After the victory of the October Revolution in Petrograd and Moscow, Soviet power in a short time (until March 1918) established itself in the main part of the territory of the former Russian Empire. In the vast majority of provincial and other large cities (in 73 out of 91) this happened peacefully.

The establishment of Soviet power in the regions of Russia. Constituent Assembly, III Congress of Soviets

In the Central Industrial Region, Soviet power won in November-December 1917 with an overwhelming superiority of revolutionary forces. Support for the October Revolution by the active army at the front-line congresses that took place before December 10 determined the decisive preponderance of forces in favor of Soviet power. The Baltic Fleet was the main force in supporting the revolution in Petrograd and the Baltics. In November 1917, the sailors of the Black Sea Fleet, overcoming the resistance of the Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, adopted a resolution recognizing the Council of People's Commissars headed by Lenin. In the North and the Far East, the Bolsheviks did not receive a majority in the Soviets, which subsequently contributed to the beginning of the intervention in these regions.

The most active military opposition was provided by the Cossacks. On the Don, the core of the Volunteer Army was created and the center of the "white movement" was formed with the participation of the leaders of the Octobrists and Cadets (Struve, Milyukov), the Socialist-Revolutionary Savinkov. They worked out a political program: "For the Constituent Assembly", "For a united indivisible Russia", "For liberation from the Bolshevik dictatorship". The "White" movement immediately received the support of American, British and French diplomatic representatives, the Ukrainian Central Rada. During the offensive of the Volunteer Army in January 1918, the order of General Kornilov read: "Do not take prisoners." This marked the beginning of the "white terror".

On January 10-11, at the congress of the front-line Cossacks, the supporters of Soviet power created a military revolutionary committee headed by F. G. Podtelkov, followed by a significant part of the Cossacks. Red Guard detachments were sent to the Don. The Soviet troops went on the offensive. The White Cossack troops retreated to the Salsky steppes, and the Volunteer Army went to the Kuban. On March 23, the Don Soviet Republic was formed.

The Orenburg Cossacks were headed by Ataman A. I. Dutov. On November 1, he disarmed the Orenburg Soviet, announced mobilization and, together with the Bashkir and Kazakh nationalists, launched an offensive against Chelyabinsk and Verkhneuralsk. Communication between Petrograd and Moscow with South Siberia and Central Asia was interrupted. By the decisions of the Soviet government, Red Guard detachments from Petrograd, Samara, Ufa, the Urals were sent to fight Dutov, they were supported by detachments of the Bashkir, Tatar and Kazakh poor. By the end of February 1918, Dutov's troops were defeated.

In the national regions, the struggle for Soviet power unfolded not only against the Provisional Government, but also against the nationalist bourgeoisie and the Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik forces. In October - November 1917, the Soviet government won in Estonia, in the unoccupied part of Latvia and Belarus, as well as in Baku (where it held out until August 1918). In the rest of Transcaucasia, the separatists won: the Mensheviks in Georgia, the Dashnaks and Musavatists (petty-bourgeois parties) in Armenia and Azerbaijan. In May 1918, sovereign bourgeois-democratic republics were created there. In Ukraine, in December 1917, the Ukrainian Soviet Republic was proclaimed in Kharkov, the revolutionary forces overthrew the power of the Central Rada, which announced the creation of an independent "people's republic". The Rada left Kyiv and found shelter in Zhytomyr under the care of the German troops. In March 1918, Soviet power was established in the Crimea and Central Asia, except for the Khanate of Khiva and the Emirate of Bukhara.

Thus, from October 25, 1917 to March 1918, military resistance to the counter-revolution in the main regions of the country was suppressed, and Soviet power was established everywhere in Russia.

However, the political struggle in the center did not stop. Its culmination was the Constituent Assembly and the convocation of the Third Congress of Soviets. The II Congress of Soviets created a provisional Soviet government until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, the idea of ​​which the Bolsheviks supported earlier. The broad masses still associated the establishment of a new state system on a broad democratic basis with the Constituent Assembly. Opponents of Soviet power also hoped for the Constituent Assembly. The Bolsheviks agreed to convene it also because their consent knocked out the basis of the political platform of their opponents. After the abdication of Mikhail Romanov, the decision on the form of government in Russia was to be taken by the Constituent Assembly. But in 1917 the Provisional Government delayed its convocation and tried to find a replacement for it (the State Conference, the Democratic Conference and the Pre-Parliament), since the Cadets did not hope to get a majority. The Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries were content with their position in the Provisional Government, but after the October Revolution they called for the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, hoping to seize power.

The elections were held on the dates set by the Provisional Government - November 12, and the convening of the meeting was scheduled for January 5, 1918. By that time, the Soviet government had become a coalition, consisting of representatives of two parties - the Bolsheviks and the Left Social Revolutionaries, who emerged as an independent party at the First Congress November 19 - 28, 1917

The composition of the Constituent Assembly, elected from the entire population of Russia in the most democratic way, is very indicative. Elections were held according to party lists drawn up even before the October Revolution. The Constituent Assembly included: Socialist-Revolutionaries - 370 seats (52.5%); Bolsheviks - 175 seats (24.5%); Left Social Revolutionaries - 40 seats (5.7%); Mensheviks - 15 seats (2.1%); populists - 2 places (0.3%); cadets - 17 places; representatives of various national parties - 86 seats. The Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, who had already formed their own new party, ran in the elections according to the pre-October single lists, in which the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries included most of their representatives. Thus, the population of Russia gave preference to the socialist parties: the Social Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and Bolsheviks made up more than 85% of the members of the Constituent Assembly. Thus, the overwhelming majority of the country's population has unequivocally determined its choice of the socialist path of development of society. It was with this statement that he began his speech at the opening of the Constituent Assembly, its chairman, the leader of the Socialist-Revolutionaries V. M. Chernov. His assessment accurately reflects historical reality and refutes the falsifying fabrications of modern anti-Soviet historians, walking even on the pages of textbooks, that the Russian people allegedly "rejected the socialist path of development."

The Constituent Assembly could either approve the path of development chosen by the Second Congress of Soviets, the decrees on peace, land and the activities of the Soviet government, or try to eliminate the gains of Soviet power. Both main opposing forces - the Right SRs with the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks - categorically refused to seek a compromise. The meeting of the Constituent Assembly held on January 5 did not accept the “Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People” proposed by the Bolsheviks and refused to approve the activities of the Soviet government. There was a real threat of the restoration of the SR-bourgeois power. The Bolshevik delegation, followed by the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, in response to this, left the Constituent Assembly. The rest of the delegates continued to sit until 5 o'clock in the morning. By this time, 160 people out of 705 participants remained in the hall, the head of the guard, sailor-anarchist A. G. Zheleznyakov, approached the chairman of the Social Revolutionary Chernov and uttered the historical phrase: “The guard is tired! ..” Chernov announced the postponement of the meeting to the next day, but 6 January, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a decree dissolving the Constituent Assembly. The demonstrations organized by the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries in support of the dissolved Constituent Assembly did not change the situation, but there were also casualties in Petrograd and Moscow.

This is how the final split of the socialist parties into hostile camps took place. The Bolsheviks hoped that in a bloc with the Left SRs they would isolate their opponents from the masses and deprive them of the possibility of launching a civil war. In the coming months, this forecast came true, which ensured the “triumphant march” of Soviet power until the summer of 1918. But six months later, events turned the other way, showing the danger of a deep split in the left forces, each of which enjoyed the support of a part of the peasant population and the working class.

The final decision on the state structure of Russia and on the attitude towards the Constituent Assembly was made by the Third Congress of Soviets. On January 10, the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies met, and on January 13, the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Peasants' Deputies joined it. From that moment on, the unified All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies became the highest body of representative power of the working people in the Soviet state.

The congress approved the policy and activities of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars, expressing full confidence in them, and approved the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly. The congress adopted the most important constitutional acts that legitimized Soviet power: the Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People as the basis of the constitution, the Declaration on the Federal Institutions of the Russian Republic, and the Basic Law on the Socialization of the Land. The Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government, elected at the 2nd Congress, was renamed the supreme executive power, the Council of People's Commissars, as the "Workers' and Peasants' Government of the Russian Soviet Republic." This was preceded by the "Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia" (November 2, 1917) and the appeal of the Council of People's Commissars "To all working Muslims of Russia and the East", which proclaimed the rights of peoples to freedom and attracted the working masses of different nationalities to Soviet power, opening the way to their voluntary unification to a federal state.

Documents and materials:

From the declaration of the rights of the working and exploited people

It was adopted by the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets. The Declaration became an integral part of the first Constitution of the Soviet Republic.

1) Russia is declared a Republic of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies. All power in the center and locally belongs to these Soviets.

2) The Soviet Russian Republic is established on the basis of a free union of free nations as a federation of Soviet national republics.

Setting as its main task the abolition of all exploitation of man by man, the complete elimination of the division of society into classes, the merciless suppression of the exploiters, the establishment of a socialist organization of society and the victory of socialism in all countries, the Third All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies decides further:

In the implementation of the socialization of land, private ownership of land is abolished and the entire land fund is declared public property, transferred to the working people without any redemption on the basis of equal land use.

All forests, subsoil and waters of national importance, as well as a whole lot of live and dead stock, exemplary estates and agricultural enterprises are declared national property.

As the first step towards the complete transfer of factories, plants, mines, railways, and other means of production and transport into the ownership of the Soviet Workers' and Peasants' Republic, the Soviet law on workers' control and on the Supreme Council of the National Economy is confirmed in order to ensure the power of the working people over the exploiters.

The transition of all banks to the property of the workers' and peasants' state is confirmed as one of the conditions for the liberation of the working masses from the yoke of capital.

In order to ensure full power for the working masses and eliminate any possibility of restoring the power of the exploiters, the arming of the working people, the formation of a socialist Red Army of workers and peasants, and the complete disarmament of the propertied classes are decreed.<…>

Brest peace. Creation of a new statehood

Getting out of the imperialist war became the first priority of the Soviet government. The Entente countries ignored the "Decree on Peace" and the appeal to the ambassadors of the allied powers with the proposal of "an immediate truce on all fronts." On November 15, the Council of People's Commissars officially warned the Entente countries that if the response to Soviet proposals was delayed, "we will negotiate with the Germans alone." There was no answer, and in Berlin and Vienna they agreed without hesitation to negotiate peace with the Soviet government. It was not possible to fully implement the "Decree on Peace". The struggle for a final exit from the imperialist war began under the most difficult historical conditions that had taken shape. However, the country was no longer at war; there were no military operations on the fronts from November 1917 to February 1918. The main demand of the masses - to stop the war - was carried out precisely by the Bolsheviks, by the Soviet government. On December 3, 1917, an armistice was signed in Brest-Litovsk, peace negotiations began. The cessation of hostilities on the Russian front of the imperialist war revolutionized the masses of the belligerents and strengthened their desire to end the war. This revolutionary influence affected the subsequent course of the war on the Western and other fronts.

The struggle for the conclusion of peace unfolded not only in the foreign policy activities of the first Soviet government, but also within the government coalition - among the Bolsheviks and the Left Social Revolutionaries. The actual cessation of the war must be completed at the international legal level and freed from allied obligations to the Entente countries. Lenin understood this well. But even among his associates there was no unity. The option of N. I. Bukharin (“left communists”) - to wage a revolutionary war, counting on the acceleration of the revolution in Europe - could bring disastrous consequences. Trotsky suggested: "No peace, no war, but demobilize the army," counting on the fact that Germany would not dare to attack. Trotsky, who headed the government delegation, put this decision into practice in negotiations with the German command. After the breakdown of negotiations by Trotsky, the German army launched an offensive. The decomposed old Russian army could not hold back the advancing German troops, mass desertion began - the masses of soldiers "voted for peace with their feet."

Hundreds of books have been written on the question of the Brest-Litovsk peace, with different points of view. History provides the only answer to its results. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ensured: Russia's exit from the World War, the demobilization of the decaying old army while preserving the main part of Russia, the preservation of the gains of the revolution and the establishment of Soviet power. This was paid for by the loss of part of the territory and the payment of part of the indemnity within 8 months before the start of the revolution in Germany, after which the contract was canceled. In the most difficult political struggle, Lenin managed to approve his proposal to conclude the Brest peace on forced conditions (“obscene peace”) in order to preserve the already achieved results of the Russian revolution, counting on the inevitable revolution in Germany. As history has shown, this time Lenin's forecast of the development of the historical process turned out to be unmistakable.

On February 21, the Council of People's Commissars addressed the people with a decree-appeal, signed by Lenin: "The socialist fatherland is in danger!", In which he called for the defense of the Republic of Soviets. On February 22, the mass registration of volunteers for the Red Army began. On February 23, detachments of the Red Army entered the battles with the German troops near Pskov, Revel (Tallinn) and Narva. This day in the further history of the Soviet Armed Forces was declared the "Day of the Soviet Army and Navy". In 2001, by decision of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, it was renamed "Defender of the Fatherland Day".

The conclusion of the Brest Peace on March 3, 1918 gave the country a peaceful respite. Soviet power was established politically within the country and was recognized by the very fact of the conclusion of an international act - the Brest peace. The mass demobilization of the old army that had begun, the division of the land in accordance with the law "on socialization" and the preparation for sowing in peaceful conditions met the requirements of the bulk of the peasant population of Russia, which supported the Soviet government.

Under the terms of peace, Soviet Russia was forced to recognize the secession of Ukraine with the establishment of the power of the Central Rada in it, which offered the German government a larger indemnity than under the Brest peace. But soon the invaders established the power of Hetman Skoropadsky in Ukraine. In other territories occupied by the Austro-German troops, the Soviets were liquidated and the power of either bourgeois nationalist governments that declared their independence (Belarusian Rada) or the power of the German military administration (in the Baltic states) was established. The Russian Soviet Federative Republic included the Northern and Central parts of Russia, the Don, the Volga region, the Urals, the Turkestan Territory, Siberia and the Far East.

The ensuing peaceful respite made it possible to start organizing a new statehood on the ground, establishing an economy and social transformations. As it asserted itself politically, Soviet power was faced with the need to overcome the fierce opposition of the bourgeoisie and bureaucracy in the economy and public administration. The economic disruption and disorganization of government caused by the three-year world war and the period of revolutionary upheavals were further intensified due to the disruption of economic ties after the collapse of the Russian Empire. In connection with the demobilization of the army, millions of soldiers with weapons poured into cities and villages, hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war returned home. The local soviets were still extremely weak as state organs. The emergency situation in the economy and public administration, the rampant anarchy and banditry were aggravated by economic sabotage, calculated on the complete collapse of the economy. Entrepreneurs stopped the work of enterprises, fired workers; financiers and bank officials blocked financial transactions, depriving the Soviet government of money on the principle of "the worse, the better." In the hope of the collapse of the "dictatorship of the mob," the bourgeois and right-wing Socialist-Revolutionary press launched a furious propaganda against the Soviet regime.

In these extraordinary circumstances, the Soviet government is also taking extraordinary measures to govern the country, while at the same time pursuing a policy consistent with the revolutionary socialist aspirations of the working masses, establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat. One of the first acts was to shut down hostile newspapers. First of all, the newspapers of the Kadet Party, outlawed for participation in the armed struggle against Soviet power, were closed.

In the state structure, it was necessary, first of all, to break the old one and create a new apparatus of state power. Representative power in the center was exercised by the Congress of Soviets and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee - between congresses. On the ground, its bodies became republican, provincial (regional), regional, district, city and rural Soviets. Under them, executive bodies were created - executive committees with a small apparatus. All authorities were formed on an elective class and multi-party basis with the simultaneous solution of the national question - the creation of national-territorial formations: autonomous republics, territories, regions and districts. The central executive power - the Council of People's Commissars - created its own administrative apparatus instead of the old ministries: people's commissariats and various committees. The most important step in state building was the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army on a class volunteer basis, the people's militia and security agencies - the Cheka (All-Russian Extraordinary Commission).

Through the formation of state structures in an atmosphere of acute class struggle, complex socio-economic transformations were carried out to establish economic life and seize economic power from the bourgeoisie and overcome its resistance. Workers' control was established everywhere at the enterprises. Under the prevailing conditions, the program of a gradual transition to new economic social relations, outlined by Lenin in his pre-October works, required a significant adjustment. The Soviet government was forced to switch to the methods of the "Red Guard attack on capital", accelerating the processes of nationalization, supplementing the nationalization of banks, railway and water transport with the nationalization of industrial enterprises of private owners. The Soviet government canceled Russia's debts to the Entente states.

At the same time, priority social events were carried out. All social privileges and restrictions have been completely abolished. The Soviet government introduced an 8-hour working day, restrictions on overtime work, unemployment and sickness insurance, and for the first time in the world announced the introduction of free universal education and free medical care. Having abolished private ownership of urban real estate in large cities, the Soviet government transferred the housing stock into the hands of local authorities, which immediately began the mass resettlement of working families from basements, from attics, from workers' barracks and dilapidated buildings to comfortable "bourgeois" houses with "compaction" previous apartment owners. This process often took place in rude and cruel forms with abuses and "excesses", reflecting the age-old social strife and cruelty of the time; it came to the "nationalization" of household property.

Violent social processes were going on in the countryside as a result of the land reform. Equalization of land use sharply increased the stratum of the middle peasants, the land was partially confiscated from the rural bourgeoisie - the "kulaks". On the landlords' lands, various collective farms were created - "communes", "state farms", "toses". Part of the landlords' lands was transferred to the peasants, but many landowners' estates were simply plundered and taken to the peasant households. New forms of peasant dormitory (“communes”, “state farms”) often took on an ugly appearance (A.P. Platonov’s story “Chevengur”). The bulk of the peasants and the working class fully supported the measures of the Soviet government and exerted their pressure on it in carrying out social transformations. The social transformations of this period and during the Civil War were largely determined by the "spontaneous socialization of the masses." Under their pressure, the leadership of the Bolsheviks was often forced to carry out radical measures of "socialist romanticism." However, the urban bourgeoisie and especially the intelligentsia negatively perceived the sharp revolutionary changes in the social sphere and the political actions of the new government.

Measures to tighten the political regime, the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the “Red Guard attack” on capital and the excesses of the class struggle, the arbitrariness of local authorities and the worsening economic situation pushed the bulk of the Russian intelligentsia away from Soviet power. A significant part of it emigrates abroad, the other goes to the service of the "white" movement, many take a wait-and-see attitude. The Bolshevik intelligentsia is doing enormous organizational and agitational-propaganda work among the masses, giving all their strength to the Soviet power. Part of the non-party patriotic intelligentsia saw in the October Revolution Russia's path to a new society of social justice and joined the revolutionary intelligentsia on the side of Soviet power. An indicator of this was the position of the great Russian poet A. A. Blok, expressed in the article "The Intelligentsia and the Revolution", where he argued that the intelligentsia "can and must support the revolution." He expressed his understanding of the revolution in the poem "The Twelve", where he connects the goals of the revolution with the teachings of Christianity. The opposite position was reflected by the writer I. A. Bunin in Cursed Days. Amazing evidence of patriotism, respect for the will of the people, Christian humility, self-denial and self-restraint of a part of the aristocratic noble intelligentsia is provided by the memoirs of Princess Ekaterina Meshcherskaya (“Baptism of Labor”).

In the spring of 1918, the Soviet government, having carried out priority transformations, managed to establish itself throughout the country. The main slogans of the October Revolution were “Land to the peasants!”, “Factories to the workers!”, “Power to the Soviets!”, “Peace to the peoples!” were put into practice. This determined the strength of the positions of the new government and provided the basis for developing ways for the peaceful development of society towards new socio-economic relations in the multi-structural Russian economy.

A further program of action in the transitional period is outlined in Lenin's work "The Immediate Tasks of Soviet Power". The content of the work shows that the Bolshevik party, which was in power together with the Left SRs, put forward at that time a program of peaceful, gradual evolutionary transition to a new social system, and did not strive for the "immediate introduction of socialism" and the establishment of "war communism", as they tried imagine then and are trying to imagine now the class opponents of Soviet power.

This program of peaceful transition (which was developed only in the 1920s in the form of NEP) was not destined to be realized in the course of subsequent tragic events. The Bolsheviks failed to maintain the existing correlation of political and military forces, which made it possible for peaceful development and the complete attenuation of the civil war in the country. At the turn of the late spring - early summer of 1918, the situation began to change rapidly in the direction of the development of a comprehensive civil war.

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 (up to the convocation of a 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 began the process of organizing the central government in Petrograd, as well as its approval on the ground.
Since power was taken by the Bolsheviks by force, it was initially important for them to give it a legitimate character, to show that it was supported by various political forces. With this goal, despite many fundamental differences with the Left Social Revolutionaries (leader - M. A. Spiridonova), Lenin entered into an alliance with them, which lasted until July 1918.
In the localities, the power of the Bolsheviks was established until February 1918, and out of 97 large cities of the country, this transition was peaceful in 79 cases. In Moscow, the formation of the new government took place during fierce battles that ended only on November 3.
At first, few believed that the Bolsheviks would hold out even until the convocation 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, having arrived at the headquarters of the Northern Front, sent 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 the 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, the supreme chief commander was appointed: N. V. Krylenko.
The rejection of the new government led to the beginning of the formation of the first pockets of resistance to it. They arose initially in the Don, Kuban and the 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 backbone of which consisted of officers of the tsarist army and the Cossack elite, and at the head was Ataman of the Don Army A. M. Kaledin. However, the first actions of this new force were repulsed by the revolutionary troops at the beginning of 1918. The action of the armed detachments led by the ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army] AI Dutov had a similar result.
After the adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia on November 2, 1917, the power of the Soviets was established in Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states, and Baku. At the same time, in December 1917, the new government; was to recognize the independence of Poland and Finland.
At this stage, all attempts by the anti-Bolshevik forces to find mass support in the struggle 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 were held. It was the most democratic elective body created in the entire previous history of the country. The leaders of all political parties and major public organizations, many deputies of the State Duma, famous scientists, etc. were elected as deputies. The meeting was opened on January 5, 1918. The leader of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, V.M. . The leadership of the Bolsheviks demanded first 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 was to confirm the authority of the Bolshevik leadership. However, the deputies refused to comply. Then the Constituent Assembly was dissolved, and in order to legitimize their power, the Bolsheviks convened the III Congress of Soviets. It brought together 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 taken in the first decrees of the Soviet government: the estate system was liquidated; the church was separated from the state, and the school from the church; women were equal in legal rights with men; The Congress of Soviets was declared the supreme legislative body, and between the congresses, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Ya. M. Sverdlov was elected chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Lenin was again elected 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 against counter-revolution and sabotage", in January 1918 - the Red Army (formed on a voluntary basis according to the class principle).
In the regions, the Soviets dissolved the 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 in the localities, was that it was based on party leadership, carried out at all levels through members of the Bolshevik Party delegated to the Soviet authorities. Taking into account the majority they had while maintaining the bloc with the Left SRs, any decision of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) or a local party body was taken, if necessary, as a decision of the Soviet. From the very beginning of the existence of the new government, the merging of the party and Soviet apparatus in the center and in the regions began.

The base of the socialist revolution was inner 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 - already in all the most important industrial centers and on the main fronts of the army. The workers of Petrograd, Moscow and other proletarian centers played an important role in establishing Soviet power in the localities. The Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee sent more than 600 agitators, 106 commissars and 61 instructors to various provinces. The Soviet government sent about 10,000 workers to the countryside 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 period of preparation for the socialist revolution, went over to the side of the Bolsheviks and were in fact the masters of the situation, Soviet power was established quickly and for the most part peacefully. So it was in Lugansk, in Ivanovo-Voznesensk and in the entire 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 towns the counter-revolution forced armed struggle on the workers and peasants.

In difficult conditions, the establishment of Soviet power in the vast territories of Siberia and the Far East took place. Here, in view of the absence of landlordism and developed industry, the class struggle was not yet so acute. A strong stratum of kulaks dominated in the countryside. The few workers were scattered across isolated industrial oases, chiefly along the Siberian railroad. There were few Bolshevik organizations; among the workers, and especially among the peasants, the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks still enjoyed considerable 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 hampered the struggle for power of the Soviets.

Under the leadership of the Central Committee of the Party, the Bolsheviks of Siberia and the Far East in a short time created militant organizations and launched a successful struggle for the victory of the socialist revolution. On October 29 (November 11) the power of the Soviets was established in Krasnoyarsk, and on November 29 (December 12) - in Vladivostok. Having defeated the counter-revolutionary forces in an armed struggle, on November 30 (December 13) he took power into his own hands and the Omsk Council. On December 10 (23), the III Regional Congress of Soviets of Western Siberia, which met in Omsk, proclaimed the establishment of Soviet power in all of Western Siberia. With the support of the Red Guard detachments of Krasnoyarsk and other cities, the working people of Irkutsk at the end of December 1917 defeated the White Guards, who had raised a rebellion against Soviet power. On December 6 (19), power passed to the Soviet in Khabarovsk. On December 14 (27), the III Territorial 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 secured by the II All-Siberian Congress of Soviets, held in February 1918 in Irkutsk.

The defeat of the Cossack counter-revolution on the Don, headed by ataman Kaledin, required great efforts from the Soviet government. Declaring the insubordination of the Don Army to the Soviet government, Kaledin embarked on the path of open war against the Soviet government. The leaders of the Russian counter-revolution rushed to the Don - Milyukov, Kornilov, Denikin and their accomplices. Kaledin established contact with the counter-revolutionary Cossacks of the Kuban, Terek, Astrakhan, with the Cossack chieftain Dutov in Orenburg and other counter-revolutionary forces. The imperialist states sent money and weapons to Kaledin.

The governments of Britain, France and the United States hoped to overthrow Soviet power with the help of Kaledin. 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 whole country into the hands of the Bolsheviks ... We must strengthen the hope of 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 mission of the Red Cross tried to smuggle armored cars and vehicles to the Don. At the same time, with the money of foreign imperialists, the tsarist generals Alekseev and Kornilov began to form 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 undertake 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 was held 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 forthcoming III All-Russian Congress of Soviets, and declared war on Kaledin. Kaledin was attacked from the front and from the rear. Convinced that the situation was hopeless, Kaledin shot himself.

In early February, the workers of Taganrog raised an uprising 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 outskirts 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 the Leninist 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 separation and formation of an independent state, the abolition of all national and national-religious privileges and restrictions, the free development of national minorities and ethnic groups inhabiting the territory of Russia. In the appeal "To all the working Muslims of Russia and the East", in the Manifesto to the Ukrainian people and other acts, the Soviet government clearly showed the 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 fierce resistance here from bourgeois-nationalist organizations that had arisen even before the October Revolution (Ukrainian and Belarusian Rada, Kurultai in the 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. The active counter-revolutionary elements that rushed here after the October Revolution blocked themselves with the bourgeois nationalists and tried to turn the 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 the power of the Soviets were also connected with the absence or small number of the proletariat, the weakness of the Bolshevik organizations, which in turn led to a relatively greater influence of the compromising 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, the bourgeois-nationalist Belarusian Rada, a large number of counter-revolutionary formations, the corps of General Dovbor-Musnitsky, formed from Poles - servicemen 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. The Bolshevik organizations of Belarus and the Western Front, on the eve of the October Revolution, had a majority in the Soviets and soldiers' committees, which allowed the Minsk Soviet on October 25 (November 7), 1917, to take power in the city. Soon this was done by the Gomel, Mogilev, Vitebsk and other Soviets. As the Executive Committee of the Soviets of the Western Region pointed out in its report to the Soviet government, the transfer of power to the Soviets in all more or less major points took only two weeks.

In the second half of November Minsk hosted the Regional Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, the Front Congress and the Congress of Peasants' Soviets. 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 took part in the work of these congresses. In Byelorussia, the Council of People's Commissars of the Western Region was formed, headed by a prominent figure in the Bolshevik Party, A.F. Myasnikov.

The struggle for the establishment of Soviet power in the unoccupied part of the Baltic 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 laborers' 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, the counter-revolutionary representatives of the Provisional Government published an appeal calling for a struggle against Soviet power.

The working class of Ukraine, under the leadership of the Bolsheviks, rose to the defense of the Soviets. The workers of the Arsenal plant, the 3rd aircraft fleet 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 Soviet of Workers' Deputies and the Soviet 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 crushed the resistance of the counter-revolution. However, the Central Rada called in the regiments from the front, which were under the influence of the Ukrainian bourgeois nationalists, and, having created a superiority in forces, seized power in Kyiv. With the help of demagogy, the Rada won over to its side a significant part of the peasantry, mainly the prosperous, and proclaimed its power over the whole of Ukraine. On November 7 (20), she published the so-called Third Universal, in which she declared her disobedience to the Soviet government of Russia. The Rada concluded an agreement with the commander of the Romanian Front, General Shcherbachev, on the merger of 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 Council forced the Council of People's Commissars to present it on December 4 (17). 1917 an ultimatum demanding to stop the disorganization of the front, not to allow counter-revolutionary units to enter the Don, to abandon the alliance with Kaledin, to return weapons to the revolutionary regiments and detachments of the Red Guard in Ukraine. The Soviet government warned the Rada that if it did not receive a satisfactory answer, it would consider the Rada in a state of open war with the Soviet government. 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 nature of the Rada, its anti-Soviet and anti-national policy.

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, which hastened to recognize it and come to its aid. The popular masses of Ukraine were convinced by experience that the Rada is an organ of the dictatorship of the nationalist Ukrainian bourgeoisie, a servant of foreign capital.

In Ukraine, the flames of the people's struggle against the Rada and its imperialist patrons flared up. The revolutionary Donbass did not recognize the power of the Rada. The Bolsheviks of Kharkov, under the leadership of a member of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party Artyom (F.A. Sergeev), having suppressed the local counter-revolution and established the power of the Soviets in the city, came out together with the Soviets of Donbass 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. Bosch, Yu. M. Kotsyubinsky and other. The congress announced the establishment of a close alliance 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 Yekaterinoslav, Odessa, Chernigov and a number of other Ukrainian cities. On January 16 (29), 1918, a new armed uprising began in Kyiv. This facilitated the task of the revolutionary detachments advancing on Kyiv. January 26 (February 8) they captured Kyiv. Rada fled to Volhynia. Soviet power established itself in almost the entire territory of Ukraine, in the Crimea and Moldavia.

At the beginning of 1918, after a stubborn struggle, the power of the Soviets was also established in
many large centers of the Kuban, the Black Sea, 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. Buynaksky, S. M. Kirov, G. K. Ordzhonikidze.

In Transcaucasia, the struggle for Soviet power was of a particularly complex and protracted nature. This was due to many reasons: the absence of large industrial centers, except for Baku, and the small number of the proletariat; inter-ethnic hostility fomented by the exploiters for a long time; the weakness of the local Bolshevik organizations and the great activity of the long-established bourgeois-nationalist parties, which, with the help of nationalist and social demagogy, acquired considerable influence over the masses; direct intervention of foreign imperialists.

In Baku, the proletarian center of Transcaucasia, where the struggle of the working people was led by a strong Bolshevik organization headed by S. G. Shaumyan, P. A. Dzhaparidze, M. Azyzbekov and others, Soviet power was established on October 31 (November 13). Soon the Soviets were victorious in almost all of Azerbaijan. But on November 15 (28) the 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 unleashed fierce anti-Soviet propaganda, organized armed gangs with the help of White Guard generals and foreign agents, and in January 1918, villainously shot revolutionary soldiers returning from the Turkish front.

The struggle for Soviet power in Transcaucasia dragged on for a long time. The working people of Transcaucasia victoriously completed it only in 1920-1921.

In the Urals, the Cossack ataman Dutov raised an anti-Soviet rebellion in the Orenburg region in December 1917. He was supported by the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, the bourgeoisie and landlords, Kazakh and Bashkir nationalists, and foreign imperialists. Having captured Orenburg, Dutov cut off Central Asia from Soviet Russia, created a threat to the existence of Soviet power in the industrial centers of the Urals and the 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, the Volga region, Central Asia, and Kazakhstan took part in the defeat of the Dutovshchina. P. A. Kobozev, a prominent member of the Bolshevik organization in the Urals, was appointed Extraordinary Commissar for Combating Dutovism.

On January 18 (31), 1918, revolutionary troops, with the support of the insurgent workers, captured Orenburg and crushed the Cossack counter-revolution. Dutov with a handful of his followers hid in the Turgai steppe. Power in Orenburg was taken over by the Soviet of Workers', Soldiers', Peasants' and Cossacks' Deputies.

The defeat of Dutov's troops played a big role in the establishment of Soviet power in the territory of Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

Tashkent was the center of the socialist revolution in Central Asia. On October 28 (November 10), 1917, railroad workers and revolutionary soldiers rose up for armed struggle. For four days there were fierce battles in the city. Fighting squads from a number of cities in Central Asia and Kazakhstan arrived to help the rebellious workers of Tashkent. On October 31 (November 13), the armed uprising in Tashkent won. The power of the Turkestan Committee of the Provisional Government fell. At the III Regional Congress of Soviets, held in Tashkent in mid-November, 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 in Kazakhstan (Alash-Orda), 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 in almost the entire territory of Russia. Describing this triumphal procession, V. I. Lenin wrote: “Across Russia, a wave of civil war rose, and everywhere we won with extraordinary ease precisely because the fruit was ripe, because the masses had already gone through all the experience of conciliation with the bourgeoisie. Our slogan "All power to the Soviets", practically verified by the masses through long historical experience, has become their flesh and blood."

Establishment of Soviet power in Petrograd and Moscow

Having announced the transfer of all power in Russia to the Soviets, the Bolsheviks in the capital itself immediately ran into opposition from their opponents. On the night of October 28, the Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution was created in Petrograd, which included representatives of the City Duma, the Pre-Parliament, the Central Executive Committee of the first convocation, and a number of professional and military organizations. With the help of the junkers of the Petrograd schools, they tried to carry out a counter-coup on October 29, but on the same day the anti-government uprising was suppressed, and the Committee itself then disintegrated. On October 30, near Pulkovo, the Red Guard units stopped the Cossack corps of General P.N. Krasnov, on November 1, the Cossacks capitulated in Gatchina.

The political challenge to the Bolshevik party was thrown by the Socialist Revolutionary-Menshevik leadership of the All-Russian Executive Committee of the Railway Workers' Trade Union (Vikzhel), demanding that a government be created from representatives of all socialist parties. During negotiations with Vikzhel, serious disagreements arose within the Bolshevik Central Committee. Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee L.B. Kamenev, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs A.I. Rykov, People's Commissar for Trade and Industry V.P. Nogin and several other prominent Bolsheviks resigned from the Central Committee of the party and resigned their government posts in protest. However, the crisis of Bolshevik power was quickly overcome. Ya.M. Sverdlov became the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and several consistent Leninists joined the Council of People's Commissars. Then, recognizing the fallacy of their position, a group of opposing Bolsheviks also returned to leading positions in the party and state apparatus.

In the first post-October days, the ruling party faced yet another problem - the civil disobedience of almost 50,000 Petrograd officials. With the help of severe measures up to arrests, bringing to trial, confiscation of property, the sabotage of state employees was broken in the first months of 1918.

Following Petrograd, Soviet power began to assert itself throughout the country. On October 25, upon receiving news from Petrograd, the Moscow Bolsheviks formed the Combat Center, and the City Council formed the Military Revolutionary Committee. Along with the Bolsheviks and left-radical socialists, the Mensheviks entered it. The Military Revolutionary Committee relied on detachments of the Red Guards and a significant part of the soldiers of the garrison.

The forces of the defenders of the Provisional Government also rallied. On October 25, the Moscow Duma elected the Committee of Public Security, led by the mayor, Socialist-Revolutionary V.V. Rudnev and the commander of the troops of the Moscow Military District, Colonel K.I. Ryabtsev. At their disposal were mainly officers of the garrison and junkers. On the evening of October 27, the first bloody clashes took place in Moscow. By November 3, the resistance of the officers and cadets was crushed. Moscow completely came under the control of the Soviets.

The establishment of the power of the Soviets in the field and in the army

In the Central Industrial Region, Soviet power won in November-December 1917 - mostly by peaceful means. This was due to the high concentration of the industrial proletariat here, where the Bolshevik Party had a wide network of its organizations, the presence of extensive communications and proximity to the capitals, from where support quickly came when needed.

With the help of weapons, a new government was established in the Cossack regions of the Don, Kuban, and the South Urals. From November 1917 to February 1918, the Bolsheviks continued to fight against anti-Soviet actions on the Don under the leadership of Ataman A.M. Kaledin. The new government managed to form a powerful military fist from the regular units of the Northern Front and the Petrograd garrison loyal to the Soviets, detachments of the Red Guards. With the participation of local residents who were dissatisfied with the Kaledin regime, Rostov and Novocherkassk were recaptured in February 1918. Kaledin shot himself. The remnants of the Kaledinsky troops left for the steppes.

In the Urals during November 1917 - April 1918 there were bloody battles between the Soviet armed units and the detachments of Ataman A.I. Dutov. In his hands were Orenburg, Troitsk, Verkhneuralsk and other areas. As a result of serious defeats in the spring of 1918, Dutov was forced to retreat.

In the North, in Siberia and the Far East, by March 1918, Soviet power had won mainly in large centers, close to communications with the central regions.

In early November 1917, at Headquarters, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General N.N. Dukhonin, ordered the concentration of troops in the Luga region to attack Petrograd. But soon, by order of the Soviet government, he was removed and then killed by rebellious soldiers. Ensign N.V. Krylenko, sent from Petrograd, took the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

In November 1917, the Bolsheviks asserted their authority over the Northern and Western fronts. A little later, the Sovietization of the Southwestern, Romanian and Caucasian fronts took place. Even before October, the Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet (the highest elected body of the sailor masses) actually completely controlled the situation in the fleet, placing all its power at the disposal of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee. In November 1917, at the First All-Black Sea Congress in Sevastopol, the revolutionary sailors, overcoming the resistance of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, achieved the adoption of a Bolshevik resolution recognizing the Council of People's Commissars. The Sovietization of military fleets in the North and the Far East was not successful for the local Bolsheviks.

The assertion of Soviet power in the national regions

In October-November 1917, Soviet power won in Estonia, the unoccupied part of Latvia, in Belarus, and also in Baku (it held out there until August 1918.

In the rest of the territory of Transcaucasia, forces came to power that advocated secession from Russia: in Georgia, the Mensheviks, in Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Dashnaks and Musavatists. In May 1918, through their efforts, sovereign bourgeois-democratic republics were created there.

In December 1917, the First All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets took place in Kharkov. He proclaimed Ukraine "a republic of Soviets of workers', soldiers' and peasants' deputies" and appointed a government headed by the Bolshevik F.A. Sergeev (Artem). In January 1918, revolutionary forces overthrew the power of the national-democratic Central Rada, which shortly before declared Ukraine an independent "people's republic." The Rada left Kyiv and found shelter in Zhytomyr, where German troops took care of it. In March 1918, the Crimea and Central Asia (with the exception of Khiva and Bukhara) came under the control of the Soviets.

So, in a short time, from the end of September 1917 to March 1918, Soviet power established itself in the main part of the territory of the former Russian Empire, and in the vast majority of provincial and other large cities (73 out of 91) - peacefully. V.I. Lenin called this process "the triumphal march of Soviet power."

The main reason for this was the mass support of the first Soviet decrees, which were of a general democratic nature. On the national outskirts, the victory of Soviet power was facilitated by the Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia, the Appeal to the Working Muslims of the East, which promised the peoples sovereignty, equality, the right to self-determination, and the free development of national cultures and traditions. Together with it is important to emphasize that the broad masses of the people did not link their future fate with the course of the Bolsheviks.

This was shown by the free elections to the Constituent Assembly, which took place in November 1917. About 78% of the voters voted for the Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, Cadets and other political parties. The RSDLP(b) received 22.5% of the vote in the elections. But this relatively small number of active supporters concentrated in the most advantageous way for the Bolsheviks, in the industrial provinces and on the fronts towards the center (Northern and Western). The anti-Soviet forces were divided and disorganized even in the pre-October period. They quickly lost control of the army and were forced to recruit volunteers for their military units.

The largest of them - Volunteer army in the South of Russia, created by two former Supreme Commanders, Generals M.V. Alekseev and L.G. Kornilov, by March 1918 numbered no more than 4 thousand people, mostly officers, cadets, students. Failed, without meeting the firm support of the population, and the first attempts to use the Cossack units in the fight against the Soviets.

The sequence of the establishment of Soviet power on the territory of the former Russian Empire

October	november	December	January	February	March
1917	1917	1917	1918	1918	1918
Petrograd	Moscow, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Baku	Southwestern, Romanian and Caucasian fronts	Ukraine	Don	Kuban, Crimea
	Northern and Western fronts		Southern Urals		middle Asia

Main dates and events: October 25 - armed uprising in Petrograd, the beginning of the work of the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets; October 26 - the adoption of the Decree on Peace, the Decree on Land, the formation of the Council of People's Commissars headed by V.I. Lenin; October 25, 1917 - March 1918 - the establishment of Soviet power in the regions of Russia; 1870-1924 - years of life of V. I. Lenin.

Historical figures: V. I. Lenin; L. D. Trotsky; L. B. Kamenev; Ya. M. Sverdlov; V. M. Chernov.

Answer plan: 1) the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets and its decisions, the formation of the Council of People's Commissars headed by Lenin; 2) V. I am Lenin; 3) a bloc with the Left SRs; 4) features of establishing the power of the Soviets in the capitals and largest cities of the country; 5) Vikzhel's ultimatum; 6) dispersal of the Constituent Assembly, III All-Russian Congress of Soviets and its decisions; 7) features of the organization of the power of the Soviets.

Reply material: Immediately after coming to power, the Bolsheviks began to form a new political system. The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets formed a Provisional (before the convocation 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 began the process of organizing the central government in Petrograd, as well as the establishment of Soviet power in the field. It was important for the Bolsheviks to give their power a legitimate character, to show that it was supported by various political forces. To this end, despite many fundamental differences with the Left SRs (leader - M. A. Spiridonova), Lenin entered into an alliance with them, which lasted until July 1918. Under the leadership of the Bolsheviks, military revolutionary committees were created in all armies and at the fronts. N. V. Krylenko was appointed Supreme Commander instead of General N. N. Dukhonin. In the localities, the power of the Bolsheviks was established until February 1918, and out of 97 large cities of the country, this transition was peaceful in 79 cases. In Moscow, the change of power took place in the course of fierce fighting, which ended only on November 3.

Initially, few people believed that the Bolsheviks would hold out at least until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly (their chances of success seemed too insignificant). The head of the Provisional Government A.F. Kerensky, having arrived at the headquarters of the Northern Front, sent troops to Petrograd, but they were defeated. Attempts by the "Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution", formed in the capital from all opponents of the armed seizure of power, to push back the Bolsheviks did not find support among the population. The first centers of resistance to the new government arose in the Don, Kuban and the 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 backbone of which consisted of officers of the tsarist army and the Cossack elite, headed by Ataman of the Don Army A. M. Kaledin. However, the first performances of the Volunteer Army were repulsed by revolutionary troops in early 1918. The performance of the armed detachments led by Ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army A. I. Dutov had a similar result.

After the adoption on November 2, 1917 of the Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia, the power of the Soviets was established in Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states, and Baku. At the same time, in December 1917, the Bolsheviks were forced to recognize the independence of Poland and Finland.

At this stage, all attempts by the anti-Bolshevik forces to find mass support in the struggle against the new government were in vain. The main reason for this was that, unlike the Provisional Government, the Council of People's Commissars set about solving almost all pressing issues.

In November 1917 elections to the Constituent Assembly were held. It was the most democratic elected body in the history of the country. The leaders of all political parties and major public organizations, many deputies of the State Duma, famous scientists, etc. became deputies. The meeting was opened on January 5, 1918. The leader of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, V.M. Chernov, was elected its chairman. The leadership of the Bolsheviks demanded to approve all the decrees of the Council of People's Commissars adopted after the Second Congress of Soviets, and thereby approve their actions. The next logical step was to confirm the authority of the Bolshevik leadership. However, the deputies refused to comply. Then the Constituent Assembly was dissolved.

The Bolsheviks convened III Congress of Soviets, at which the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies united with the Soviets of Peasants' Deputies. The Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People was adopted, which was based on the provisions of the first decrees of Soviet power. The estate system was liquidated; the church was separated from the state, and the school from the church; women were equal in legal rights with men; the Congress of Soviets was declared the supreme legislative body, and between congresses - VTsIK. Ya. M. Sverdlov was elected chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and V. I. Lenin was elected head of government (SNK). In December 1917, the Cheka was created, whose functions were to "fight counter-revolution and sabotage"; in January 1918 - the Red Army, formed on a voluntary basis according to the class principle. In the regions, the Soviets dissolved the city dumas and zemstvos, taking full power into their own hands. The main feature of the organization of Soviet power in the center and in the localities was that it was based on party leadership, carried out through members of the Bolshevik Party delegated to various state bodies. Taking into account the majority of votes that they had while maintaining the bloc with the Left SRs, any decision of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) or a local party body was taken as a decision of the Soviet. From the very beginning of the existence of the new government in the center and in the localities, there was a merging of the party and Soviet apparatus.