government fell. The [[October Revolution]] displaced the Provisional Government. The uprising in Petrograd coincided with the convocation of the Second All-Russian Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Soviets. The Soviet deputies of the more moderate socialist parties, the [[Mensheviks]] and the [[Socialist-Revolutionary Party|Right SRs]], walked out of the Congress in protest at what they argued was a premature overthrow of the "bourgeois" government in which they had participated.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Over the next few weeks, the Bolsheviks established control in urban areas and in almost all of [[Great Russia]], but had less success in the countryside and in ethnically non-Russian areas. Although the new Soviet government limited the [[freedom of the press]]<ref>For an account of the closure of the non-socialist newspapers in Petrograd by the Military Revolutionary Committee on October 26 see Nikolai Sukhanov, ''The Russian Revolution, 1917'' (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1955), 649-650.</ref> <ref>For the first [[Sovnarkom]] decree on press censorship see Rex A. Wade, ''The Russian Revolution, 1917'', (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0521602426), 276.</ref><ref>For the second Sovnarkom decree that established more extensive government control of the press see V. I. Lenin, [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/nov/04.htm "Draft Resolution on Freedom of the Press,"] ''Collected Works'', November 4, 1917, (Moscow, RU: Progress Publishers, Volume 26, 1972), 283-284.</ref> (by sporadically banning non-socialist press) and persecuted the liberal [[Constitutional Democratic party]] for its undeclared but widespread support of [[Kornilov affair|General Kornilov's aborted coup]], it allowed elections for the Constituent Assembly to go ahead on {{OldStyleDate|November 25|1917|November 12}}, as scheduled by the Provisional Government.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Officially, the Bolshevik government at first considered itself a provisional government and claimed that it intended to submit to the will of the Constituent Assembly. As Lenin wrote on {{OldStyleDate|18 November|1917|5 November}} (emphasis added):
| |
| − | | |
| − | <Blockquote>Hence the Soviets of Peasants' Deputies, primarily the [[uyezd]] and then the [[gubernia]] Soviets, are from now on, ''pending the convocation of the Constituent Assembly'', vested with full governmental authority in their localities.<ref>V. I. Lenin. [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/nov/05b.htm "Reply To Questions From Peasants,"] ''Collected Works of V. I. Lenin'' (Moscow, RU: Progress Publishers, Volume 26, 1972), 300-301.</ref></blockquote>
| |
| − | | |
| − | ==Election results (12/25 November 1917)==
| |
| − | {{main|1917 Russian Constituent Assembly election}}
| |
| − | | |
| − | The election for the Constituent Assembly went on just days after the Bolshevik coup d'etat. More than 60 percent of citizens with the right to vote actually voted for Constituent Assembly.<ref>James R. Millar, ed., ''Encyclopedia of Russian history'' (v. 3), (Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale Publishers, 2004, ISBN 978-0028656960), 1930.</ref> Due to the size of the country, the ongoing World War I and a deteriorating communications system, results were not fully available at the time. A partial count (54 constituencies out of 79) was published by N. V. Svyatitsky.<ref>N. V. Svyatitsky, ''A Year of the Russian Revolution. 1917-18'' (Moscow,RU: ''Zemlya i Volya'' Publishers, 1918.)</ref>. Svyatitsky's data was generally accepted by all political parties, including the Bolsheviks,<ref>V. I. Lenin. [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1919/dec/16.htm "The Constituent Assembly Elections and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat,"] December 1919, ''Collected Works'', Volume 30, (Moscow, RU: Progress Publishers, 1965,) 253-275. Retrieved May 20, 2022.</ref> and was as follows:
| |
| − | {| class="wikitable"
| |
| − | |-
| |
| − | ! Party
| |
| − | ! Votes
| |
| − | ! %
| |
| − | |-
| |
| − | |[[Socialist Revolutionaries]] (SRs)|| 17,943,000|| 40.4%
| |
| − | |-
| |
| − | |[[Bolsheviks]]|| 10,661,000 ||24.0%
| |
| − | |-
| |
| − | |[[Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionary Party|Ukrainian SRs]]|| 3,433.000|| 7.7%
| |
| − | |-
| |
| − | |[[Kadet Party|Constitutional Democrats]] ("Kadets") ||2,088,000 ||4.7%
| |
| − | |-
| |
| − | |[[Mensheviks]] ||1,144.000 ||2.6%
| |
| − | |-
| |
| − | |Other Russian Liberal Parties || 1,261,000|| 2.8%
| |
| − | |-
| |
| − | |[[Georgian Menshevik Party]] || 662,000||1.5%
| |
| − | |-
| |
| − | |[[Musavat]] (Azerbaijan)|| 616,000 ||1.4%
| |
| − | |-
| |
| − | |[[Dashnaktsutiun]] (Armenia)|| 560,000|| 1.3%
| |
| − | |-
| |
| − | |[[Left SRs]] ||451,000 ||1.0%
| |
| − | |-
| |
| − | |Other Socialists ||401,000 ||0.9%
| |
| − | |-
| |
| − | |[[Alash Orda]] (Kazakhstan)||407,000 ||0.9%
| |
| − | |-
| |
| − | |Other National Minority Parties ||407,000 ||0.9%
| |
| − | |-
| |
| − | |'''Total (counted votes)'''|| '''''40,034,000'''''|| '''''90%'''''
| |
| − | |-
| |
| − | |''Unaccounted ''||''4,543,000'' ||'''''10%'''''
| |
| − | |-
| |
| − | |'''Total'''|| '''''44,577,000'''''||'''''100%'''''
| |
| − | |}
| |
| − | | |
| − | The Bolsheviks received between 22% and 25% of the overall vote. The exact number of votes received by individual parties is still in dispute due to a large number of invalid ballots, but emerged the largest party in Russia's urban centers and among soldiers on the "Western Front," receiving two-thirds of those soldiers' votes. In the city of Moscow, the Bolsheviks won 47.9% of the votes, the Constitutional Democrats (Kadets) 35.7% and the SRs 8.1 percent.<ref>Timothy J. Colton, ''Moscow: Governing the Socialist Metropolis'' (Boston, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0674283718), 88.</ref> While losing the urban vote, the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, including the Left SRs, won around 57-58% (62% with their social democratic allies) of the delegates, having won the massive support of the rural peasantry, who constituted 80% of the Russian population.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Some revisionist scholars have argued that the vote had not properly represented the will of the peasantry. The ballots for the Assembly had not differentiated between the [[Socialist-Revolutionary Party|Right SRs]], who opposed the Bolshevik government, and the [[Left SRs]], who were coalition partners with the Bolsheviks. Thus many peasant votes intended for the Left SRs elected Right SR deputies.<ref>Sheila Fitzpatrick, ''The Russian Revolution'', 3rd ed., (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0199237678), 66.</ref><ref>E. H. Carr, ''The Bolshevik Revolution 1917-1923'' (London, UK: Penguin, 1966), 121.</ref> In his study of the Constituent Assembly election, O. H. Radkey argues: <blockquote>The election, therefore, does not measure the strength of this element [i.e. the Left S-Rs]. The lists were drawn up long before the schism [between Left and Right S-Rs] occurred; they were top-heavy with older party workers whose radicalism had abated by 1917. The people voted indiscriminately for the S-R label ... The leftward current was doubtless stronger everywhere on 12 November than when the lists had been drawn up.<ref>O. H. Radkey, ''The Election to the Russian Constituent Assembly of 1917'' (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1950), 72.</ref></blockquote>
| |
| − | | |
| − | ==From the election to the convocation of the Assembly (November 1917–January 1918)==
| |
| − | Lenin and the Bolsheviks began to cast doubt on the value of the Constituent Assembly as soon as it became apparent that the Assembly would not contain a majority that favored a Soviet government. On {{OldStyleDate|November 27|1917|November 14}}, Lenin told the Extraordinary All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Peasants' Deputies that the Constituent Assembly should not distract the peasants from the fight against capital:
| |
| − | | |
| − | <Blockquote>The peasants want land and the prohibition of hired labour; they want implements for the cultivation of the soil. And this cannot be obtained without defeating capital. [...] You are throwing down a challenge to capital, you are following a different path from ours; but we are at one with you in that we are marching, and must march, towards the social revolution. As for the Constituent Assembly, the speaker [i.e. Lenin] said that its work will depend on the mood in the country, but he added, trust in the mood, but don't forget your rifles.<ref>V. I. Lenin, [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/nov/12.htm "The Extraordinary All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Peasants' Deputies: Speech on the Agrarian Question 14 November,"] Lenin's ''Collected Works'' (Moscow, RU: Progress Publishers, Vol. XXVI, 1972, 321-332. Retrieved May 20, 2022.</ref></blockquote>
| |
| − | | |
| − | On {{OldStyleDate|December 4|1917|November 21}}, [[People's Commissar]] for Naval Affairs [[Pavel Dybenko]] ordered 7,000 pro-Bolshevik [[Kronstadt]] sailors to be on "full alert" in case of a convocation of the Constituent Assembly on {{OldStyleDate|December 9|1917|November 26}}. A meeting of some 20,000 Kronstadt "soldiers, sailors, workers and peasants" resolved to only support a Constituent Assembly that was "so composed as to confirm the achievements of the October Revolution [and would be free of] [[Kaledin]]ites and leaders of the counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie."<ref>Israel Getzler. ''Kronstadt 1917-1921: The Fate of a Soviet Democracy'' (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, (1983), 2002, ISBN 978-0521894425), 180.</ref>
| |
| − | | |
| − | With the split between the Right and [[Left Socialist Revolutionaries]] finalized in November, the Bolsheviks formed a coalition government with the latter faction. On {{OldStyleDate|11 December|1917|28 November}}, the Soviet government declared the Constitutional Democratic Party "a party of the enemies of the people," banned the party and ordered its leaders arrested.<ref>Wade, 277.</ref><ref> See Lenin's decree published on 29 November in V. I. Lenin, [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/nov/28.htm "Decree on the Arrest of the Leaders of the Civil War Against The Revolution,"] Collected Works, (Moscow, RU: Progress Publishers, Volume 28, 1972, 351. Retrieved May 20, 2022.</ref> It also postponed the convocation of the Constituent Assembly until early January. At first the Soviet government blamed the delays on technical difficulties and machinations of their enemies.<ref>V. I. Lenin, [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/dec/19.htm "On The Opening of the Constituent Assembly,"] ''Collected Works'', (Moscow, RU: Progress Publishers, Volume 26, 1972, 367. Retrieved May 20, 2022.</ref>
| |
| − | | |
| − | On {{OldStyleDate|December 26|1917|December 13}}, Lenin's ''Theses on the Constituent Assembly'' were published anonymously in the Bolshevik newspaper ''Pravda''. The theses argued that "revolutionary Social-Democracy has ever since the beginning of the Revolution of 1917 repeatedly emphasized that a republic of Soviets is a higher form of democracy than the usual bourgeois republic with a Constituent Assembly."
| |
| − | | |
| − | Lenin argued that the Constituent Assembly did not truly represent the Russian people because its ballots had not represented the split between the anti-Bolshevik Right SRs and the pro-Bolshevik Left SRs:
| |
| − | | |
| − | <Blockquote>[T]he party which from May to October had the largest number of followers among the people, and especially among the peasants – the Socialist-Revolutionary Party – came out with united election lists for the Constituent Assembly in the middle of October 1917, but split in November 1917, after the elections and before the Assembly met.</blockquote>
| |
| − | | |
| − | Lenin thus argued that:
| |
| − | | |
| − | <Blockquote>[T]he interests of this [October 1917] revolution stand higher than the formal rights of the Constituent Assembly [...] Every direct or indirect attempt to consider the question of the Constituent Assembly from a formal, legal point of view, within the framework of ordinary bourgeois democracy and disregarding the class struggle and civil war, would be a betrayal of the proletariat's cause, and the adoption of the bourgeois standpoint.</blockquote>
| |
| − | | |
| − | Lenin's proposed solution to the "problem" was for the Constituent Assembly to agree to new elections in order to better represent the current will of the people,<ref>Christopher Read, ''Lenin: A Revolutionary Life'' (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2005, ISBN 978-0415206488), 192.</ref> and to accept Soviet government in the interim:
| |
| − | | |
| − | <Blockquote>The only chance of securing a painless solution to the crisis which has arisen owing to the divergence between the elections to the Constituent Assembly, on the one hand, and the will of the people and the interests of the working and exploited classes, on the other, is for the people to exercise as broadly and as rapidly as possible the right to elect the members of the Constituent Assembly anew, and for the Constituent Assembly to accept the law of the Central Executive Committee on these new elections, to proclaim that it unreservedly recognises Soviet power, the Soviet revolution, and its policy on the questions of peace, the land and workers' control, and to resolutely join the camp of the enemies of the [[Constitutional Democratic Party|Cadet]]-[[Kaledin]] counter-revolution.<ref name="theses">See V. I. Lenin. [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/dec/11a.htm "Theses on the Constituent Assembly,"] ''Collected Works'' (Moscow, RU: Progress Publishers, Volume 26, 1972, 379-383. Retrieved May 20, 2022.</ref></blockquote>
| |
| − | | |
| − | Not all members of the Bolshevik party were willing to go along with what increasingly looked like the upcoming suppression of the Constituent Assembly. In early December, the moderates even had a majority among the Bolshevik delegates to the Constituent Assembly, but Lenin prevailed at the {{OldStyleDate|December 24|1917|December 11}} meeting of the Bolshevik Central Committee, which ordered Bolshevik delegates to follow Lenin's line.<ref>V. I. Lenin, [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/dec/11.htm "Speech at a Meeting of the Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P.(B.),"] December 11(24), 1917, and footnotes, ''Collected Works'' (Moscow, RU: Progress Publishers, Volume 26, 1972, 377. Retrieved May 20, 2022.</ref>
| |
| − | | |
| − | ==Meeting in Petrograd (5–6/18–19 January 1918)==
| |
| − | On the morning of {{OldStyleDate|January 18|1918|January 5}}, a large crowd gathered in Petrograd to march on the Tauride Palace in support of the Constituent Assembly. Soldiers loyal to the Bolshevik-Left SR Soviet government shot at the crowd, which quickly dispersed.<ref>Nikolai N. Smirnov, "Constituent Assembly," in Edward Acton, Vladimir Iu. Cherniaev & William G. Rosenberg (eds.), ''Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution 1914-1921'' (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0253333339), 332.</ref> Far fewer soldiers and workers than expected attended the demonstration, which consisted mainly of middle-class students, civil servants and professionals.<ref>Orlando Figes, ''A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924'' (London: UK, Pimlico, 1997, ISBN 978-0670859160), 514.</ref>
| |
| − | | |
| − | The Constituent Assembly [[quorum]] met in the [[Tauride Palace]] in Petrograd, between 4 p.m. and 4:40 a.m., {{OldStyleDate|January 18-19|1918| January 5-6}}. Armed guards were present everywhere in the building, with weapons allegedly pointed at speaking delegates. [[Viktor Chernov]], President of the Assembly, feared "a brawl" if he were too assertive.<ref>Viktor Chernov, "The Russian Revolution of 1917: Contemporary Accounts," in ''Russia in War and Revolution, 1914-1922'', ed. by Jonathan Daly and Leonid Trofimov (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 2009, ISBN 978-0872209879), 214-5.</ref> According to the Bolshevik, [[Fyodor Raskolnikov]], the initial conflict was about who had the power to open the Assembly. In spite of the SR plurality, Bolshevik [[Yakov Sverdlov]] claimed the right to open the Assembly based on his authority as Chairman of the Central Executive Committee. It caused an indignant reaction on the part of non-Bolshevik delegates. Referring to the [https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1918/jan/03.htm Declaration of the Rights of Working and Exploited People], he said "The Central Executive Committee expresses the hope that the Constituent Assembly, in so far as it correctly expresses the wishes of the people, will associate itself with [the Declaration]."<ref>Fyodor Fyodorovich Raskolnikov, "Tales of Sub-Lieutenant Ilyin," in ''Russia in War and Revolution, 1914-1922: A Documentary History'', ed. Jonathan Daly and Leonid Trofimov (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 2009 ISBN 978-08722098860, 219-20.</ref>
| |
| − | Later, a prominent Bolshevik, [[Ivan Skvortsov-Stepanov]], in a speech approved by Lenin, explained the Bolsheviks' opposition to "bourgeois democracy" in favor of class rule by the peasants and the workers:
| |
| − | | |
| − | <Blockquote>How can you appeal to such a concept as the will of the whole people? For a Marxist 'the people' is an inconceivable notion: the people does not act as a single unit. The people as a unit is a mere fiction, and this fiction is needed by the ruling classes. It is all over between us. You belong to one world, with the cadets and the bourgeoisie, and we to the other, with the peasants and the workers.<ref>F.F. Raskolnikov, [http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/government/red-army/1918/raskolnikov/ilyin/ch01.htm "Tales of Sub-Lieutenant Ilyin: The Tale of a Lost Day,"] (Moscow, 1934, English translation London, New Park Publications Ltd, 1982. Retrieved May 20, 2022.</ref></blockquote>
| |
| − | | |
| − | The Assembly was dominated by anti-Bolshevik [[Socialist-Revolutionary Party|Right SRs]]. Their leader, [[Victor Chernov]], was elected Chairman of the Assembly with 244 votes against 153 for [[Maria Spiridonova]] of the [[Left SRs]]. The Bolsheviks placed the Second Soviet Congress' Decrees before the Assembly for endorsement. They were rejected by 237 votes to 136.<ref>Ronald W. Clark, ''Lenin: The Man Behind the Mask'' (London, UK: Faber and Faber, 1988, ISBN 978-0571139040), 304.</ref> It became clear that the Constituent Assembly was opposed to Soviet government and would not agree to new elections. During a recess meeting, the Bolsheviks and Left SRs decided to dissolve the Assembly. The Deputy People's Commissar for Naval Affairs [[Fyodor Raskolnikov]] read a prepared statement and the Bolsheviks and Left SRs walked out. Lenin left the building to go to bed, instructing the soldiers not to use force against the deputies, but to wait until they left of their own accord:<ref>Figes, 516.</ref>
| |
| − | | |
| − | <Blockquote>There is no need to disperse the Constituent Assembly: just let them go on chattering as long as they like and then break up, and tomorrow we won't let a single one of them come in.<ref>F.F. Raskolnikov, [http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/government/red-army/1918/raskolnikov/ilyin/ch01.htm "Tales of Sub-Lieutenant Ilyin: The Tale of a Lost Day,"] (Moscow, 1934, English translation London, New Park Publications Ltd, 1982. Retrieved May 20, 2022.</ref>{{Anchor|Dissolving}}</blockquote>
| |
| − | | |
| − | Around 4 a.m., the Commandant of the Tauride Palace, [[Anatoli Zhelezniakov]], an Anarchist sailor,<ref>Clark, 304-5.</ref> approached Chernov and said:
| |
| − | | |
| − | <Blockquote>The guard is tired. I propose that you close the meeting and let everybody go home.<ref>F. F. Raskolnikov, [http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/government/red-army/1918/raskolnikov/ilyin/ch01.htm "Tales of Sub-Lieutenant Ilyin: The Tale of a Lost Day,"] (Moscow, 1934, English translation London, New Park Publications Ltd, 1982. Retrieved May 20, 2022.</ref></blockquote>
| |
| − | | |
| − | The Right SRs tried to use the final minutes of the Constituent Assembly to pass socialist measures which they had failed to implement in months of power in the Provisional Government.<ref>Figes, 516.</ref> Chernov responded to the Soviet Decrees on Land and Peace with the SR-drafted "Law on the Land," which proclaimed a radical land reform,<ref>Jonathan D. Smele. ''Civil War in Siberia: The Anti-Bolshevik Government of Admiral Kolchak, 1918-1920'', (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996, ISBN 978-0521573351), 34.</ref> a law making Russia a [[Russian Democratic Federative Republic|democratic federal republic]] (thus ratifying the Provisional Government's decision adopted in September 1917) and an appeal to the [[Triple Entente|Entente]] Allies for a democratic peace. The Assembly voted for the proposals, scheduled the next meeting for 5 p.m. on {{OldStyleDate|January 19|1918|January 6}} and dispersed at 4:40 a.m. The next day the deputies found the building locked down and the Assembly declared dissolved by the Bolshevik-Left SR Soviet government. The government immediately called the Third Congress of Soviets, which produced a large Bolshevik majority, as a democratic counterweight to the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly.<ref>Christopher Read, ''Lenin: A Revolutionary Life'' (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2005, ISBN 978-0415206495), 193.</ref> A Decree of dissolution of Parliament was ratified by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee ([[VTsIK]]) later that day.<ref>Adam Bruno Ulam, ''The Bolsheviks: the Intellectual and Political History of the Triumph of Communism in Russia: with a New Preface by the Author'' (Boston, MA: Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0674078307), 397.</ref><ref>Richard Sakwa, ''The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union: 1917 - 1991'' (Abington, UK: Routledge Publishing, 1999, ISBN 978-0415122894), 73.</ref><ref>Neil V. Salzman, ''Russia in War and Revolution: General William V. Judson's Accounts from Petrograd, 1917-1918'' (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1998, ISBN 978-0873385978), 229.</ref> making the [[All-Russian Congress of Soviets#Third Congress|Third All-Russian Congress of Soviets]] the new governing body of Russia.<ref>David R. Marples, ''Russia in the Twentieth Century: The Quest for Stability'' (Abington, UK: Routledge Publishing, 2017, ISBN 978-1138425347), 38.</ref><ref>Hough, 81.</ref><ref>Alex F. Dowlah and John E. Elliott, ''The Life and Times of Soviet Socialism'' (Goleta, CA: Praeger Publishers, 1997, ISBN 978-0275956295), 18.</ref><!-- [[File:Tauridepalace.gif|thumb|400px|[[Tauride Palace]] where the assembly convened.]] —>
| |
| − | | |
| − | ==Public reaction to closure==
| |
| − | Shortly after the closure of the Constituent Assembly, a Right SR deputy from the Volga region argued: "[To] defend the Constituent Assembly, to defend us, its members - that is the duty of the people."<ref>Figes, 517.</ref> In his short book on Lenin, Trotsky described the end of the Constituent Assembly as follows:
| |
| − | <blockquote>[The deputies of the assembly] brought candles with them in case the Bolcheviki cut off the electric light and a vast number of sandwiches in case their food be taken from them. Thus democracy entered upon the struggle with dictatorship heavily armed with sandwiches and candles. The people did not give a thought to supporting those who considered themselves their elect and who in reality were only shadows of a period of the revolution that was already passed.<ref>Leon Trotsky, [https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1925/lenin/index.htm "Lenin,"] ''Lenin Internet Archive'' 1925. Retrieved May 20, 2022.</ref></blockquote>
| |
| − | | |
| − | Ronald W. Clark notes that the closure of the Constituent Assembly provoked "comparatively little reaction, even in political circles."<ref>Clark, 305.</ref> [[Orlando Figes]] argued: "There was no mass reaction to the closure of the Constituent Assembly. ... The SR intelligentsia had always been mistaken in their belief that the peasants shared their veneration for the Constituent Assembly. ... [To] the mass of the peasants ... it was only a distant thing in the city, dominated by the 'chiefs' of the various parties, which they did not understand, and was quite unlike their own political organizations."<ref>Figes, 518-9.</ref>
| |
| − | | |
| − | Figes argues that the Right SRs' allegiance to the Provisional Government had isolated them from the mass of peasants: "Their adopted sense of responsibility for the state (and no doubt a little pride in their new ministerial status) led the Right SRs to reject their old terrorist ways of revolutionary struggle and depend exclusively on parliamentary methods."<ref>Figes, 517.</ref>
| |
| − | | |
| − | In his study of the Constituent Assembly election, O. H. Radkey argued:
| |
| − | <blockquote>Of ... fateful significance was the fact that while the democratic parties heaped opprobrium upon him [i.e. Lenin] for this act of despotism, their following showed little inclination to defend an institution which the Russian people had ceased to regard as necessary to the fulfilment of its cherished desires. For the Constituent Assembly, even before it had come into existence, had been caught in a back-eddy of the swiftly flowing stream of revolutionary developments and no longer commanded the interest and allegiance of the general population which alone could have secured it against a violent death.<ref>O. H. Radkey, ''The Election to the Russian Constituent Assembly of 1917'' (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1950), 2.</ref></blockquote>
| |
| − | | |
| − | ==Between Petrograd and Samara (January–June 1918)==
| |
| − | Barred from the Tauride Palace, Constituent Assembly deputies met at the Gurevich High School and held a number of secret meetings, but found that the conditions became increasingly dangerous. Some tried to relocate to the [[Tsentralna Rada]]-controlled [[Kiev]], a soviet not under Bolshevik control. On {{OldStyleDate|January 28|1918| January 15}} [[Rada]] forces had to abandon the city, which effectively terminated the Constituent Assembly as a cohesive body.<ref>Nikolai N. Smirnov, "Constituent Assembly" in ''Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution 1914-1921'', ed. Edward Acton, Vladimir Chernaiev and William Rosenberg (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University, 1997, ISBN 978-0253333339), 332.</ref>
| |
| − | | |
| − | The Socialist Revolutionary Central Committee met in January and decided against armed resistance since:
| |
| − | | |
| − | <Blockquote>Bolshevism, unlike the [[Tsarist autocracy]], is based on workers and soldiers who are still blinded, have not lost faith in it, and do not see that it is fatal to the cause of the working class<ref> Scott Smith, "The Socialists-Revolutionaries and the Dilemma of Civil War" in ''The Bolsheviks in Russian Society: The Revolution and the Civil War Years'' ed. Vladimir N. Brovkin, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0300067064), 83-104.</ref></blockquote>
| |
| − | | |
| − | Instead the socialists (Socialist Revolutionaries and their Menshevik allies) decided to work within the Soviet system and returned to the Soviet All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK), the [[Petrograd Soviet]] and other Soviet bodies that they had walked out of during the Bolshevik uprising in October 1917. They hoped that Soviet re-elections would go their way once the Bolsheviks proved unable to solve pressing social and economic problems. They would then achieve a majority within local Soviets and, eventually, the Soviet government, at which point they would be able to re-convene the Constituent Assembly.
| |
| − | | |
| − | The socialists' plan was partially successful in that Soviet re-elections in the winter and especially spring of 1918 often returned pro-SR and anti-Bolshevik majorities, but their plan was frustrated by the Soviet government's refusal to accept election results and its repeated dissolution of anti-Bolshevik Soviets. As one of the leaders of [[Tula, Russia|Tula]] Bolsheviks N. V. Kopylov wrote to the Bolshevik Central Committee in early 1918:
| |
| − | | |
| − | <Blockquote>After the transfer of power to the soviet, a rapid about-face began in the mood of the workers. The Bolshevik deputies began to be recalled one after another, and soon the general situation took on a rather unhappy appearance. Despite the fact that there was a schism among the SRs, and the Left SRs were with us, our situation became shakier with each passing day. We were forced to block new elections to the soviet and even not to recognize them where they had taken place not in our favor.<ref>Smith, 83-104.</ref></blockquote>
| |
| − | | |
| − | In response, Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks started Assemblies of Workers' [[Plenipotentiaries]] which ran in parallel with the Bolshevik-dominated Soviets. The idea proved popular with the workers, but had little effect on the Bolshevik government.
| |
| − | | |
| − | With the signing of the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]] by the Bolsheviks on March 3, 1918, ending Russian participation in World War I, the Socialist Revolutionary leadership increasingly viewed the Bolshevik government as a German proxy. They were willing to consider an alliance with the liberal Constitutional Democrats, which had been rejected as recently as December 1917 by their Fourth Party Congress. Socialists and liberals held talks on creating a united anti-Bolshevik front in Moscow in late March. However, the negotiations broke down because the SRs insisted on re-convening the Constituent Assembly as elected in November 1917 while the Constitutional Democrats, who had polled weakly in the November election, demanded new elections.<ref>Smith, 83-104</ref>
| |
| − | | |
| − | ==Samara Committee (June–September 1918)==
| |
| − | | |
| − | On May 7, 1918 ([[New Style]], from this point on) the Eighth Party Council of the Socialist Revolutionary Party convened in Moscow and decided to start an uprising against the Bolsheviks with the goal of reconvening the Constituent Assembly. While preparations were under way, the [[Czechoslovak Legions]], Czech and Slovak volunteers fighting on behalf of the [[Triple Entente]] powers of Russia, Britain and France, overthrew Bolshevik rule in [[Siberia]], the [[Urals]] and the [[Volga]] region in late May-early June 1918 and the center of SR activity shifted there. On June 8, 1918 five Constituent Assembly members formed an All-Russian Constituent Assembly Committee (''Komuch'') in [[Samara, Russia|Samara]] and declared it the new supreme authority in the country.<ref>Smele, 32.</ref>
| |
| − | | |
| − | The committee had the support of the Czechoslovak Legions and was able to spread its authority over much of the Volga-[[Kama]] region. However, most of the Siberia and Urals regions were controlled by a patchwork of ethnic, [[Cossack]], military and liberal-rightist local governments, which constantly clashed with the committee. The Committee functioned until September 1918, eventually growing to about 90 Constituent Assembly members, when the so-called "State Conference" representing all the anti-Bolshevik local governments from the Volga to the Pacific Ocean formed a coalition "All-Russian Supreme Authority" (aka the "[[Ufa]] Directory") with the ultimate goal of re-convening the Constituent Assembly once the circumstances permitted:
| |
| − | | |
| − | <Blockquote>In its activities the government will be unswervingly guided by the indisputable supreme rights of the Constituent Assembly. It will tirelessly ensure that the actions of all organs subordinate to the Provisional Government do not in any way tend to infringe the rights of the Constituent Assembly or hinder its resumption of work…It will present an account of its activities to the Constituent Assembly as soon as the Constituent Assembly declares that it has resumed operation. It will subordinate itself unconditionally to the Constituent Assembly, as the only supreme authority in the country.<ref> "Constitution of the Ufa Directory", first published in ''Narodovlastie'', No. 1, 1918, reprinted in ''Istoriya Rossii 1917 - 1940'', Ekaterinburg, 1993, 102 - 105.</ref></blockquote>
| |
| − | | |
| − | The All-Russian Constituent Assembly Committee continued functioning as "Congress of Members of the Constituent Assembly" but had no real power, although the Directory pledged to support it:
| |
| − | | |
| − | <Blockquote>All possible assistance to the Congress of Members of the Constituent Assembly, operating as a legal state organ, in its independent work of ensuring the relocation of members of the Constituent Assembly, hastening and preparing the resumption of activity by the Constituent Assembly in its present composition.<ref>"Constitution of the Ufa Directory," 102-105.</ref></blockquote>
| |
| − | | |
| − | Initially, the agreement had the support of the Socialist Revolutionary Central Committee which delegated two of its right-wing members, [[Nikolai Avksentiev]] and [[Vladimir Zenzinov]], to the five member Ufa Directory. However, when Viktor Chernov arrived in Samara on September 19, 1918, he was able to persuade the Central Committee to withdraw support from the Directory because he viewed it as too conservative and the SR presence there as insufficient.<ref>Michael Melancon, "Chernov," in ''Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution 1914-1921'', 137.</ref> This put the Directory in a political vacuum and two months later, on November 18, 1918, it was overthrown by right-wing officers who made Admiral [[Alexander Kolchak]] the new "supreme ruler."
| |
| − | | |
| − | ==Final collapse==
| |
| − | After the fall of the Ufa Directory, Chernov formulated what he called the "third path" against both the Bolsheviks and the liberal-rightist [[White Movement]], but the SRs' attempts to assert themselves as an independent force were unsuccessful and the party, always fractious, began to disintegrate. On the Right, Avksentiev and Zenzinov went abroad with Kolchak's permission. On the Left, some SRs became reconciled with the Bolsheviks. Chernov tried to stage an uprising against Kolchak in December 1918, but it was put down and its participants executed. In February 1919 the SR Central Committee decided that the Bolsheviks were the lesser of two evils and gave up armed struggle against them. The Bolsheviks let the SR Central Committee re-establish itself in Moscow and start publishing a party newspaper in March 1919, but they were soon arrested and spent the rest of the [[Russian Civil War]] in prison.<ref>Ronald Grigor Suny, ''The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States'' (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1998, ISBN 978-0195081053), 80.</ref> Chernov went undercover and eventually was forced to flee Russia while the imprisoned Central Committee members were put on trial in 1922 and their leaders sentenced to death, although their sentences were suspended.<ref>Elizabeth A. Wood, ''Performing Justice: Agitation Trials in Early Soviet Russia'' (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0801442575), 83.</ref>
| |
| − | | |
| − | With the main pro-Constituent Assembly party effectively removed, the only remaining force that supported its re-convocation was the Entente Allies. On May 26, 1919, the Allies offered Kolchak their support predicated on a number of conditions, including free elections at all levels of government and reinstating the Constituent Assembly. On June 4, 1919 Kolchak accepted most of the conditions, but he refused to reconvene the Assembly elected in November 1917 since it had been elected under Bolshevik rule and he argued that the elections were not fully free. On June 12, 1919, the Allies deemed the response satisfactory and the demand for a reconvocation of the original Constituent Assembly was abandoned.<ref>Georg Schild. ''Between Ideology and Realpolitik: Woodrow Wilson and the Russian Revolution, 1917-1921'' (Westport, CT, Greenwood Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0313295706), 111.</ref>
| |
| − | | |
| − | Both Kolchak and the leader of the White Movement in the South of Russia, General [[Anton Denikin]], officially subscribed to the principle of "non-predetermination," refusing to determine what kind of social or political system Russia would have until after Bolshevism was defeated. Kolchak and Denikin made general promises to the effect that there would be no return to the past and that there would be some form of popular representation put in place. However, as one Russian journalist observed at the time:
| |
| − | | |
| − | <Blockquote>[I]n [[Omsk]] itself ... could be seen a political grouping who were prepared to promise anything that the Allies wanted whilst saying that "When we reach Moscow we can talk to them in a different tone".<ref>Arnol'dov, "Zhizn' i revoliutsiia," in Jonathan D. Smele, 254.</ref></blockquote>
| |
| − | | |
| − | Numerous memoirs published by the leaders of the White Movement after their defeat are inconclusive on the subject. There does not appear to be enough evidence to tell which group in the White Movement would have prevailed in case of a White victory and whether new Constituent Assembly elections would have been held, much less how restrictive they would have been.
| |
| − | | |
| − | After the Bolshevik victory in the [[Southern Front of the Russian Civil War|Southern Front of the Civil War]] in late 1920, 38 members of the Constituent Assembly met in [[Paris]] in 1921 and formed an executive committee, which consisted of the Constitutional Democrats leader [[Pavel Milyukov]], one of the Progressist leaders [[Aleksandr Konovalov (politician, born 1875)|Aleksandr Konovalov]], a Ufa Directory member Avksentiev and the head of the Provisional Government Kerensky. Like other emigre organizations, it proved ineffective.<ref>Nikolai N. Smirnov, "The Constituent Assembly" in ''Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution 1914-1921'', 332.</ref>
| |
| − | | |
| − | ==Legacy==
| |
| − | The Constituent Assembly remains a topic of debate and dispute among scholars. Critics more favorable to the Soviets argue the Bolshevik view that the Bolsheviks were justified in closing down the Assembly, pointing out that the election did not take into account the split in the SR Party. According Marcel Liebman, the Bolsheviks and their allies had a majority in the Soviets due to its different electoral system. Per the [[Soviet Russia Constitution of 1918|1918 Soviet Constitution]], each urban (and usually pro-Bolshevik) Soviet had 1 delegate per 25,000 voters. Each rural (usually pro-SR) Soviet was only allowed 1 delegate per 125,000 voters. A few weeks later the Left SR and Right SR got roughly equal votes in the Peasant Soviets. <ref>Marcel Liebman, ''Leninism under Lenin'' (London, UK: Jonathan Cape Ltd., 1975, ISBN 978-0224010726).</ref>
| |
| − | | |
| − | The Bolsheviks also argued that the Soviets were more democratic as delegates could be removed by their electors instantly rather than the parliamentary style of the Assembly where the elected members could only be removed after several years at the next election. Liebman states that the elections to the Peasant and Urban Soviets were free and these Soviets then elected the All-Russian Congress of Soviets which chose the Soviet Government, the Second Congress taking place before the Assembly, and the Third Congress just after.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Two more recent books using material from the opened Soviet archives, ''The Russian Revolution 1899-1919'' by [[Richard Pipes]] and ''[[A People's Tragedy]]'' by [[Orlando Figes]], give a different version. Pipes, in particular, argues that the elections to the Second Congress were not fair. One Soviet with 1,500 members sent 5 delegates which was more than Kiev. He states that both the SRs and the Mensheviks declared this election illegal and unrepresentative. The books state that the Bolsheviks, two days after the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, created a counter-assembly, the Third Congress of Soviets. They gave themselves and the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries 94% of the seats, far more than the results from the only nationwide parliamentary democratic election in Russia during this time.<ref>Richard Pipes, ''The Russian Revolution 1899-1919'' (Boulder, CO: Fontana Press; New Ed edition, 1992, ISBN 978-0006862338).</ref> The ultimate downfall of the Constituent Assembly appears to be that while no electoral system is perfect, it can only function in a system in which the rules are clear and agreed upon prior to the vote. Revolutionary Russia was not such a place.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ==Notes==
| |
| − | {{notelist}}
| |
| − | | |
| − | ==References==
| |
| − | {{Reflist}}
| |
| − | * Chernov, Viktor, "The Russian Revolution of 1917: Contemporary Accounts," in ''Russia in War and Revolution, 1914-1922'', ed. by Jonathan Daly and Leonid Trofimov, Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 2009, ISBN 978-0872209879
| |
| − | * Clark, Ronald W., ''Lenin: The Man Behind the Mask''. London, UK: Faber and Faber, 1988, ISBN 978-0571139040)
| |
| − | * Colton, Timothy J., ''Moscow: Governing the Socialist Metropolis''. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0674283718
| |
| − | * Figes, Orlando, ''A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924''. London: UK, Pimlico, 1997, ISBN 978-0670859160
| |
| − | * Read, Christopher, ''Lenin: A Revolutionary Life''. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2005, ISBN 978-0415206488
| |
| − | * Smele, Jonathan D., ''Civil War in Siberia: The Anti-Bolshevik Government of Admiral Kolchak, 1918-1920''. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996, ISBN 978-0521573351
| |
| − | * Smirnov, Nikolai N., "Constituent Assembly," in Edward Acton, Vladimir Iu. Cherniaev & William G. Rosenberg (eds.), ''Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution 1914-1921''. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0253333339
| |
| − | * Wade, Rex A., ''The Russian Revolution, 1917''. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0521602426
| |
| − | | |
| − | ==Further Reading==
| |
| − | * Lenin, V. I., [https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1918/jan/06a.htm "Draft Decree on the Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly,"] ''Collected Works of Lenin'', January 6, 1918. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
| |
| − | * Lenin, V. I., [https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1918/jan/06b.htm "Speech on the Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly,"] ''Collected Works of Lenin''. January 6, 1918. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
| |
| − | * [[Karl Kautsky|Kautsky, Karl]], [http://www.marxists.org/archive/kautsky/1918/dictprole/ch06.htm "The Dictatorship of the Proletariat,"]. ''Marxist Internet Archive''. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
| |
| − | * [[Leon Trotsky|Trotsky, Leon]], [https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1925/lenin/05.htm "Lenin, ch. 5,"] ''Marxist Internet Archive''. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
| |
| − | * Serge, Victor, [https://www.marxists.org/archive/serge/1930/year-one-ni/part04.html "Year One of the Russian Revolution, ch. 4,"] ''Marxist Internet Archive''. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
| |
| − | * Cliff, Tony, [https://www.marxists.org/archive/cliff/works/1978/lenin3/ch03.html "Lenin 3 – Revolution Besieged'', ch. 3,"] ''Marxist Internet Archive''. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
| |
| − | * Shachtman, Max, [https://www.marxists.org/archive/shachtma/1949/01/08-constituent.html "The Constituent Assembly,"] ''Marxist Internet Archive''. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
| |
| − | * Browder, Robert and [[Alexander Kerensky]] eds. ''The Russian Provisional Government, 1917''. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1961
| |
| − | * Tyrkova-Williams, Ariadna, [https://archive.org/details/fromlibertytobre00tyrkiala ''From Liberty to Brest-Litovsk, the First Year of the Russian Revolution''], London, UK: Macmillan, 1919.
| |
| − | * Sokoloff, Boris, ''The White Nights''. New York, NY: Devin-Adair, 1956
| |
| − | *''The Bolshevik Revolution, 1917-1918. Documents and Materials'', eds. Frank Alfred Golder, James Bunyan and Harold Fisher, Stanford University Press; H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1934. See the section on the Constituent Assembly
| |
| − | * Radkey, Oliver Henry, ''Russia Goes to the Polls: The Election to the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, 1917''. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1989, ISBN 978-0801423604
| |
| − | | |
| − | | |
| − | [[Category:Political science]]
| |
| − | [[Category:Government]]
| |
| − | [[Category:Politics]]
| |
| − | [[Category:History]]
| |
| − | | |
| − | {{credits|1078699956}}
| |
