The start of work of the 2nd Congress of Soviets, the opening date of which is October 25 (November 7), 1917, coincided with the day of the armed coup committed by the Bolsheviks and radically changed the entire subsequent course of Russian history. That is why the documents of the Congress should be considered in the context of the historical realities against which they were adopted.
Russia in October 1917
The situation in Russia on the eve of the opening of the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets was characterized by exacerbation of political instability, aggravated by a number of defeats on the fronts of the First World War. During this period, the Provisional Government did not show itself in the best way, for a long time delaying the convocation of the Constituent Assembly ─ the legislative body, the purpose of which was to develop a constitution.
Only after long delays, the elections of deputies were scheduled for November 12th. At the same time, news came about the surrender of Reval and the capture by the Germans of the Moonsund Islands, located in the eastern part of the B altic Sea, which created a direct threat to Petrograd and contributed towhipping up tension in the capital. The Bolsheviks cleverly took advantage of the situation.
Struggle for mandates in government
2 The Congress of Soviets became a decisive stage in the struggle that the RSDLP (b) waged during the summer and autumn of 1917 for obtaining the majority of mandates in the All-Russian Soviet bodies. By this time, they already controlled the Moscow City Council, where the Bolsheviks owned 60% of the seats, and the Petrograd Soviet, 90% of which consisted of members of the RSDLP (b). Both of these largest local authorities in the country were headed by the Bolsheviks. In the first case, V. P. Nogin was the chairman, and in the second, L. D. Trotsky.
However, in order to strengthen their position throughout the country, it was required to have the majority of mandates at the All-Russian Congress, in connection with which its convocation became a matter of paramount importance for the Bolsheviks. The main initiative to resolve this issue was taken by the executive committee of the Petrosoviet, which, as mentioned above, almost entirely consisted of Bolsheviks, that is, people who were vitally interested in the success of the planned business.
Tactical move of the Bolsheviks
At the end of September, they sent inquiries to 69 local Soviets, as well as to committees of soldiers' deputies in order to find out their attitude to the proposed congress. The results of the survey speak for themselves ─ of all the authorities surveyed, only 8 expressed their consent. The rest, who were under the influence of the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries, who perfectly understood the reasons that pushed the Bolsheviksto convene a congress, recognized such an initiative as inappropriate.
Lenin, who was aware that the political program put forward by the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries, to a greater extent met the interests of the peasantry, realistically assessed the balance of power and did not hope to receive more than a third of the mandates in the Constituent Assembly, and therefore was an opponent of its convocation. For their part, the Bolsheviks, anticipating the opening of the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets, the start date of which was not even discussed at that time, on their own initiative in October 1917 held the 1st Congress of Soviets of the Northern Region, which included areas where members of the RSDLP (b) had moment of numerical superiority in local governments.
Intrigues aimed at convening a convention
Officially, the initiator of such a congress was a certain Committee of the Army, Navy and Workers of Finland ─ a body that had no official status and was never recognized by anyone. Accordingly, the meetings of the congress convened by him were held with flagrant violations. Suffice it to say that figureheads were included in the number of its deputies ─ Bolsheviks who had nothing to do with the Northern Region and lived in Moscow, as well as in other regions of Russia.
It was in the work of this advisory body, the legitimacy of which is in great doubt, that a committee was created that began the preparation of the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which was so necessary at that moment for the Bolsheviks. Their activities were sharply criticized by representatives of the former Soviets, created after the February Revolution and consisting mainly ofMensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries, who were preferred by the majority of the politically active population of the country.
The main opponents of the Bolshevik initiative were such socio-political organizations as the VTsIK 1 Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, which had not yet lost its powers, held in June-July of the same year, as well as the executive committees of the army and navy. Their representatives openly declared that if the 2nd Congress of Soviets took place, it would be only an advisory body, the decisions of which would not receive legal force.
Even the official organ of the Soviets, the Izvestia newspaper, emphasized in those days the illegality of the actions taken by the Bolsheviks, and pointed out that such an initiative could only come from the executive committee of the 1st Congress. Nevertheless, the then liberals did not have enough rigidity in defending their positions, and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee gave its consent. Only the opening date of the 2nd Congress of Soviets was changed: from 17 it was moved to October 25.
Beginning of the first meeting
The opening of the 2nd Congress of Soviets took place on October 25, 1917 at 22:45, just in the midst of the armed coup that began that day in Petrograd. Active participants in the events taking place on the streets of the city were many deputies who arrived from different cities of Russia. However, despite the emergency of the situation, the meeting of the congress continued until the morning.
According to the surviving documents, at the time of opening, 649 deputies took part in its work, of which 390 were members of the RSDLP (b), thanobviously ensured the adoption of decisions beneficial to the Bolsheviks. They received additional support due to the coalition concluded at that time with the Left SRs, and thus had more than two-thirds of the votes.
Night of the Bolshevik coup
The opening date of the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets was fatal for national history. By the time the first speaker, who turned out to be the Menshevik F. I. Dan, rose to the rostrum of the congress, practically all of Petrograd was already in the hands of the Bolsheviks. The Winter Palace remained the only stronghold of the Provisional Government. Back at 18:30, its defenders were asked to surrender under the threat of shelling by the guns of the Aurora cruiser and the battery located in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
At 21:00, a blank shot was fired from the Aurora, then glorified by Soviet propaganda as "a symbol of the beginning of a new era in the history of mankind", and two hours later, for greater credibility, volleys thundered from the fortress bastions. Despite all the pathos with which the storming of the Winter Palace was subsequently described, in fact, no serious clashes occurred. Its defenders, realizing the futility of resistance, went home by nightfall, and the revolutionary sailors, led by the Bolshevik V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko, arrested the Ministers of the Provisional Government, abandoned to the mercy of fate.
Scandals of the first day of the Congress
Conditionally the first day, or rather, the night of the deputies' work can be divided into two parts. One of them, which took place even before the electionPresidium, was a series of protest speeches by representatives of the socialist parties of the moderate wing, expressing their extremely negative attitude towards the military coup committed by the Bolsheviks.
The second part of the meeting is considered to be the events that unfolded after it turned out that the newly elected presidium almost entirely consists of the Bolsheviks and their allies, at that time ─ the Left SRs. Such a clear imbalance of power provoked the departure from the hall of many representatives of the Mensheviks, Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, as well as some other deputies.
In general, all the main decisions of the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets were adopted at the next meeting, also held at night, while October 25 was marked mainly by a major political scandal caused by the events taking place in the city. Those delegates of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks who nevertheless remained in the hall after the departure of their party members attacked the Bolsheviks with reproaches for organizing an illegal coup. In addition, they openly accused their political opponents of numerous frauds that provided them with the right selection of congress delegates.
Master of Bolshevik Rhetoric
On the part of the Bolsheviks, the main defender of their position was L. D. Trotsky, who was an outstanding orator and who on that day had the opportunity to show off his eloquence. His speech was filled with expressions that played the role of certain clichés subsequently replicated by Soviet ideologists.
He talked a lot about how his party"hardened the energy and will of the working masses" and led the oppressed to an uprising for which "no justification is required." He also declared a crime any attempt to disrupt the work of the plenipotentiary representation of the masses of workers and soldiers, which, according to him, is the Bolshevik Party, and called on everyone "with arms in hand to repel the onslaught of the counter-revolution." In general, Trotsky knew how to captivate listeners with his rhetoric, and in most cases his speeches received the desired response.
The unfortunate "child of the revolution"
At 2:40 a half-hour break was announced, after which the representative of the Bolsheviks, Lev Borisovich Kamenev, informed the participants of the congress about the fall of the Provisional Government. The only document adopted by the congress on that first night of its work was the Appeal to the Workers, Soldiers and Peasants. It announced that in connection with the overthrow of the Provisional Government, its powers of authority would pass into the hands of the Congress. On the ground, from now on, management will be carried out by the Soviets of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies.
It is curious that L. B. Kamenev, who announced the victory of the uprising from the rostrum of the Congress, shortly before that was one of his ardent opponents. He did not change his position on this issue even after the Bolsheviks seized power. There is evidence that at the meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b) that followed soon after, he allowed himself to very imprudently declare that "if they did something stupid and took power," then at least a suitable ministry should be formed. In 1936, at the trial, where he will be held as one of the participants in the TrotskyistZinoviev Center, he will be reminded of this old statement and, based on the totality of his "crimes", will be sentenced to death.
In general, the winged aphorism, which says that “the revolution, like the god Saturn, devours its children”, was born during the Paris Commune and belongs to one of its heroes ─ Pierre Vergnot, but it was in Russia that these words found their fullest the confirmation. The proletarian revolution of 1917 turned out to be so “gluttonous” that the fate of the ill-fated Lev Borisovich was subsequently shared by almost the majority of the delegates of the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets, the start date of which coincided with the day of its victory.
Second day of the Congress
On the evening of October 26, the regular meeting began. On it, V. I. Lenin, whose appearance on the podium was met with universal applause, read out two documents that became the basis of the decrees adopted by the 2nd Congress of Soviets. One of them, which went down in history under the name "Decree on Peace", was addressed to the governments of all the warring powers with a call for an immediate armistice. Another, called the "Land Decree", de alt with the agrarian question. Its main provisions were as follows:
- All land that was previously privately owned was nationalized and became public property.
- All estates that were formerly the property of the landlords were subject to confiscation and transfer to the disposal of the Soviets of Peasants' Deputies, as well as land committees created locally.
- The confiscated land was transferred touse by peasants according to the so-called equalizing principle, which was based on consumer and labor standards.
- When cultivating the land, the use of hired labor was strictly prohibited.
Linguistic research of the Bolsheviks
It is curious to note that during the work of the 2nd Congress of Soviets, the Russian language was replenished with the new term "People's Commissar". He owes his birth to L. D. Trotsky, who also later became one of the "children eaten by the revolution." At the first meeting of the Bolshevik Central Committee, which took place the morning after the storming of the Winter Palace, the question arose of the formation of a new government and how to call its members henceforth. I did not want to use the word "ministers", because it immediately evoked associations with the previous regime. Then Trotsky suggested using the term "commissars", adding to it the appropriate word "people's", and calling the government itself the Council of People's Commissars. Lenin liked the idea and was enshrined in the corresponding resolution of the Central Committee.
Formation of a revolutionary government
Another important decision at that time, taken at the 2nd Congress of Soviets, was the signing of a decree on the formation of a new government, which should have included representatives of workers and peasants. The Council of People's Commissars became such an organ, which served as the highest institution of state power, called upon to act until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly. He was accountable to the Congresses of Soviets, and in the intervals between them to their permanentbody ─ the executive committee (abbreviated as the All-Russian Central Executive Committee).
In the same place, at the 2nd Congress of Soviets, the Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government was formed, which went down in history as the Council of People's Commissars. V. I. became its chairman. Lenin. In addition, the composition of the Central Executive Committee was approved, which included 101 deputies. Most of its members ─ 62 people - were Bolsheviks, the rest of the mandates were distributed among the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, Social Democrats, Internationalists and representatives of other political parties.
