January 5, 1918 Constituent Assembly. The shooting of a peaceful demonstration in support of the constituent assembly. How to live after renunciation

The fight for the All-Russian Constituent Assembly and the shooting of a demonstration in support of it in Petrograd and Moscow on January 5, 1918.

“From 12 to 14 November 1917 elections to the Constituent Assembly took place. They ended in a major victory for the Socialist-Revolutionaries, who won more than half of the mandates, while the Bolsheviks got only 25 o / o electoral votes (Out of 703 mandates, PS-R received 299, Ukrainian PS-R - 81, and other national Socialist-Revolutionary groups - 19; the Bolsheviks got 168, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries - 39, the Mensheviks - 18, the Cadets - 15 and the People's Socialists - 4. See: ON Radkey, "The elections to the Russian Constituent Assembly of 1917" , Cambridge, Maza., 1950, pp. 16-17, 21). By the decision of the Central Committee of P.S.-R. of November 17, the issue of convening the Constituent Assembly took a central place in the activities of the party. To defend the Constituent Assembly, the Central Committee recognized it necessary to organize "all the living forces of the country, armed and unarmed." The fourth congress of PS-R, which took place from November 26 to December 5 in Petrograd, pointed to the need to concentrate around the protection of the Constituent Assembly “sufficient organized forces” in order, if necessary, “to take battle against a criminal encroachment on the supreme will of the people ... The same fourth congress, with an overwhelming majority of votes, restored the left-center leadership of the party and "condemned the Central Committee's protraction of the coalition policy and its tolerance for the" personal "policies of some right-wing leaders."

The meeting of the Constituent Assembly was initially scheduled for November 28. On this day, about 40 delegates, with some difficulty, managed to get through the guards put up by the Bolsheviks to the Tavrichesky Palace, where they decided to postpone the official opening of the Assembly until a sufficient number of deputies arrived, and until then came every day to the Tavrichesky Palace. On the same evening, the Bolsheviks began to arrest the delegates. At first they were cadets, but soon it was the turn of the S.-R .: V.N. was arrested. Filippovsky. According to the Central Committee of P.S.-R., the Bolshevik commander-in-chief V.N. Krylenko, in his order on the army, said: "Let your hand not flinch, if you have to raise it against the deputies."

In early December, by order of the Council of People's Commissars, the Tauride Palace was cleared and temporarily sealed. In response, the Social Revolutionaries called on the population to support the Constituent Assembly. 109 deputies of the s.-r. wrote in a letter published on December 9 in the party newspaper Delo Naroda: “We call on the people by all means and methods to support their chosen ones. We call everyone to fight against the new rapists against the will of the people. /.../ Be ready all at the call of the Constituent Assembly to stand together in its defense ”. And then, in December, the Central Committee of P.S.-R. called on workers, peasants and soldiers: “Prepare to immediately defend him [Uchr.Sobr.]. But on December 12, the Central Committee decided to abandon terror in the fight against the Bolsheviks, not to force the convocation of the Constituent Assembly and wait for a favorable moment. The Constituent Assembly nevertheless opened on January 5, 1918. It bore little resemblance to parliament, since the galleries were occupied by armed Red Guards and sailors who held the delegates at gunpoint. “We, the deputies, were surrounded by an angry crowd, ready every minute to rush at us and tear us to pieces,” recalled the deputy from PS-R. V.M. Zenzinov. Chernov, elected chairman, was taken at gunpoint by the sailors, the same happened with others, for example, with O.S. Minor. After the majority of the Constituent Assembly refused to accept the leading role of the Soviet government, the Bolsheviks and Left SRs left the hall. After one day of meetings, which also passed a law on land, the Soviet government dispersed the Constituent Assembly. "

In Petrograd, by order of the Bolsheviks, a peaceful demonstration in defense of the Constituent Assembly was shot. There were killed and wounded. Some claimed that 7-10 people were killed, 23 were injured; others - that 21 people died, and there were still others who claimed that there were about 100 victims. "Among the dead were the Socialist-Revolutionaries E. S. Gorbachevskaya, G. I. Logvinov and A. Efimov. also shot, among the dead was AM Ratner, brother of a member of the Central Committee PS-R EM Ratner. "

The Socialist Revolutionary Party after the October Revolution of 1917. Documents from the AKP Archive. Collected and provided with notes and an essay on the history of the party in the post-revolutionary period Mark Jansen. Amsterdam. 1989.S. 16-17.

“The peaceful demonstration held in Petrograd on January 5, 1918 in support of the Constituent Assembly was shot by the Red Guard. The execution took place at the corner of Nevsky and Liteiny Prospekt and in the area of ​​Kirochnaya Street. The main column of up to 60 thousand people was scattered, but other columns of demonstrators reached the Tauride Palace and were dispersed only after the approach of additional troops.

The dispersal of the demonstration was led by a special headquarters headed by V.I. Lenin, Ya.M. Sverdlov, N.I. Podvoisky, M.S. Uritsky, V.D. Bonch-Bruevich. According to various estimates, the death toll ranged from 7 to 100 people. The demonstrators mainly consisted of representatives of the intelligentsia, employees and university students. At the same time, a significant number of workers took part in the demonstration. The demonstration was accompanied by Socialist-Revolutionary warriors who did not offer serious resistance to the Red Guards. According to the testimony of the former Socialist-Revolutionary V.K. Dzerul, “all the demonstrators, including the PK, walked unarmed, and the PK even ordered the districts so that no one took weapons with them.”

"Delo Naroda", December 9, appeal of the Union for the Defense of the Constituent Assembly:"All, as one person, to defend freedom of speech and press! All to defend the Constituent Assembly!

Be ready all at the call of the Constituent Assembly to stand together in its defense! "

Pravda, No. 203 of December 12, 1917:"... Several dozen persons who called themselves deputies, without showing their documents, broke into the building of the Tauride Palace on the evening of December 11, accompanied by armed White Guards, cadets and several thousand bourgeois and saboteur officials ... Their goal was to create an allegedly" legal " a cover for the Cadet-Kaledin counter-revolutionary uprising They wanted to present the voice of several dozen bourgeois deputies as the voice of the Constituent Assembly.

The Central Committee of the Party of Cadets constantly sending Kornilov officers to the south to help Kaledin. The Council of People's Commissars on "represents the Constitutional Democratic Party as the party of the enemies of the people.

Conspiracy of the Constitutional-Democrats distinguished by the harmony and unity of the plan: a strike from the south, sabotage throughout the country and a central speech in the Constituent Assembly "

Decree of the Council of People's Commissars, December 13, 1917:"Members of the leading institutions of the Cadet Party, as the party of enemies of the people, are subject to arrest and trial by revolutionary tribunals.
The local councils are entrusted with the obligation of special supervision over the Cadet party in view of its connection with the Kornilov-Kaledin civil war against the revolution. "

All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the 1st convocation, December 28 (January 7) 1918:"..." All living things in the country and, above all, the working class and the army must stand up, arms in hand, to defend the power of the people in the person of the Constituent Assembly ... Announcing this, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the 1st convocation calls on you, comrades, immediately get in direct contact with him. "

Telegram, P. Dybenko - Tsentrobalt, January 3, 1918:"Urgently, no later than January 4, send 1000 sailors for two or three days to guard and fight against counter-revolution on January 5. Send the detachment with rifles and cartridges - if not, the weapon will be issued on the spot. Comrades Khovrin are appointed commanders of the detachment. and Zheleznyakov ”.

P.E. Dybenko:" On the eve of the opening of the Constituent Assembly, a detachment of seamen arrives in Petrograd, welded and disciplined.

As in the October days, the fleet came to defend Soviet power. Protect from whom? - From the demonstrators, commoners and soft-hearted intelligentsia. Or maybe the inspirers of the founding committee will act “breastfeeding” in defense of the brainchild, doomed to death?

But they were unable to do that. "

From the memoirs of a member of the AKP Military Commission B. Sokolov:... How are we going to defend the Constituent Assembly? How are we going to defend ourselves?

With this question, I turned almost on the first day to the responsible leader of the X faction. He made a bewildered face.

"Protect? Self-defense? What an absurdity. Do you understand what you are saying? After all, we are the elected representatives of the people ... We must give the people new life, new laws, and to defend the Constituent Assembly is the business of the people who elected us ”.

And this opinion, which I heard and amazed me greatly, corresponded to the mood of the majority of the faction ...

These days, these weeks, I have repeatedly had the opportunity to talk with the arrived deputies and find out their point of view on the tactics that we must adhere to. As a general rule, the positions of the majority of the deputies were as follows.

“We must avoid adventurism by all means. If the Bolsheviks committed a crime against the Russian people, overthrowing the Provisional Government and arbitrarily seizing power into their own hands, if they resort to incorrect and ugly methods, this does not mean that we should follow their example. Not at all. We must follow the path of exclusive legality, we must defend the law in the only way acceptable for the people's representatives, the parliamentary path. Enough blood, enough adventures. The dispute should be transferred to the resolution of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, and here, in the face of the entire people, the whole country, it will receive its just resolution ”.

This position, this tactics, which I find it difficult to call anything else but "purely parliamentary", was by no means adhered to not only the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries and centralists, but also the Chernivtsi. And Chernivtsi, perhaps, even more than the rest. For, precisely, V. Chernov was one of the most ardent opponents of the civil war and one of those who hoped for a peaceful liquidation of the conflict with the Bolsheviks, believing that “the Bolsheviks will save before the All-Russian Constituent Assembly” ...

“Strict parliamentarism” was defended by the vast majority of the Socialist-Revolutionary faction of the Constituent Assembly. Those who did not agree with this tactic and who called for active action were an insignificant minority. The proportion of this minority in the faction was very small. They were viewed as people infected with adventurism, insufficiently imbued with statehood, insufficiently mature politically.

This group of oppositionists consisted mainly of the deputies of the front or persons involved in one way or another in the great war. Among them are D. Surguchev (later shot by the Bolsheviks), Fortunatov, Lieutenant Kh., Sergei Maslov, a member of the Central Committee, now shot by Onipko. I also joined this group.

At the end of November, with the arrival of members of the Constituent Assembly in Petrograd and when the purely parliamentary position of the Socialist-Revolutionary faction became clear, it was on these days, but at the insistence of mainly front-line deputies, that the Military Commission was reorganized. Expanded in its scope, it received a certain autonomy from the Central Committee. It included representatives of the military deputies of the Constituent Assembly faction, between them I, two members of the Central Committee, as well as a number of energetic military SRs. Its presidium includes Surguchev, a member of the Central Committee, and I (as chairman). The money for its activities was given by front-line organizations. The work of the commission ... was carried out in separate sections, independent from each other and, to a certain extent, conspiratorial.

Of course, the work of the newly organized commission cannot be called in any way perfect or in the slightest degree satisfactory; it had too little time at its disposal, and its activity proceeded in a very difficult situation. Nevertheless, something has been achieved.

Actually, we can only talk about two aspects of the activities of this commission: its work in the Petrograd garrison and its military undertakings and enterprises.

The task of the Military Commission was to select from the Petrograd garrison those units that were most combat-ready and at the same time the most anti-Bolshevik. In the very first days of our stay in Petrograd, my comrades and I visited most of the military units located in Petrograd. In some places we held small gatherings in order to reveal the mood of the soldiers, but in most cases we limited ourselves to conversations with committees and with groups of soldiers. The situation is completely hopeless in the Jaeger Regiment, as well as in Pavlovsky, and in others. A more favorable situation was outlined in the Izmailovsky regiment, as well as in a number of technical and artillery units, and only in three units did we find what we were looking for. Preserved fighting efficiency, the presence of a certain discipline and unquestionable anti-Bolshevism.

These were the Semenovsky and Preobrazhensky regiments and the armored division located in the companies of the Izmailovsky regiment. Both the regimental and company committees of the first two regiments, for the most part, consisted of non-party people, but sharply and consciously opposed to the Bolsheviks. In the regiments there were a considerable number of cavaliers of St. George, wounded in the German war, as well as dissatisfied with the Bolshevik devastation. The relationship between the commanding staff, regimental committees and the mass of soldiers was quite friendly.

We decided to choose these three parts as the center of militant anti-Bolshevism. Through our both Socialist-Revolutionary and related front-line organizations, we summoned the most energetic and militant element on an urgent basis. In the course of December, more than 600 officers and soldiers arrived from the front, who were distributed between separate companies of the Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky regiments. Moreover, most of the arrivals were sent to the Semenovsky regiment, and a minority, about 1/3, to the Preobrazhensky regiment. We succeeded in getting some of those summoned to become members of both company and regimental committees. We placed several specialists, mostly former students, in the armored division.

Thus, at the end of December, we significantly increased both the combat capability and anti-Bolshevism of the aforementioned units.

In order to raise the spirits of “our” units, as well as to create an unfriendly mood towards the Bolsheviks in the Petrograd garrison, it was decided to publish the daily soldier's newspaper, The Gray Overcoat.

Summing up the results of our activities in the Petrograd garrison, I must say that we have succeeded, albeit to an insignificant extent, in carrying out work to defend the Constituent Assembly. At the same time, by the day of the opening of the Constituent Assembly, i.e. by January 5, the people's deputies had at their disposal two regiments, relatively combat-ready and unconditionally ready, who decided to defend themselves with arms in hand. Why did this armed uprising not take place on January 5th? Why?..

The Bolsheviks not only carried on vigorous propaganda among the Petrograd garrison, but, taking advantage of the abundant military reserves at their disposal, forced all kinds of combat, the so-called Red Guard units. We also tried to follow their example. Alas, our undertakings in this direction were far from brilliant. While the whole of Petrograd was in the full sense overflowing with all kinds of weapons, the latter were at our disposal in very limited quantities. And so it turned out that our warriors were unarmed or equipped with such primitive weapons that they could not count. Yes, by the way, the workers, for it was among them that the recruitment of our warriors was carried out, did not have much enthusiasm for joining the combat squads. I had to work in this direction in Narva and Kolomna districts.

Meeting of workers of the Franco-Russian plant and the New Admiralty. Of course, meetings of workers sympathizing with us, inscribed in the anti-Bolshevik party.

I explain the situation and the general necessity, from my point of view, to defend the Constituent Assembly with an armed hand. In response, a series of questions, worries.

"Hasn't the brotherly blood been shed enough?" "There was a war for four years, all blood and blood ...". "The Bolsheviks are really scoundrels, but they are unlikely to encroach on the US."

“But in my opinion,” said one of the young workers, “comrades, it is necessary to think not about quarreling with the Bolsheviks, but how to come to an agreement with them. Yet, you see, they defend the interests of the proletariat. Who is in the Kolomna commissariat now? All our Franco-Russians, Bolsheviks ... "

It was still a time when the workers, even those of them who were definitely opposed to the Bolsheviks, harbored some illusions about these latter and their intentions. As a result, about fifteen people joined the vigilantes. The Bolsheviks at the same plant had three times more vigilantes.

The results of our activities in this direction boiled down to the fact that on paper we had up to two thousand workers' vigilantes. But only on paper. For most of them did not show up and were generally imbued with a spirit of indifference and despondency. And considering the forces that could defend the U.S. with weapons in hand, we did not take these combat squads into account ...

In addition to recruiting vigilantes among the Petrograd workers, there were attempts on our part to organize squads from front-line soldiers, from front-line soldiers and officers ... Some of our front-line organizations were quite strong and active. This could especially be said about the committees of the Southwestern and Romanian fronts. Back in November, the Military Commission resorted to the help of these committees, and they began to send front-line soldiers to Petrograd, the most reliable, well-armed, sent, as it were, on a business trip on official business. Some of these front-line soldiers, as it was said, were sent to “strengthen” the Semenovsky and Preobrazhensky regiments. But we wanted to leave some of the arriving soldiers at our direct disposal, forming combat flying detachments from them. To this end, we have taken steps to place them as secretly as possible in Petrograd itself, without arousing the suspicions of the Bolsheviks for the time being. After some hesitation, we settled on the idea of ​​opening a soldier's people's university. In mid-December, such was opened within the walls of one of the higher educational institutions. The opening itself took place with the knowledge and sanction of the Bolshevik authorities, because the program indicated in it was completely innocent, general cultural and educational, and among the leaders and lecturers of the university were indicated persons who were obviously loyal to the Bolshevik government.

It was in our interests to keep these militant cadets together, in case of an unexpected arrest, they could have resisted and so that it would be easier to use them in the event of an action against the Bolsheviks. After a long search, thanks to the assistance of the well-known public figure K., I managed to arrange such a hostel for two hundred people in the premises of the Red Cross on the Fontanka.

The arriving front-line soldiers came to the courses and from here went to the hostel. As a rule, they came with guns and several hand grenades. By the end of December, there were already several dozen such cadets. And since they were all fighting and decisive people, they represented an undoubted force.

This case was not developed on a full scale, since the Central Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionaries saw in it a too risky adventure. We were asked to suspend this undertaking. We did it ”.

P. Dashevsky, member of the AKP military commission bureau:"... The original plan of our headquarters and the military commission said that from the very first moment ... we would act directly as active initiators of an armed uprising. In this spirit, all our preparations went on during the month before the opening of the Constituent Assembly under the directives of the Central Committee. all the discussions of the military commission took place in our garrison meeting with the participation of citizen Likhach. "

N. Likhach:"... The party did not have real forces on which it could rely."

G. Semenov, head of the military commission under the Petrograd Committee of the AKP:“Gradually, cells were created in the regiments: Semenovsky, Preobrazhensky, Grenadier, Izmailovsky, motor-pontoon, spare electrical-technical, in chemical and sapper battalions and in the 5th armored division. Commander of one of the battalions of the motor-pontoon regiment, Ensign Mavrinsky, the chairman of the regimental committee of the Semenovsky regiment and a member of the committee of the chemical battalion Usenko were included in the military commission. The number of each cell was from 10 to 40 people "

It was decided to organize an intelligence department. A front-line officer was sent to the headquarters of the Red Guard with a fake letter, who soon received the post of Mekhanoshin's assistant and kept us informed of the location of the Bolshevik units.

By the end of December ... the commander of the 5th armored division, the commissar and the entire divisional committee, was ours. The Semyonov regiment agreed to act if called upon by the entire Socialist-Revolutionary faction of the Constituent Assembly, and then not first, but behind the armored division. And the Preobrazhensky regiment agreed to act if Semenovsky spoke.

I believed that we did not have troops (except for the armored division), and thought to send the expected mass demonstration led by vigilantes to the Semyonovsky regiment, staging an uprising, hoping that the Semyonovites would join, move to the Transfiguration and, together with the latter, to the Tauride Palace to take action. The headquarters accepted my plan. "

Resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of January 3 (16), "Pravda" January 4 (17), 1918:“Any attempt on the part of anyone or any institution to appropriate certain functions of state power will be regarded as a counter-revolutionary action. Any such attempt will be suppressed by all means at the disposal of the Soviet government, up to and including the use of armed force. "

Extraordinary Commission for the Protection of Petrograd, January 3:"... Any attempt to penetrate ... into the area of ​​the Tauride Palace and Smolny, starting from January 5, will be vigorously stopped by military force."

The formed "Union for the Defense of the Constituent Assembly", under the leadership of the Right Socialist Revolutionary V. N. Filippovsky, which included the Right Socialist Revolutionaries, People's Socialists, Menshevik defencists, part of the Cadets, decided to organize a demonstration in support of the US.

To suppress the conspiracy and maintain order on the day of the opening of the Constituent Assembly, an Extraordinary Military Council was created.

The Tavrichesky Palace, where the Constituent Assembly was to open on January 5, the approaches to the palace, the Smolny area and other important positions of St. Petersburg, the council instructed the sailors to guard. They were commanded by PE Dybenko, People's Commissar for Maritime Affairs.

Tauride Palace - 100 people; Nikolaev Academy - Foundry - Kirochnaya - 300 people; state bank - 450 people. The Peter and Paul Fortress will have 4 hydroplanes.

VD Bonch-Bruevich:"We are approaching January 5, and I want to warn you that we must meet this day with full seriousness ... All factories and military units must be fully prepared. It is better to exaggerate than minimize the danger. we are ready to repel and suppress, if necessary, mercilessly every directed blow. "

P.E. Dybenko:"January 18th. (5 January) From early morning, while the man in the street was still sleeping peacefully, on the main streets of Petrograd, loyal sentries of the Soviet power - detachments of sailors - took up their posts. They were given a strict order: to keep order in the city ... The chiefs of the detachments are all combatants, comrades tested back in July and October.

Zheleznyak with his detachment solemnly acts to guard the Tauride Palace - the Constituent Assembly. An anarchist sailor, he was sincerely indignant at the Second Baltic Fleet Congress that he was offered to be nominated as a candidate for the Constituent Assembly. Now, proudly speaking with the detachment, he declares with a sly smile: "An honorable place for a loan." Yes, he was not mistaken. He took a place of honor in history.

At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, having checked the guards with Comrade Myasnikov, I hurry to Tavrichesky. The entrances to it are guarded by sailors. In the corridor of Tavricheskoye I meet Bonch-Bruyevich.

Well, how? Is everything calm in the city? Are there many demonstrators? Where are they going? There is information as if they are heading directly to Tavrichesky?

Some confusion is noticeable on his face.

I just drove around the guards. Everything is in place. No demonstrators are moving towards Tavrichesky, and if they do, the sailors will not let it through. They are strictly ordered.

All this is fine, but they say that the Petrograd regiments came out together with the demonstrators.

Comrade Bonch-Bruevich, all this is nonsense. What are the Petrograd regiments now? - Of these, there is not a single combat-ready one. 5 thousand sailors were sent to the city.

Bonch-Bruevich, somewhat reassured, leaves for the meeting.

At about 5 o'clock Bonch-Bruyevich again approached and in a confused, agitated voice said:

You said that everything is calm in the city; meanwhile, information has now been received that at the corner of Kirochnaya and Liteiny Prospect a demonstration of about 10,000 is moving along with soldiers. Heading straight to Tavrichesky. What measures have been taken?

At the corner of Liteiny there is a detachment of 500 men under the command of Comrade Khovrin. Demonstrators will not penetrate to Tauride.

Still, go now yourself. Look everywhere and report immediately. Comrade Lenin is worried.

I go around the guards by car. A rather impressive demonstration really approached the corner of Liteiny and demanded that it be admitted to the Tauride Palace. The sailors did not let them through. There was a moment when it seemed that the demonstrators would rush to the sailors' detachment. Several shots were fired at the car. A platoon of sailors fired a volley into the air. The crowd scattered in all directions. But even until late in the evening, some minor groups were demonstrating around the city, trying to get to Tavrichesky. Access was firmly blocked. "

VD Bonch-Bruevich:“The city was divided into sections. A commandant was appointed in the Tauride Palace, and MS Uritsky was nominated for this position. Blagonravov remained the head of our base - the Peter and Paul Fortress, and Eremeev - in the post of commander of the Petrograd district. assemblies were appointed commandant of Smolny and subordinated the entire area to me ... I was responsible for the whole order in this area, including those demonstrations that were expected around the Tauride Palace ... I perfectly understood that this area is the most important of throughout Petrograd, ... that this is where the demonstrations will strive. "

Union for the Defense of the Constituent Assembly, appeal 5 (18) January:"Citizens, you ... must tell him ( Constituent Assembly) that the capital of the revolution is inspired by the desire to move the entire people to the last feats that the salvation of the country requires. All for the demonstration on January 5! ".

Petrograd SNK, January 5:“Under the slogan“ All power to the Constituent Assembly ”is the slogan“ Down with the Soviets. ”That is why all the capitalists, all the black hundred, all the bankers stand up for this slogan!”

From the defensive speech of a member of the Central Committee of the AKP A.R. Gotz at the trial of S.-. R., August 1, 1922: “We definitely stated that yes, we considered it necessary to organize all those forces, military and combat, that were at our disposal, so that if the Bolshevik government dared to encroach on the Constituent Assembly, to give it proper support. This was the main political task these days. This is the first thing.

Further, we considered it necessary not to confine ourselves only to the mobilization of those military forces that were at our disposal, we believed that the people themselves, the working class of Petrograd itself should declare its will to defend the Constituent Assembly by manifestation. He had to declare his will to say loudly, clearly, comprehensively, addressing the representatives of Smolny - “do not dare to encroach on the constituent assembly, for behind the constituent assembly there is a close-knit iron phalanx of the workers' army”. This is what we wanted. Therefore, we, addressing all parties, the entire working class of Petrograd, said: “go to a peaceful unarmed demonstration, go in order to

to reveal your will, in order to manifest your mood. And citizen Krylenko says (let's say, for a moment, the correctness of his version) that yes, I do not deny that you organized a peaceful demonstration, which was supposed to summarize this will, but besides this there was another demonstration, no longer peaceful, which should was to go from armored cars, Semenovtsev, etc. Let's say for a moment that your concept is correct, but none of this changes the essence of the matter. All the armed demonstrations (let's say your version), which were then conceived, did not take place, did not take place, because all these mythical armored cars, which you, as the commander-in-chief, operated with, placed them with the help of my friend Timofeev and threw them on Smolny,

This is all surreal, everything is fortune-telling on the coffee grounds. You know well that not a single armored car left. From my point of view, it’s very bad that I didn’t leave, but that’s another question. We do not establish what is good and what is bad, but we establish the facts. And the facts are such that even if we admit our subjective most passionate desire to assemble an armored fist (such a desire, such a task we had absolutely certain), we did not succeed in this fortune-telling, we did not succeed because, simply, without further ado, we did not have this fist. When we tried to squeeze it, it remained as it is (gestures). That's the problem. This is how things are. The armored cars did not come out. The Semyonovsky regiment did not come out.

Did we have an intention. Yes. And here Timofeev definitely said that we, members of the Central Committee. would be considered criminal on their part. if we had not taken all measures to organize, to gather a fist, to organize the armed defense of the constituent assembly. We decided that the moment you decide to encroach on the sovereignty of the constituent assembly, to lay your hand on it, we must repulse you. We considered this not only our right, but also our sacred duty to the working class. And if we did not make every effort to accomplish this task, we would indeed bear full responsibility not to you, but to the entire working class of Russia. But, I repeat, we bone fide did everything that we could, and if, nevertheless, we did not succeed, then for the reason mentioned by Gr. Pokrovsky. Why was gr. Krylenko piled up all these facts, why he needed, apart from wanting to use these facts as incriminating material against us, in order to prove once again that this party is hypocrisy, and utter several loud philippics, which he is not bad at.

Why did he need it. I'll tell you why. This was necessary in order to hide, obscure, veil the true meaning and the tragic and political meaning of the events of January 5th. And this day will go down in history not as the day of the Party's hypocrisy, but as the day of the bloody crime you committed against the working people, for that day you shot peaceful demonstrations, because that day you shed the blood of workers on the streets of Petrograd, and this blood caused a spirit of indignation after. In order to hide this fact, in order to disguise the crime not of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, but of some other party, you had of course to pile up and build hypotheses, which we note, because in this respect you were breaking completely into an open door. Yes, we wanted to defend, but this fact, the fact of our desire to defend, does not in any way justify the fact that you shot an unarmed demonstration that moved towards you with the aim of seizing power. Let me point out to you that the file contains a copy of Delo Naroda, in which the following statement was placed on the eve of January 5: The city of Petrograd has been turned into an armed camp. The Bolsheviks spread news that the SRs are preparing an armed seizure of power, that they are forging a conspiracy against the Council of People's Commissars. Do not believe this provocation and go to a peaceful manifestation. And it was true, we did not set out to organize a coup, we did not set out to seize power by conspiratorial means, no, we openly said that this is the only legal one. a legitimate government, and all citizens and all working people must submit to it, all parties that were at enmity up to that moment must submit to it and lay down their bloody weapons.

And if only these parties do not take the path of agreement and reconciliation with her, then this Constituent Assembly has the right, of course, not by exhortations and not florid speeches. and with the sword to subdue all the other parties. And our business was to forge this sword, and if we failed, then it is not our fault, but our misfortune. But, more than that, this day was not only a day of crime on the part of the Bolsheviks, but this day played the role of a turning point in the history of Bolshevik tactics. In order not to be unfounded, let me refer to an authoritative person who is unconditional for you.

I think I will be allowed to gr. In this case, the Chairperson shall refer to Rosa Luxemburg. I allow myself to point out that in the book she published under the title “Russian Revolution”, she wrote: “The famous dispersal of the Constituent Assembly on January 5, 1918 played an outstanding role in the policy of the Bolsheviks. This measure determined their further position.

It was, to a certain extent, the turning point in their tactics. It is known that Lenin and friends

he was violently demanded to convene a Constituent Assembly before his October victory. It was precisely this policy of procrastination in this matter on the part of the Kerensky government that was one of the points of accusation by the Bolsheviks of this government and gave them a pretext for fierce attacks on it. Trotsky says even in one of his interesting articles, from the October Revolution to the Brest Peace, that the October coup was a real salvation for the Constituent Assembly, as well as for the whole revolution. Well, as the Bolsheviks understand the word "salvation", we have seen enough from practice on the day of January 5th. Apparently, to save them means to shoot. Further, she points to the entire inconsistency of the argumentation that the Bolsheviks used when for the political justification of their violent act against the Constituent Assembly. What arguments were put forward by the Bolsheviks then to justify the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly? What did they say. They said, first of all, that the Constituent Assembly is the yesterday of the revolution. It does not reflect the real balance of power that was established after the October victory. That this day has already passed, this is a turned over page of the history book and it is impossible, relying on it

to decide the fate of today. Further, in addition to these general political considerations, they pointed out that in this election campaign the Socialist Revolutionary Party acted as a single party that had not yet split, had not yet separated from its party, the so-called left socialist revolutionaries. These two considerations were usually put forward in the political justification of this tactic. What does Rosa Luxemburg answer to them? Again, I prefer to speak her words, for her authority, I have no doubt, for you ...

BUKHARIN. She wanted to burn this book.

GOTS. I don't know if she wanted to burn this book or not. I do not think that she wanted to burn it, I think that she did not want to burn it, but because she later changed her point of view in some respects, this statement and these views do not lose all their deep value and instructiveness. As for what she wanted to burn, let me tell you, Citizen Bukharin, this is from the realm of fantasy. We do not know about these intentions of her, at least from literature.

BUKHARIN. - You are not familiar with literature.

GOTS - Let's not argue, Citizen Bukharin. Let me indicate how she responded to those considerations from the book that Citizen Bukharin would like to burn. I understand why he would like to burn this book, for this book is a bright, instructive, eloquent act against him and against his friends. Now what does she say. She says the following: “One need only be surprised that such clever people as Lenin and Trotsky did not come to the self-evident conclusions. If the Constituent Assembly was elected long before the turning point - the October coup and reflects the past and not the new situation in the country, then the conclusion suggests itself that it is necessary to cassify the obsolete stillborn Constituent Assembly, and immediately appoint elections to the new Constituent Assembly. ” This is literal what we also said in our time in those books that we do not renounce and that we are not going to burn. But the Bolsheviks did not take this path. “They did not want to hand over,” she says further, “to hand the fate of the revolution into the hands of the assembly, which expressed the mood of yesterday's Russia, the period [a] of hesitation and coalition with the bourgeoisie, when they had only one thing left: to immediately convene a new Constituent Assembly in place of the old one, emerged from the depths of a renewed country that has embarked on a new path ”. Instead, Trotsky, on the basis of the unsuitability of the meeting of this meeting, comes to general conclusions about the uselessness and worthlessness in general of any popular representation based on universal suffrage. Already on this day, on the day of January 5, that cardinal question was raised with all the cutting sharpness, which then all the time divided us into two hostile camps. The question was posed as follows: dictatorship or democracy. Should the state rely on the minority, or should the state rely on the majority of the working class. As long as you had the hope that the majority of the constituent assembly would be yours, you did not rebel, and only when you were convinced that you could not create this majority, that the attitude of social forces among the working people was such that it was against you. , only from that moment you turned the front against the Constituent Assembly and from that moment you put forward the concept: "dictatorship".

When I speak now about democracy, I consider it necessary, first of all, to refer to the theory No. 2 of citizen Krylenko. Citizen Krylenko here with great enthusiasm, with great polemical and dialectical art, I give him his due, developed before us here a theory that we, in fact, at least many of us, I say frankly, preached 15 years ago in circles for the second type. Citizen Krylenko said: you don't have to be fetishists, idolaters of democracy. Democracy is not a fetish, not an idol to bow down to and smash your forehead. Citizen Krylenko, I think that even everyone who did not study at the seminary, but who in one way or another joined international socialism, know perfectly well that for no socialist, democracy, of course, is not a fetish, is not an idol, but is only that form and the only form in which socialist ideals can be realized in the name and for which we are fighting.

But citizen Krylenko went further. He says: freedom is a tool for us, i.e. if we need freedom, then we use it. if freedom is claimed, if it is thirsty, if others are striving for it, then we direct this weapon with a sharp edge against them.

Let me tell you that this is the most incorrect and most destructive understanding of freedom. For us, freedom is that life-giving atmosphere in which is the only and possible every broad, every mass workers' socialist movement, this is the element that should envelop, surround and permeate this labor movement. Outside of these conditions, outside the forms of freedom, the broadest freedom, no independent activity of the working masses is possible. But do I need you, people who call themselves Marxist socialists, to prove that socialism is impossible without the condition of the broadest initiative of the working people, which, for its part, cannot take place without freedom?

Freedom is the soul of socialism, it is the basic condition for the initiative of the masses. If you are this vital nerve, this basic essence, if you cut this nerve, then, of course, nothing will remain of the initiative of the masses, and then there is only a direct path - the path to the theory that citizen Krylenko was developing here, to the theory of unenlightened dark masses, for whom it is harmful to have too much contact with political parties that are capable of them, inexperienced, inexperienced, dark ones, to knock them down, carry them along, draw them into such a swamp, from which they, poor things, will never crawl out. What is this if not the classically expressed theory of Pobedonostsev? That this is in its socialist essence, if not the same desire of Pobedonostsev to save the pure Orthodox people from the pernicious influence of Western democracy, which can only muddy the purity of his consciousness, which can only corrupt him, in which he will be powerless to understand and, like a child who is given a sharp knife can only inflict sharp dangerous wounds on itself.

And already one step away from this concept of citizen Lunacharsky, which was started by citizen Krylenko, only one step away from the legend of the great inquisitor Tolstoy, I apologize, Dostoevsky. So this legend is a logical natural conclusion of the cycle of thoughts that Citizen Krylenko and Citizen Lunacharsky were now developing in front of us here and which can be said to be compressed into one political concept - the concept of dictatorship in your understanding. Let me again refer to Rosa Luxemburg ...

CHAIRMAN - Could you ask to be closer to the matter. The Constituent Assembly, thank God, was dispersed. We are interested in your further position, and not in the fact that the Constituent Assembly was dispersed, whether it is good or bad. Dispersed and done well.

GOTS - in this plane, of course, I will not argue whether it is good that they dispersed the Constituent Assembly, good or bad, that they hit this or that gentleman on the head. In this regard, I do not consider it possible and appropriate to conduct political debates, albeit in the form of a defensive speech. I still have not gone beyond the framework that you indicated to me. I keep to your instructions ...

CHAIRMAN - Instructions concerning the form of the dictatorship of the proletariat, for us the original form, not subject to discussion. We are the organs of this dictatorship. The issue of universal suffrage is a settled issue, not subject to discussion, so the whole conversation about this is completely in vain.

GOTS - Maybe we are conducting a lot of conversations here in vain, because one very correct idea was expressed by citizen Krylenko. He said: "from the very beginning, in fact, from the moment of your first statements, it could be said that the issue has been settled and proceed with the sentencing."

The day of the opening of the Constituent Assembly came on January 5, 1918. There were no severe frosts. In many areas of the city, demonstrations were held in support of the Constituent Assembly. The demonstrators began to gather in the morning at nine assembly points designated by the Union for the Defense of the Constituent Assembly. The route of movement provided for the merger of the columns on the Field of Mars and the subsequent advance to the Tauride Palace from the side of Liteiny Prospect.

The column of workers in the Aleksandro-Nevsky District, going from the Field of Mars to the Tauride Palace, looked especially massive and cohesive. There is no exact data on the number of demonstrators, but according to M. Kapustin, 200 thousand people took part in them. According to other sources, the main column of demonstrators numbered 60 thousand people. On January 5, in Pravda, all meetings and demonstrations in Petrograd were banned in the areas adjacent to the Tauride Palace. It was proclaimed that they would be suppressed by military force. At the same time, Bolshevik agitators at the most important factories (Obukhov, Baltic, etc.) tried to enlist the support of the workers, but were unsuccessful. As part of the columns of demonstrators, the workers moved to Tavrichesky and were shot from machine guns.

V.M. Chernov:“It was necessary to morally disarm ... the Bolsheviks. For this, we promoted a demonstration of the civilian population absolutely unarmed, against which it would not be easy to use brute force. bloodshed. Only in this case, we thought, can even the most resolute defenders hesitate and the most indecisive of our friends can be imbued with decisiveness ... "

Paevsky, leader of the Petrograd combat squads of the AKP:“So we went alone. Several districts joined us along the way.

The composition of the procession was as follows: a small number of party members, a squad, a lot of young ladies, gymnasium students, especially students, many officials of all departments, organizations of cadets with their green and white flags, a poaletion, etc., in the complete absence of workers and soldier. From the outside, from the crowd of workers, mockery of the bourgeois procession was heard. "

"New Life," January 6, 1918:"... When the demonstrators appeared at the Panteleimonovskaya church, the sailors and Red Guards standing at the corner of Liteiny Prospect and Panteleimonovskaya Street immediately opened fire. The standard-bearers and the music orchestra of the Obukhov plant were the first to come under fire. After the execution of the demonstrators, the Red Guards and sailors proceeded to the solemn burning of the selected banners. "

: “We gathered between 9 and 10 in a restaurant on Kirochnaya Street, and there were made the final preparations. And then we moved in perfect order to the Tauride Palace. All the streets were occupied by troops, machine guns stood at the corners, and in general the whole city looked like a military camp. By 12 o'clock we came to the Tauride Palace, and in front of us the guardians crossed their bayonets

From 9 am the columns of protesters moved from the St. Petersburg suburbs to the center. The demonstration was really very big. Although I was not there, according to rumors that reached us - almost every minute someone came running - there were over 100,000 people. In this respect, we were not mistaken, and some military units also marched in the crowd, but these were not units, but separate groups of soldiers and sailors. They were met by detachments of soldiers, sailors and even horsemen specially sent against the crowd, and when the crowd did not want to disperse, they began to shoot at it. I don't know exactly how many were killed, but we, standing in the courtyard of the Tauride Palace, heard the clatter of machine guns and rifle volleys ... By three o'clock it was all over. Several dozen killed, several hundred wounded. "

M.M. Ter-Poghosyan:"... We were at Liteiny - I can't say for sure, but when I climbed the curbstone near the gate and looked, I couldn't see the end of this crowd, - huge, many tens of thousands. And now I remember, I was walking at the head ...

At that time, Bolshevik units, regular units, appeared from the ledge against us from the ledge of the District Court, and, therefore, cut us off and began to put pressure on us. Then they retreated and on both sides of the street knelt at the ready, and the shooting began. "

From a speech at the trial by S.-r. member of the Central Committee of the AKP E.S. Berg:"I am a worker. And during the demonstration in defense of the Constituent Assembly, I took part in it. The Petrograd Committee declared a peaceful demonstration and the Committee itself, and I, among other things, walked unarmed at the head of the procession from the Petrograd side. On the way, at the corner of Liteiny and Furshtadtskaya the road was blocked by an armed chain. We entered into negotiations with the soldiers in order to obtain a pass to the Tauride Palace. They answered us with bullets. Here Logvinov was killed - a peasant, a member of the Executive Committee of the Council of Peasant Deputies - who was walking with a banner. He was killed by an explosive bullet, which blew off half of his skull. And he was killed when, after the first shots, he lay down on the ground. Gorbachevskaya, an old party worker, was also killed there. Other processions were shot elsewhere. 6 people of the workers of the Markus plant were killed, the workers of the Obukhov plant were killed. On January 9, I took part in the funeral of those killed; there were 8 coffins, for the rest of the murdered were not given to us by the authorities, and among them there were 3 Social-Democrats, 2 Social-Democrats. and 3 non-partisans and almost all of them were workers. Here's the truth about this demo. It was said here that this was a demonstration of officials, students, the bourgeoisie, and that there were no workers in it. So why, then, among the killed there is not a single official, not a single bourgeois, but they are all workers and socialists? The demonstration was peaceful — that was the resolution of the Petrograd Committee, which carried out the directives of the Central Committee and transmitted them to the districts.

Approaching the Tavrichesky Palace, on behalf of the workers of some factories and plants to greet the Uchr. Sobr., I and three comrades of workers could not go there, because there was shooting all around. The demonstration did not spread, it was shot. And it was you who shot the peaceful workers' demonstration in defense of the Constituent Assembly! ”

P.I.Stuchka: ".. In the protection of the Smolny and Tavrichesky Palaces (during the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly), the first place was occupied by comrades selected by the Latvian rifle regiments."

Pravda, January 6:"The streets on January 5 are quiet. Occasionally small groups of intellectuals with placards appear, they are dispersed. According to the emergency headquarters, armed clashes took place between groups of armed demonstrators and patrols. They fired from windows and rooftops. The arrested had revolvers, bombs and grenades." ...

M. Gorky, "New Life" (January 9, 1918):"On January 5, 1918, unarmed St. Petersburg democracy - workers, office workers - peacefully demonstrated in honor of the Constituent Assembly ..." Pravda "lies when she writes that the January 5 demonstration was organized by the bourgeoisie, bankers, etc., and that it was precisely “bourgeois” and “Kaledinites.” “Pravda” is lying, she knows perfectly well that the “bourgeois” have nothing to rejoice at the opening of the Constituent Assembly, they have nothing to do among 246 socialists of one party and 140 - - the Bolsheviks. "Pravda" knows that the workers of the Obukhov, Cartridge and other factories took part in the demonstration, that under the red banners of the Russian Social-Democratic Party the workers of Vasileostrovsky, Vyborg and other districts were marching towards the Tauride Palace. It was these workers who were shot, and how many no matter what lies Pravda will not hide the shameful fact ... So, on January 5, they shot unarmed workers in Petrograd. through the cracks of the fences, as cowardly as real killers. "

Sokolov, member of the Constituent Assembly, Socialist-Revolutionary:"... The people in Petrograd were opposed to the Bolsheviks, but we were unable to lead this anti-Bolshevik movement."

The opening of the Meeting did not take place at noon, and only at 4 pm more than 400 delegates entered the White Hall of the Tauride Palace. The transcript convinces us that since the opening of the Constituent Assembly, his work resembled an acute political battle.

The Meeting was opened twice. The first time it was opened by the oldest deputy, former Narodnoye member S. Shevtsov. Then - Ya.M. Sverdlov, opened it on behalf of the Council of People's Commissars. Then a long bickering began over the presidium and the presiding officer. The Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries were in a clear minority, and the Socialist-Revolutionary V.M. Chernov was elected chairman.

V.M. Zenzinov:"The city was on that day an armed camp; Bolshevik troops surrounded the building of the Tauride Palace with a solid wall, which was prepared for the meetings of the Constituent Assembly. weapons ... In the building, we were surrounded in the choir and in the aisles by an angry crowd. A frenzied roar filled the room. "

M.V. Vishnyak, Secretary of the Board:"In front of the facade of Tavricheskoye, the entire area is lined with cannons, machine guns, field kitchens. Machine-gun belts are randomly piled up in a heap. All the gates are locked. Only the extreme gate on the left is ajar, and they are allowed to enter it with tickets. from behind, probing the back ... This is the first outside security ... They let through the door on the left. Again, internal control. People are checking not in greatcoats, but in jackets and tunics ... There are armed people everywhere. Most of all sailors and Latvians .. The last cordon is at the entrance to the meeting room. The external situation leaves no doubt about the Bolshevik views and intentions. "

VD Bonch-Bruevich:"They were scattered everywhere. The sailors walked about the halls in an important and decorous manner, holding their guns on their left shoulder in a belt." On the sides of the tribune and in the corridors there are also armed men. The public galleries are jam-packed. However, all these are people of the Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries. Entrance tickets to the galleries, about 400 pieces, were distributed among the Petrograd sailors, soldiers and workers by Uritsky. There were very few supporters of the Socialist-Revolutionaries in the hall. "

P.E.Dybenko: " After the party conferences, the Constituent Assembly opens. The whole procedure for the opening and elections of the Presidium of the Constituent Assembly was of a buffoonery, frivolous character. They showered each other with witticisms, filled idle time with a dive. For general laughter and amusement of the guarding sailors, I sent a note to the Presidium of the Constituent Assembly with a proposal to elect Kerensky and Kornilov as secretaries. Chernov only threw up his hands at this and declared somewhat affectionately: "After all, Kornilov and Kerensky are not here."

The Presidium has been elected. In an hour and a half speech Chernov poured out all the sorrows and grievances inflicted by the Bolsheviks on the long-suffering democracy. Other living shadows of the Provisional Government, which has sunk into eternity, are also appearing. At about one in the morning, the Bolsheviks leave the Constituent Assembly. The Left SRs still remain.

Comrade Lenin and several other comrades are in one of the rooms of the Tauride Palace far from the meeting hall. Regarding the Constituent Assembly, a decision was made: on the next day, none of the members of the Constituent Assembly should be allowed to enter the Tauride Palace and thereby consider the Constituent Assembly dissolved.

About half-past two the Left SRs also left the meeting room. At this moment, Comrade Zheleznyak comes up to me and reports:

The sailors are tired, they want to sleep. How to be?

I gave the order to disperse the Constituent Assembly after the people's commissars leave Tauride. Comrade Lenin learned about this order. He contacted me and demanded that it be canceled.

Will you give a signature, Vladimir Ilyich, that tomorrow not a single sailor's head will fall on the streets of Petrograd?

Comrade Lenin resorts to Kollontai's assistance to force me to cancel the order. Calling Zheleznyak. Lenin offers him the order not to carry out and imposes his resolution on my written order:

"T. Zheleznyak. The Constituent Assembly should not be dispersed until the end of today's meeting. ”

Verbally, he adds: "Tomorrow morning, do not let anyone into Tavrichesky."

V. I. Lenin, January 5:"It is instructed to comrade soldiers and sailors on guard duty within the walls of the Tauride Palace not to allow any violence against the counter-revolutionary part of the Constituent Assembly and, freely letting everyone out of the Tauride Palace, not to let anyone into it without special orders.
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V. Ulyanov (Lenin) "

P.E. Dybenko:“Zheleznyak, addressing Vladimir Ilyich, asks to replace the inscription“ Zheleznyak ”with“ the order of Dybenko. ”Vladimir Ilyich half-jokingly dismisses it and immediately drives off in the car. Two sailors are traveling with Vladimir Ilyich to guard.

For Comrade Lenin, Tavrichesky and the rest of the People's Commissars are leaving. At the exit I meet Zheleznyak.

Zheleznyak: What will happen to me if I do not obey Comrade Lenin's orders?

Disperse the Constituent Assembly, and tomorrow we'll figure it out.

Zheleznyak was just waiting for this. Without noise, calmly and simply, he walked up to the chairman of the constituent assembly Chernov, put his hand on his shoulder and declared that in view of the fact that the guard was tired, he invited the meeting to go home.

The "living forces" of the country, without the slightest resistance, quickly evaporated.

This is how the long-awaited All-Russian parliament ended its existence. In fact, it was not dispersed on the day of its opening, but on October 25. A detachment of sailors under the command of Comrade Zheleznyak only carried out the order of the October Revolution. "

Zheleznyakov. I received instructions to inform you that everyone present should leave the meeting room because the guard is tired.
(Voices: "We don't need a guard").
Chernov. What instruction? From whom?
Zheleznyakov. I am the head of the guard at the Tauride Palace, I have instructions from the commissar.
Chernov. All the members of the Constituent Assembly are also very tired, but no amount of fatigue can interrupt the promulgation of the land law that Russia awaits ... The Constituent Assembly can disperse only if force is used! ..
Zheleznyakov.... I ask you to leave the meeting room "

Most of the deputies refused to approve the extremist "Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People" and other decrees of the Bolsheviks. In retaliation, the Bolsheviks, and then the Left SRs, left the meeting room. Until 5 am on January 6, the remaining deputies continued to discuss issues of land, power, etc.

At 4 hours 20 minutes. On the morning of January 6, when the discussion of the land question was coming to an end, the chief of the guard of the Tauride Palace, sailor A. Zheleznyakov, approached Chernov, who was announcing the "Draft Basic Law on Land". He said that he had instructions to stop the meeting, all those present had to leave the meeting room, because the guard was tired. The meeting was interrupted, having appointed the next one at 17 o'clock.

V.M. Chernov:"- I announce a break until 5 pm! - I obey the armed forces! I protest, but I submit to violence!"

From the memoirs of a member of the AKP Military Commission B. Sokolov: “We, I'm talking about the Military Commission, did not in the least doubt the positive attitude of the Central Committee to our plan of action. And all the more was the disappointment ... On January 3, at a meeting of the Military Commission, we were informed of the resolution of our Central Committee. This resolution categorically prohibited an armed uprising as an untimely and unreliable act. A peaceful demonstration was recommended, and it was suggested that soldiers and other military officials take part in the demonstration unarmed, "to avoid unnecessary bloodshed."

The motives for this decision were apparently quite varied. We, the uninitiated, have been informed about them in a much abbreviated form. In any case, this decree was dictated by the best intentions.

First, the fear of civil war or, more precisely, fratricide. It is Chernov who owns the famous saying that "we must not shed a single drop of the people's blood." “And the Bolsheviks, - he was asked, - is it possible to shed the blood of the Bolsheviks?” "The Bolsheviks are the same people." The armed struggle against the Bolsheviks at that time was viewed as really fratricide, as an undesirable struggle.

Secondly, many remembered the failures of the Moscow and Petrograd armed uprisings in defense of the Provisional Government. These speeches showed the impotence and disorganization of democracy. From this stemmed a kind of fear of new armed uprisings, lack of confidence in their strengths, moreover, the conviction of the deliberate failure of such actions.

Thirdly, the mood that I spoke about at the beginning of this article undoubtedly prevailed. The conviction, imbued with fatalism, that Bolshevism is omnipotent, that Bolshevism is a popular phenomenon that is engulfing ever wider circles of the masses.

"Bolshevism must be allowed to become obsolete." "Let Bolshevism outlive itself." Here is the slogan put forward at that particular time, and I think it played a rather sad role in the history of the anti-Bolshevik struggle. For this slogan marks a passive policy.

Finally, fourthly, there was the same idealism, based on faith in the triumph of democratic principles, on faith in the will of the people. “Is it permissible,” the prominent leader Kh. Asked, for us to impose our will, our decision on the people. If the majority of the people really gravitate towards Bolshevism, then we must listen to the voice of the people. The people will decide for themselves who is the Truth, and they will follow those whom they believe more. There is no need for violence against the will of the people ”.

“We are representatives of democracy and we defend the principles of the rule of the people. Is it permissible, until the people have said their word, to raise an internecine civil war and shed fraternal blood? The case of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, in which the opinion of the whole country will be reflected as the focus, whether to say “yes” or “no”.

It is very difficult to say which of the above-listed motives was decisive for abandoning the armed action we had planned. The fear of adventurism, which in general characterizes all the activities of the AKP after the February revolution, the desire for a special, elevated to the principle of legality based on democratic principles, lack of confidence in their abilities - all this closely intertwined with each other, I think, played the same role in this decision ...

So we were faced with the prohibition of armed action. This prohibition caught us by surprise. Reported to the Plenum of the Military Commission, it gave rise to many misunderstandings and discontent. It seems we managed to warn the Defense Committee of our re-resolution at the very last minute. They, in turn, took hasty steps and changed assembly points. The Semenovites had to experience the most excitement.

Boris Petrov and I visited the regiment to report to its leaders that the armed demonstration was canceled and that they were asked to "come to the demonstration unarmed, so that blood would not be shed."

The second half of the sentence aroused a storm of indignation among them ... “Why are you, comrades, really laughing at us? Or are you kidding me? .. We are not little children, and if we went to fight the Bolsheviks, we would do it quite deliberately ... And blood ... blood, perhaps, would not have spilled if we had gone out with a whole regiment armed ”.

For a long time we talked with the Semyonovites, and the more we talked, the clearer it became that our renunciation of armed action had erected a blank wall of mutual misunderstanding between them and us.

“Intellectuals ... They are wise, without knowing what. Now it is clear that there are no military men between them ”.

And in spite of prolonged admonitions, that evening the Semyonovites refused to defend the newspaper "Gray Overcoat" published by us.

“There’s nothing. They'll cover her anyway. Only one gimp "...".

The doors of the Tauride Palace were closed for the members of the Constituent Assembly forever. On the night of January 6-7, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee approved a decree previously written by Lenin on the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly.

List of used literature and sources

Amursky I.E. Matros Zheleznyakov - M .: Moscow worker, 1968.

Bonch-Bruevich M. D. All power to the Soviets! - Moscow: Military Publishing, 1958.

Budberg A. Diary of a White Guard. - Minsk: Harvest, Moscow: AST, 2001;

Vasiliev V.E. And our spirit is young.- Moscow: Military Publishing, 1981.

V. Vladimirova "Year of service of the socialists to the capitalists" Essays on the history of counter-revolution in 1918 Edited by Ya. A. Yakovlev State publishing house Moscow Leningrad, 1927

Golinkov DL, "Who was the organizer of the cadet uprising in October 1917", "Questions of history", 1966, No. 3;

Dybenko P.E. From the bowels of the tsarist fleet to the Great October. - Moscow: Military Publishing, 1958.

Kerensky A.F., Gatchina, from collection. Art. "From afar", Paris, 1922 (3)

Lutovinov I. S., "Elimination of the Kerensky-Krasnova mutiny", M., 1965;

Mstislavsky S.D. "Collection. Frank Stories." - M .: Voenizdat, 1998

The Socialist Revolutionary Party after the October Revolution of 1917. Documents from the AKP Archive. Collected and provided with notes and an essay on the history of the party in the post-revolutionary period Mark Jansen. Amsterdam. 1989.

Party of Socialists - Revolutionaries. Documents and materials. In 3 vols. / Vol. 3.Ch. October 1917 - 1925 - M .: ROSSPEN, 2000.

Minutes of meetings of the Central Committee of the Socialist Revolutionary Party (June 1917 - March 1918) with comments by V.M. Chernov "Questions of history", 2000, N 7, 8, 9, 10

The trial of the socialist revolutionaries (June-August 1922). Preparation. Carrying out. Results. Collection of documents / Comp. S.A. Krasilnikov., K. N. Morozov, I. V. Chubykin. -M .: ROSSPEN, 2002.

socialist.memo.ru - Russian socialists and anarchists after October 1917

100 years ago, on January 6 (19), 1918, an event took place that can be considered the day of the establishment of Soviet power for no less reason than October 25. This was the second act of a coup staged by the Bolsheviks with the support of the Left SRs and anarchists. On January 6, the Constituent Assembly was dissolved and ceased to exist, the meetings of which had opened with pomp the day before in Petrograd, in the Tauride Palace.

"Liberal venture"

At the level of slogan phraseology, the Constituent Assembly was revered as a sacred cow by all who were involved in the political battles of 1917 - from the Octobrists to the Bolsheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries. Even the Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich postponed the execution of the will of the Emperor Nicholas, who had transferred him the supreme power, until the convocation of the Assembly, making his decision dependent on the expression of the will of this institution, thereby legally abolishing not the monarchy, but the autocracy, which his holy brother did not want and could not do.

One of the main articles of the accusation that the Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries brought against the Provisional Government was the postponement of the elections to the Constituent Assembly. Before the premiership of A.F. Kerensky, this accusation was unfounded. Such enterprises take time, moreover, Russia was in a state of war and part of its territory was occupied by the enemy. But Kerensky, who felt comfortable in the position of the ruler of an agonizing state and seriously dreamed of the role of the Russian Bonaparte, saving the Fatherland from final destruction, it is easy to suspect that he deliberately slowed down the elections. The decision of the Provisional Government on the proclamation of Russia as a republic, which was only taken on his initiative, unambiguously speaks of his actual attitude to the expression of the will of the people through the Constituent Assembly, because it was just supposed to be convened to establish the form of government. And after this act, it turned out that, just as the Bolsheviks presented the Constituent Assembly with the fact of the existence of the power of the soviets, which they demanded to recognize and approve, so Kerensky and his comrades wanted the Constituent Assembly to simply vote the usurpation already carried out by them - the unauthorized replacement of the state building.

"If the masses are mistaken with the ballots, they will have to take up another weapon."

Be that as it may, on June 14, 1917, the elections were scheduled for the 17th, and the convocation of the Constituent Assembly on September 30, but on August 9, the Provisional Government, at the initiative of Kerensky, decided to postpone the elections to November 12, and the convocation of the Assembly - to November 28 1917 of the year. The postponement of the elections gave the Bolsheviks another reason to attack the Provisional Government with criticism. How sincere were the leaders of the Bolsheviks in their demands for an early convocation of the Assembly, this should be judged more by their deeds than by their propaganda and polemical statements, but also by some statements. Thus, one of the prominent Bolsheviks V. Volodarsky publicly stated that "the masses in Russia have never suffered from parliamentary cretinism" and "if the masses are mistaken with the ballots, they will have to take up another weapon." And the leader of the Bolsheviks V.I. Lenin, according to the testimony of the chronicler of the revolution N.N. Sukhanov, after his return to Russia from emigration in April 1917, called the Constituent Assembly "a liberal venture."

Church and Constituent Assembly

The question of the Church's attitude to the elections to the Constituent Assembly on September 27 was discussed at the Local Council meeting in Moscow at that time. Some members of the Council, fearing that the Church's self-removal from politics would strengthen the position of extreme radicals, called for the direct participation of church authorities in the election campaign. So, A.V. Vasiliev, chairman of the Sobornaya Rossiya society, said: “To prevent the Constituent Assembly from being non-Russian and non-Christian in its composition, it is necessary for dioceses to compile lists of candidates for election ... persons, and in parishes ... tirelessly invite believers not to evade elections and vote for mentioned list ". His proposal was supported by Count P.N. Apraksin. Professor B.V. Titlinov, later a renovationist, opposed the participation of the Council in the elections, arguing that political speeches violated the church charter of the Council. Prince E.N. Trubetskoy advocated finding the "middle tsarist path." He suggested that the Council "address with an appeal to the people, not relying on any political party, and definitely say that people who are devoted to the Church and the Motherland should be elected."

We stopped at this decision. On October 4, the Local Council addressed the All-Russian flock with a message:

“This is not the first time in our history that the temple of state existence has collapsed, and the Motherland is beset by disastrous turmoil ... The power of the state is not created by the irreconcilability of parties and class discord, the wounds from a serious war and pernicious discord are not healed ... 12: 25) ... May our people overcome in themselves, the spirit of wickedness and hatred that grips them, and then with a united effort he will easily and lightly accomplish his state work. Dry bones will gather and be clothed with flesh and come to life at the command of the Spirit ... In the Motherland the holy land is seen ... Let the bearers of faith be called to heal her illnesses. "

Elections and their results

After the fall of the Provisional Government, the opponents of the Bolsheviks pinned the hope that the Constituent Assembly would remove them from power, therefore, from various political parties there were demands for the immediate holding of elections. On the one hand, there seemed to be no reason for concern on this score. A day after the proclamation of the power of the Soviets, on October 27, 1917, the Council of People's Commissars issued a resolution to hold elections on the date previously set by the Provisional Government - November 12, 1917, but on the other hand, since the peasants, who made up 80 percent of the country's population, mostly followed the Social Revolutionaries, the Bolshevik leaders were worried about the prospect of defeat in these elections. On November 20, at the plenum of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) I.V. Stalin proposed to postpone the convocation of the Constituent Assembly to a later date. A more radical initiative was put forward by L.D. Trotsky and N.I. Bukharin. They spoke in favor of convening a revolutionary convention from the Bolshevik and Left Socialist-Revolutionary factions of the Assembly, so that this convention would replace the Constituent Assembly itself. But the more moderate members of the Bolshevik Central Committee, L.B. Kamenev and A.I. Rykov, V.P. Milyutin opposed the plan for such a usurpation, and at that time their position prevailed.

The fundamental difference between the elections to the Constituent Assembly and the procedure for the formation of the State Duma and the Soviets, which was abolished by the Kerensky government, lay in their universality: the State Duma deputies were elected in the order of class representation, so that the votes of voters were not equal, and the deputies of the councils were elected, as their names, from workers', soldiers' and peasants' curiae, with the non-participation in the elections of persons belonging to the propertied, or, as they were then called, qualification classes, which, of course, did not prevent people from the nobility, such as Kerensky, Tsereteli, Bukharin, Lunacharsky, Kollontai, or from the bourgeoisie, like Trotsky or Uritsky, to become the workers' chosen ones, for this it was required, however, to join parties that declared their commitment to protecting the interests of workers or peasants.

All adult citizens of Russia had the right to elect deputies to the Constituent Assembly. But voting was carried out according to party lists, and the right-wing parties were banned by the Provisional Government, so their supporters, in a significant majority, did not want to participate in the elections, only a few of them decided to vote for the "lesser evil", which they saw as the Cadets, who turned out to be by that time on the right flank of the legal political spectrum.

Less than half of the citizens eligible to vote took part in the elections, which took place as scheduled. Basically, their results were expected. 715 deputies were elected. The Social Revolutionaries won the victory, having received 370 mandates. 40 deputies made up the faction of the Left SRs headed by Spiridonova and Natanson, who finally formalized their break with the party of Savinkov, Kerensky and Chernov on the very eve of the elections and therefore faced difficulties in forming their electoral list, because of which their electoral results were inferior to the popularity of the party in peasant and soldier environment.

The Social Revolutionaries won the elections to the Constituent Assembly, receiving 370 seats; the Bolsheviks had 175 seats

The Bolsheviks received 175 seats in the Constituent Assembly, making up the second largest faction in it. The Cadets, who received 17 mandates, and the Mensheviks with their faction of 15 people, mainly representing voters from Georgia, suffered a catastrophic defeat in the elections. Only the exotic party of People's Socialists got fewer seats - 2 deputies. 86 mandates were received by deputies from national and regional parties.

The distribution of votes cast for different parties, however, was different in the capitals and in the army. In Petrograd, about 1 million people voted - significantly more than half of the voters - and 45% of them cast their votes to the Bolsheviks, the Socialist-Revolutionaries took only third place with their 17%, yielding second to the Cadets, who received 27% of the vote in the imperial capital, unlike the picture of his crushing defeat in peasant Russia. In Moscow, the Bolsheviks were also in first place, having received almost half of the votes. More than a third of the votes were cast for the Cadets, so the Social Revolutionaries lost in the capital of the capital too. Thus, the polarization of political sentiments in the capitals was more acute than in the country: the moderate element there consolidated around the Cadet Party, which in the civil war that unfolded soon represented the political face of the White armies. The Bolsheviks emerged victorious from the elections on the Western and Northern Fronts and in the Baltic Fleet.

In the "clash of will and interests"

The ongoing war, disruption of transport and other difficulties inevitable in a country engulfed in turmoil did not allow all the deputies to arrive in the capital on time. By the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of November 26, it was decided to consider the quorum necessary for the opening of the Constituent Assembly, the presence of at least 400 elected deputies.

Foreseeing the likely obstruction of the decrees of the Second Congress of Soviets by the Constituent Assembly, the Bolshevik Council of People's Commissars took preventive measures in the event of a collision with the Constituent Assembly. On November 29, he banned "private meetings" of deputies of the Constituent Assembly. In response to this action, the Social Revolutionaries formed the "Union for the Defense of the Constituent Assembly."

IN AND. Lenin: "The interests of the revolution are above the formal rights of the Constituent Assembly"

At a meeting of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party, a new bureau of the Bolshevik faction of the Constituent Assembly was formed. The opponents of its dispersal were removed from it. The next day, Lenin drew up the "Theses on the Constituent Assembly", which stated that "convened according to the lists of parties that existed before the proletarian-peasant revolution, in an atmosphere of bourgeois domination," it "inevitably comes into conflict with the will and interests of the working and exploited classes. , who began on October 25 the socialist revolution against the bourgeoisie. Naturally, the interests of this revolution are above the formal rights of the Constituent Assembly ... Any attempt, direct or indirect, to consider the question of the Constituent Assembly from the formal legal point of view, within the framework of ordinary bourgeois democracy, without taking into account the class struggle and civil war, is a betrayal of the cause of the proletariat and a transition to the point of view of the bourgeoisie. " The Social Revolutionaries energetically campaigned for the slogan "All power to the Constituent Assembly", and one of the leaders of the Bolsheviks G.E. Zinoviev then declared that "this slogan means 'Down with the Soviets'."

The situation in the country was heating up. On December 23, martial law was declared in Petrograd. Socialist-Revolutionary circles discussed the possibility of physically eliminating the Bolshevik leaders Lenin and Trotsky. But the prospect of an inevitable civil war in this case with negligible chances of success frightened the Socialist-Revolutionary leadership, and the idea of ​​resorting to the practice of terror so familiar to the Socialist-Revolutionaries was rejected.

On January 1, 1918, the first and unsuccessful attempt on Lenin's life was committed, but its likely organizer was not the Socialist-Revolutionaries, but the cadet N.V. Nekrasov, who, however, later collaborated with the Soviet regime. On January 3, a meeting of the Central Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party took place. It raised the question of the armed overthrow of the power of the Soviets, but such a proposal was not accepted: there were units in the capital that supported the Socialist-Revolutionaries, and among them the Semenovsky and Preobrazhensky regiments, but the soldiers' councils of other regiments of the Petrograd garrison followed the Bolsheviks. The reason for this was that after the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II, the soldiers no longer saw the point in continuing the war. The slogan proclaimed by Lenin "Let's turn the war of peoples into a civil war" was addressed to European social democracy and was not widely known among the soldiers, but his call for an immediate conclusion of peace, which constituted the quintessence of Bolshevik propaganda, was more attractive to soldiers than "revolutionary defencism "SRs. Realizing this, the Socialist-Revolutionary Central Committee limited itself to making a decision on the opening day of the Constituent Assembly on January 5 to hold a peaceful demonstration in support of it.

In response, the Bolshevik Pravda on the same day published a resolution of the Cheka signed by a member of the collegium of this institution, Uritsky, who prohibited demonstrations and rallies in the territory adjacent to the Tauride Palace. Fulfilling this decree, the regiment of Latvian riflemen and the Lithuanian regiment occupied the approaches to the palace. On January 5, in Petrograd, supporters of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Cadets staged demonstrations in support of the Constituent Assembly. There is extremely contradictory information about the number of their participants: from 10 to 100 thousand people. These demonstrations were dispersed by Latvian riflemen and soldiers of the Lithuanian regiment. At the same time, according to the information published the next day in Izvestia of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, 21 people died. On the same day, a similar demonstration took place in Moscow, but there, as in the November days during the seizure of power by the Bolshevik Soviet, this event entailed great bloodshed. The Socialist-Revolutionaries and cadets put up armed resistance to the soldiers who were dispersing them. The exchange of fire continued throughout the day, with 50 casualties on both sides and more than 200 injured.

First day of meetings

On the morning of January 5 (18), 410 deputies arrived at the Tauride Palace. At the suggestion of the Bolshevik Skvortsov-Stepanov, the deputies sang "Internationale". Only the Cadets and a part of the representatives of the national factions abstained from singing, so that the vast majority of the Assembly - the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, the Right and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries - with this singing announced to the country and the world both the "boiling" of their "indignant mind" and the decisive intention to "tear apart" (This is exactly what was the first edition of the Russian translation instead of the later "we will destroy") "to the ground" the old world of "violence" and build a "new world" in which "whoever was nothing, he will become everything." The dispute was only about who was to destroy the old world and build a new one - the parties of revolutionary terrorists (Socialist-Revolutionaries) or the Bolsheviks.

The meeting of the Constituent Assembly was opened by the Bolshevik Ya.M. Sverdlov, who served as chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. In his speech, he expressed hope for "full recognition by the Constituent Assembly of all decrees and decisions of the Council of People's Commissars" and proposed to accept the letter written by V.I. Lenin's draft "Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People", in which the form of government in Russia was designated as "the republic of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies." The draft also reproduced the main provisions of the resolution adopted by the Second Congress of Soviets on peace, on agrarian reform and workers' control at enterprises.

Left SRs and Bolsheviks proposed to elect M.A. Spiridonov. 153 deputies voted for it. By a majority of 244 votes, V.M. Chernov.

On the first and last day of meetings of the Assembly, the Socialist-Revolutionaries V.M. Chernov, V.M. Zenzinov, I.I. Bunakov-Fondaminsky (who later converted to Orthodoxy, died in Auschwitz and canonized by the Patriarchate of Constantinople), the Left Social Revolutionaries I.Z. Steinberg, V.A. Karelin, A.S. Severov-Odoevsky, the Bolsheviks N.I. Bukharin, P.E. Dybenko, F.F. Raskolnikov, Menshevik I.G. Tsereteli.

The meeting did not end at nightfall. At 3 o'clock on January 6, after the Socialist-Revolutionary and Cadet factions of the Constituent Assembly, together with the minor factions, finally refused to consider the draft "Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People" drawn up by Lenin, to which all power in the country was transferred to the Soviets, Raskolnikov, on behalf of the Bolshevik faction, declared : "Not wanting to cover up for a minute the crimes of the enemies of the people, we ... are leaving the Constituent Assembly," and the Bolsheviks left the Tauride Palace. Their example was followed at 4 o'clock in the morning by the Left SR faction. Its representative, Karelin, took the floor and said: "The Constituent Assembly is by no means a reflection of the mood and will of the working masses ... We are going to bring our forces, our energy to Soviet institutions."

The Constituent Assembly proclaimed Russia a federal democratic republic

As a result of obstruction by two factions of the Constituent Assembly, its quorum (400 members) was lost. The deputies who remained in the Tauride Palace under the chairmanship of V.M. Chernov, however, decided to continue the work and, almost without discussion, in a hurry voted for a number of decisions, in terms of their fundamental content, but remaining only on paper. The Constituent Assembly proclaimed Russia a federal democratic republic - two days earlier the Soviet All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided that the Russian Soviet Republic is a federation of Soviet national republics. The Constituent Assembly issued a law on land, in which it was declared public property; according to this law, private ownership of land was abolished and landowners' lands were subject to nationalization. This law had no fundamental differences from the decree of the Second Congress of Soviets "On Land", since the main provisions of the decree followed not the Bolshevik, but the Socialist-Revolutionary agrarian program, which the peasants sympathized with.

The Constituent Assembly also issued a peace proclamation calling on the belligerent powers to begin negotiations to end the war without delay. This appeal also did not have radical differences from the Bolshevik "Decree on Peace": on the one hand, the Socialist-Revolutionaries had long stood for the conclusion of a peace without annexations and indemnities, and on the other, the Bolsheviks, in their demand for an immediate peace, did not speak out directly for surrender, and how This can be seen from the real course of events, the Red Army, created by the Soviet government, before the conclusion of the Brest Treaty, tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to resist the advance of German and Austro-Hungarian troops inland.

Moreover, the Constituent Assembly also advocated the introduction of workers' control at factories and factories, and in this it did not disagree with the position of the Bolsheviks.

And he divided the Bolsheviks, who ruled the soviets, and the Socialist-Revolutionaries, who dominated the Constituent Assembly, by doctrinal differences not yet preserved, but by the question of power. For the Constituent Assembly, the confrontation between the Bolsheviks and the Socialist-Revolutionaries ended with the termination of its meetings.

"The sentry is tired"

At the beginning of 5 o'clock in the morning, the head of the Constituent Assembly's security, anarchist A. Zheleznyakov, received an order from the People's Commissar Dybenko (they were both sailors of the Baltic Fleet) to stop the meeting. Zheleznyakov approached the Chairman of the Assembly Chernov and said to him: "I received instructions to inform you that all those present should leave the meeting room, because the guard is tired." The deputies obeyed this demand, deciding to meet again in the Tauride Palace in the evening of the same day, at 17 o'clock.

When Lenin was informed about the closure of the Constituent Assembly, he suddenly ... laughed. Laughed contagiously, to tears

Bukharin recalled that when Lenin was informed about the closure of the Constituent Assembly, he “asked to repeat something he had said about the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly and suddenly burst out laughing. He laughed for a long time, repeated the words of the narrator to himself and kept laughing, laughing. Fun, contagious, to tears. He laughed. " Trotsky, another leader of the Bolsheviks, later sarcastically: the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Cadets “carefully worked out the ritual of the first meeting. They brought candles with them in case the Bolsheviks put out the electricity, and plenty of sandwiches in case they were deprived of food. So democracy came to fight the dictatorship - fully armed with sandwiches and candles. "

On the morning of January 6, the Bolshevik "Pravda" published an article in which the Constituent Assembly was given, to put it mildly, an overly temperamental characterization, bordering in its bitingness on the marketplace, in the style of the party propaganda of that era:

“Servants of bankers, capitalists and landowners ... slaves of the American dollar, murderers from around the corner, right-wing Socialist-Revolutionaries demand all power in the Constituent Assembly for themselves and their masters - enemies of the people. In words, as if they were joining the people's demands for land, peace and control, in deeds they are trying to overwhelm the noose around the neck of socialist power and revolution. But the workers, peasants and soldiers will not fall for the false words of the worst enemies of socialism, in the name of the socialist revolution and the socialist Soviet republic, they will sweep away all its obvious and hidden murderers. "

On the evening of January 6, the deputies of the Constituent Assembly came to the Tauride Palace with the intention of continuing the debate and saw that its doors were locked, and a guard, armed with machine guns, was stationed near them. The deputies had to disperse to their apartments and hotels, where the visiting members of the Assembly were accommodated. On January 9, 1918, the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, dated on the 6th day, was published.

On January 18 (31), the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree according to which all references to the upcoming Constituent Assembly and to the temporary nature of the Soviet government itself were removed from the acts issued by it. On the same day, a similar decision was adopted by the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets.

This is how the experiment with the Constituent Assembly, on which many politicians were betting, ended with a sudden death.

Komuch and Kolchak

But this institution also had a kind of posthumous history. After the conclusion of the Brest Peace Treaty in Russia, as Lenin predicted, a full-scale civil war began. The Czechoslovak corps, formed from captured Austro-Hungarian soldiers of Czech and Slovak nationalities to participate in hostilities on the side of Russia and the Entente, was subject to disarmament under the terms of the Brest Treaty. But the corps did not obey the corresponding order of the Council of People's Commissars and in the summer of 1918 overthrew the local bodies of Soviet power in the Volga region, in the South Urals and in Siberia, where its units were located. With his support, the so-called Komuch was formed in Samara - the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly, headed by Chernov from those of his deputies who came to Samara. Similar institutions appeared in Omsk, Ufa and some other cities. These committees formed regional interim governments.

A.V. Kolchak: "The dispersal of the Constituent Assembly is the merit of the Bolsheviks, it should be given to them as a plus"

In September, a State meeting of representatives of regional governments was held in Ufa, at which the All-Russian Directory was established, headed by the Socialist-Revolutionary N.D. Avksentiev. The offensive of the Red Army forced the Directory to move to Omsk. In October, Admiral A.V. Kolchak. On November 4, at the insistence of British General Knox and with the support of the cadets, he was appointed Minister of War and Naval Minister in the government of the directory, and two weeks later, on the night of November 18, a military coup was carried out: the head of the directory Avksentiev and its members Zenzinov, Rogovsky and Argunov were arrested and then exiled abroad, and Admiral Kolchak issued an order by which he announced his appointment as the Supreme Ruler of Russia. Several members of the Constituent Assembly, headed by V.M. Chernov, who had gathered at the congress in Yekaterinburg, protested against the coup. In response, A.V. Kolchak issued an order for the immediate arrest of Chernov and other participants in the Yekaterinburg Congress.

The deputies who fled from Yekaterinburg moved to Ufa and there campaigned against the Kolchak dictatorship. On November 30, the Supreme Ruler of Russia ordered the members of the Constituent Assembly to be handed over to a military court "for attempting to raise an uprising and conduct destructive agitation among the troops." On December 2, a detachment under the command of Colonel Kruglevsky arrested 25 deputies of the Constituent Assembly. They were taken to Omsk in a boxcar and thrown into prison there. In an unsuccessful attempt to free them, most of them were killed.

And already as an epilogue to the history of the Constituent Assembly, one can cite the words of Admiral A.V. Kolchak, said in January 1920 during interrogation: "I thought that if the Bolsheviks have few positive sides, then the dispersal of this Constituent Assembly is their merit, that this should be put to them as a plus."

It follows from this whole story with the utmost obviousness that the prospect of the establishment of a liberal regime in Russia in 1917 was absolutely not visible. Of course, the Bolsheviks were not guaranteed victory in the civil war, but the alternatives were either a military dictatorship or the disintegration of the country with the establishment of various forms of government on its ruins. Even the best possible outcome of the turmoil - the restoration of autocratic rule, with its extremely low probability, although at the end of the civil war the masses, but not the politicians, yearned for the lost tsarist power - was nevertheless more real than the establishment of liberal democracy in the country. ...

It would seem that there is no particular reason to regret retrospectively the defeat of the Socialist-Revolutionaries in a fight with another revolutionary party - the Bolsheviks. But from this defeat of theirs follows one and extremely important sad consequence. The party discipline of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, unlike the Social Democrats, did not require them to adhere to Marxism with its atheistic component. Therefore, if we imagine the unrealizable - the assertion of the power of the Constituent Assembly and the Socialist-Revolutionary government formed by it, then the separation of the Church from the state would not have been carried out as hastily as the Bolsheviks did, and the corresponding act would not have been as draconian in nature as the Soviet decree on separation issued immediately after the approval by the Third Congress of Soviets of the Council of People's Commissars' decision to close the Constituent Assembly.

In films about the revolution filmed during the Soviet period, opponents of the Bolsheviks periodically shouted "All power to the Constituent Assembly!" Soviet youth hardly understood what they were talking about, but taking into account who was shouting, they guessed that this was something bad.

With the change in political orientations, part of the Russian youth realizes that the Constituent Assembly is, apparently, "something good, if against the Bolsheviks." Although he still has a hard time understanding what this is about.

How to live after renunciation?

The Russian Constituent Assembly really turned out to be a very strange phenomenon. Much was said and written about it, but it held only one meeting, which did not become fateful for the country.

The question of convening the Constituent Assembly arose immediately after the abdication Emperor Nicholas II and his refusal brother Mikhail Alexandrovich take the crown. Under these conditions, the Constituent Assembly, which is a council of deputies elected by the people, had to answer the main questions - about the state structure, about further participation in the war, about land, etc.

For a start, the provisional government of Russia had to prepare a regulation on the elections, which was to determine those who would be included in the electoral process.

Ballot paper with a list of members of the RSDLP (b). Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Very democratic elections

A special meeting for the preparation of the draft Regulation on elections to the Constituent Assembly was convened only by May. The work on the Regulation was completed in August. The elections were declared general, equal, direct and secret ballot. No property qualification was envisaged - all persons over the age of 20 were allowed. Women also received voting rights, which was a revolutionary decision by the standards of that time.

Work on the documents was in full swing when the Provisional Government decided on the dates. Elections to the Constituent Assembly were to be held on September 17, and the first meeting was scheduled to be convened on September 30.

But the chaos in the country was growing, the situation was getting more complicated and it was not possible to resolve all organizational issues within the established time frame. On August 9, the Provisional Government changes its decision - now the new election date is announced on November 12, 1917, and the first meeting is scheduled for November 28.

A revolution is a revolution, and a scheduled vote

October 25, 1917, the October Revolution took place. The Bolsheviks who came to power, however, did not change anything. On October 27, 1917, the Council of People's Commissars adopted and published signed Lenin resolution to hold it on the appointed date - November 12.

At the same time, it was technically impossible to hold elections simultaneously in all corners of the country. In a number of regions, they were postponed to December and even to January 1918.

The victory of the socialist parties was unconditional. At the same time, the preponderance of the Socialist-Revolutionaries was explained by the fact that they were guided, first of all, by the peasantry - one must not forget that Russia was an agrarian country. Worker-oriented Bolsheviks won in the big cities. It is worth noting that a split occurred in the Socialist-Revolutionary Party - the left wing of the movement became the allies of the Bolsheviks. The Left SRs received 40 mandates in the elections, which ensured their coalition with the Bolsheviks 215 seats in the Constituent Assembly. This moment will subsequently play a decisive role.

Lenin establishes a quorum

The Bolsheviks, who took power, created a government and began to form new state bodies, were not going to give up the levers of state administration to anyone. At first, there was no final decision on how to proceed.

On November 26, the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, Lenin, signed a decree "For the opening of the Constituent Assembly", which required a quorum of 400 people for its opening, and, according to the decree, the Assembly had to be opened by a person authorized by the Council of People's Commissars, that is, a Bolshevik, or, theoretically, a left Socialist-Revolutionary allied to the Bolsheviks.

The Provisional Government, as already mentioned, set the convocation of the Constituent Assembly for November 28, and a number of deputies from among the Right Social Revolutionaries tried to open it on that very day. By that time, only about 300 deputies had been elected, slightly more than half of them were registered, and less than a hundred arrived in Petrograd. Some of the deputies, as well as the former tsarist officials who joined them, tried to hold a rally in support of the Constituent Assembly, which some of the participants viewed as the first meeting. As a result, the participants in the unsanctioned meeting were detained by representatives of the Military Revolutionary Committee.

"The interests of the revolution are above the rights of the Constituent Assembly"

On the same day, a decree of the Council of People's Commissars "On the arrest of the leaders of the civil war against the revolution" was issued, which outlawed the most right-wing party from among those that went to the Constituent Assembly - the Cadets. At the same time, "private meetings" of the deputies of the Constituent Assembly were prohibited.

By mid-December 1917, the Bolsheviks had decided on their position. Lenin wrote: “The Constituent Assembly, convened according to the lists of parties that existed before the proletarian-peasant revolution, under the rule of the bourgeoisie, inevitably comes into conflict with the will and interests of the working people and the exploited classes, which began the socialist revolution against the bourgeoisie on October 25. Naturally, the interests of this revolution are above the formal rights of the Constituent Assembly, even if these formal rights were not undermined by the lack of recognition in the law on the Constituent Assembly of the right of the people to re-elect their deputies at any time. "

The Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries were not going to transfer any power to the Constituent Assembly, and they intended to deprive it of legitimacy.

Shooting demonstrations

At the same time, on December 20, the Council of People's Commissars decided to open the work of the Constituent Assembly on January 5.

The Bolsheviks knew that their opponents were preparing to take political revenge. The Central Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party considered the option of an armed uprising in early January 1918. Few believed that the case could end in peace.

At the same time, some of the deputies believed that the main thing was to open a meeting of the Constituent Assembly, after which the support of the international community would force the Bolsheviks to retreat.

Leon Trotsky in this regard, he spoke rather caustically: “They carefully worked out the ritual of the first meeting. They brought candles with them in case the Bolsheviks put out the electricity, and plenty of sandwiches in case they were deprived of food. So democracy came to fight the dictatorship - fully armed with sandwiches and candles. "

On the eve of the opening of the Constituent Assembly, Social Revolutionaries and other oppositionists planned demonstrations in Petrograd and Moscow in support of it. It was clear that the actions would not be peaceful, since the opponents of the Bolsheviks had enough weapons in both capitals.

Demonstrations took place on January 3 in Petrograd and January 5 in Moscow. And there, and there they ended with shooting and casualties. In Petrograd, about 20 people died, in Moscow - about 50, and the victims were from both sides.

"Declaration" of discord

Despite this, on January 5, 1918, the Constituent Assembly began its work in the Tauride Palace of Petrograd. There were 410 deputies present, so there was a quorum for making decisions. Of those who were at the meeting, 155 people represented the Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries.

Opened the meeting on behalf of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Bolshevik Yakov Sverdlov... In his speech, he expressed hope for "the full recognition by the Constituent Assembly of all decrees and decisions of the Council of People's Commissars." The draft "Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People" was presented to the Constituent Assembly for approval.

Photo of a single meeting. VI Lenin in the box of the Tauride Palace at a meeting of the Constituent Assembly. 1918, January 5 (18). Petrograd. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

This document was a constitutional act that proclaimed the basic principles of a socialist state according to the Bolsheviks. The "Declaration" has already been approved by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and its adoption by the Constituent Assembly would mean recognition of the October Revolution and all subsequent steps of the Bolsheviks.

Was elected chairman of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly Socialist-Revolutionary Viktor Chernov, for which 244 votes were cast.

"We are leaving"

But in fact, this was already just a formality - the Bolsheviks, after refusing to consider the "Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People", switched to a different form of action.

Deputy Fyodor Raskolnikov announced that the Bolshevik faction was leaving the meeting in protest against the rejection of the "Declaration": parts of the Constituent Assembly ".

After about half an hour Deputy from the Left Social Revolutionaries Vladimir Karelin announced that his faction is leaving after the allies: “The Constituent Assembly is by no means a reflection of the mood and will of the working masses ... We are leaving, we are leaving this Assembly ... We are going in order to bring our strength, our energy to Soviet institutions, to the Central Executive Committee. "

The term "dispersal of the Constituent Assembly" in view of the departure of the Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries is inaccurate. 255 deputies remained in the hall, that is, 35.7 percent of the total number of the Constituent Assembly. Due to the lack of a quorum, the meeting lost its legitimacy, like all documents it adopted.

Anatoly Zheleznyakov. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

"The guard is tired and wants to sleep ..."

Nevertheless, the Constituent Assembly continued its work. Lenin ordered not to interfere with the remaining deputies. But at five o'clock in the morning, patience snapped head of the security of the Tauride Palace Anatoly Zheleznyakov, better known as "Sailor Zheleznyak".

There are several versions of the birth of a historical phrase known to everyone today. According to one of them, Zheleznyakov addressed the presiding officer Chernov and said: “I ask you to stop the meeting! The guard is tired and wants to sleep ... "

Confused Chernov tried to object, and exclamations were heard from the audience: "We do not need a guard!"

Zheleznyakov snapped: “The working people do not need your chatter. I repeat: the guard is tired! "

However, there was no particular bickering. The deputies themselves were tired, therefore they began to gradually disperse.

The palace is closed, there will be no meeting

The next meeting was scheduled for 17:00 on January 6th. However, the deputies, approaching the Tauride Palace, found armed guards near it, who announced that the meeting would not take place.

On January 9, a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly was published. By the decision of the Council of People's Commissars, references to the Constituent Assembly were removed from all decrees and other official documents. On January 10, in the same Tauride Palace of Petrograd, the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets began its work, which became the Bolshevik alternative to the Constituent Assembly. At the Congress of Soviets, a decree on the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly was approved.

The situation in the Tauride Palace after the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly. Photo: RIA Novosti / Steinberg

A short story of Komuch: Kolchak dispersed the members of the Constituent Assembly for the second time

For some of the participants in the White movement, including those who were not elected to the Constituent Assembly, the demand for the resumption of its work became the slogan of the armed struggle.

On June 8, 1918, the Komuch (Committee of Members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly) was formed in Samara, declaring itself the All-Russian government in defiance of the Bolsheviks. The People's Army of Komuch was formed, one of the commanders of which was the notorious General Vladimir Kappel.

Komuch managed to take control of a significant territory of the country. On September 23, 1918, Komuch merged with the Provisional Siberian Government. This happened at the State meeting in Ufa, as a result of which the so-called "Ufa Directory" was created.

It was difficult to call this government stable. The politicians who created Komuch were Socialist-Revolutionaries, while the military who made up the main force of the Directory were far more right-wing.

An end to this alliance was put by a military coup on the night of November 17-18, 1918, during which the Social Revolutionaries who were part of the government were arrested, and Admiral Kolchak came to power.

In November, about 25 former deputies of the Constituent Assembly, by order of Kolchak, were put on trial by military court "for attempting to raise an uprising and conduct destructive agitation among the troops." They were imprisoned, and later some of them were killed by Black Hundred officers.

Of course, everyone knows the date January 9 (22), 1905 - the so-called bloody Sunday.
In the meantime, about another date, famous, but not as good as we would like.

Few people know that there is also bloody friday 5 (18) January 1918... How much information can you find about her? Unfortunately, not much, but still there is some information. It is unlikely that we will know how many died that day, but he laid the prologue to the civil war that claimed millions of lives. History has no subjunctive mood. But still there will be disputes: what if?

The origins of the behavior of the authorities in October 1993 go back to January 1918. The ideology has changed, but the methods are the same. And no one is surprised that over the 75 years that have passed from January 1918 to October 1993, nothing has changed? Maybe we should remember the events of 1918 and look at these events in some other way? What did the coup in 1993 deprive us and what did the coup in 1918 deprive us of? - We were deprived of the normal evolutionary path - through disputes and discussions - and terror and dictatorship prevailed in the country, their goals, of course, are different, but the methods are the same.

“The peaceful demonstration held in Petrograd on January 5, 1918 in support of the Constituent Assembly was shot by the Red Guard. The execution took place at the corner of Nevsky and Liteiny Prospekt and in the area of ​​Kirochnaya Street. The main column of up to 60 thousand people was scattered, but other columns of demonstrators reached the Tauride Palace and were dispersed only after the approach of additional troops. The dispersal of the demonstration was led by a special headquarters headed by V.I. Lenin, Ya.M. Sverdlov, N.I. Podvoisky, M.S. Uritsky, V.D. Bonch-Bruevich. According to various estimates, the death toll ranged from 7 to 100 people. The demonstrators mainly consisted of representatives of the intelligentsia, employees and university students. At the same time, a significant number of workers took part in the demonstration. The demonstration was accompanied by Socialist-Revolutionary warriors who did not offer serious resistance to the Red Guards. According to the testimony of the former Socialist-Revolutionary V.K. Dzerul, “all the demonstrators, including the PK, walked unarmed, and there was even an order from the PK on the districts so that no one took weapons with them ”.

The trial of the socialist revolutionaries (June-August 1922). Preparation. Carrying out. Results. Collection of documents / Comp. S.A. Krasilnikov., K. N. Morozov, I. V. Chubykin. -M .: ROSSPEN, 2002.

Maxim Gorky, "New Life" (January 9, 1918): "On January 5, 1918, the unarmed St. Petersburg democracy - workers, office workers - peacefully manifested in honor of the Constituent Assembly ... "Pravda" lies when she writes that the manifestation on January 5 was organized by the bourgeoisie, bankers, etc. It was the "bourgeois" and "Kaledinites" who went to the Tauride Palace. “Pravda” is lying - it knows perfectly well that the “bourgeois” have nothing to rejoice at about the opening of the Constituent Assembly, they have nothing to do among 246 socialists of one party and 140 - Bolsheviks. Pravda knows that workers from Obukhovsky, Patronny and other factories took part in the demonstration, that workers from Vasileostrovsky, Vyborgsky and other districts were marching to the Tauride Palace under the red banners of the Russian Social Democratic Party. It was these workers who were shot, and no matter how much Pravda lied, it would not hide the shameful fact ... So, on January 5, unarmed workers of Petrograd were shot. They shot without warning that they would shoot, shot from ambushes, through the cracks of fences, cowardly, like real killers ".

Sokolov, member of the Constituent Assembly, Socialist-Revolutionary: "... The people in Petrograd were opposed to the Bolsheviks, but we were unable to lead this anti-Bolshevik movement ".

ELECTIONS TO THE "ESTABLISHMENT"

The convocation of the Constituent Assembly as the organ of the supreme democratic power was a demand of all socialist parties in pre-revolutionary Russia - from the People's Socialists to the Bolsheviks. Elections to the Constituent Assembly took place at the end of 1917. The overwhelming majority of voters who participated in the elections, about 90%, voted for the socialist parties, the socialists accounted for 90% of all deputies (the Bolsheviks received only 24% of the votes). But the Bolsheviks came to power under the slogan "All power to the Soviets!" They could maintain their autocracy, obtained at the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, only relying on the Soviets, opposing them to the Constituent Assembly. At the Second Congress of Soviets, the Bolsheviks promised to convene the Constituent Assembly and recognize it as the power on which "the solution of all major issues depends," but they did not intend to fulfill this promise. On December 3, at the congress of Soviets of Peasants' Deputies, Lenin, despite the protest of a number of delegates, declared: “The Soviets are above any parliaments, any Constituent Assembly. The Bolshevik Party has always said that the supreme body is the Soviets. " The Bolsheviks considered the Constituent Assembly their main rival in the struggle for power. Immediately after the elections, Lenin warned that the Constituent Assembly "would condemn itself to political death" if it opposed Soviet power.

Lenin used a bitter struggle within the Socialist-Revolutionary Party and entered into a political bloc with the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries. Despite disagreements with them on issues of a multi-party system and the dictatorship of the proletariat, a separate peace, freedom of the press, the Bolsheviks received the support they needed to stay in power. The Central Committee of the Social Revolutionaries, believing in the unconditional prestige and invulnerability of the Constituent Assembly, did not take real steps to protect it.

Encyclopedia "Krugosvet"

FIRST AND LAST MEETING

The positions were determined. Circumstances forced the Socialist-Revolutionary faction. play a leading and leading role. This was due to the numerical superiority of the faction. This was also caused by the fact that the members of the Constituent Assembly of a more moderate persuasion, elected among 64, did not dare, with a few exceptions, to appear at the meeting. The cadets were officially recognized as "enemies of the people" and some of them were imprisoned.

Our faction was also, in a sense, beheaded. Avksentiev was still in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Kerensky was also absent, on whom the Bolshevik slander and rage were mainly concentrated. He was sought everywhere and everywhere, night and day. He was in Petrograd, and it took a lot of effort to convince him to abandon the crazy idea of ​​coming to the Tauride Palace to declare that he was resigning power before the legally elected and plenipotentiary assembly. Recklessly, the brave Gotz nevertheless appeared at the meeting, despite the arrest warrant for participating in the cadet uprising. Guarded by close friends, he was constrained even in movement and could not be active. Such was the position of Rudnev, who headed Moscow's broken resistance to the Bolshevik seizure of power. And V.M. Chernov, who had been designated as chairman of the meeting, thereby also dropped out of the list of possible leaders of the faction. There was not a single person to whom the leadership could be entrusted. And the faction entrusted its political fate and honor to a collective of five: V.V. Rudnev, M.Ya. Gendelman, E.M. Timofeev, I.N.Kovarsky and A.B. Elyashevich.<...>

Chernov's candidacy for chairperson was opposed to Spiridonova's candidacy. During the ballot, Chernov received 244 white balls against 151 black balls. Upon the announcement of the results, Chernov took the monumental chair of the chairman on the stage, which towered over the oratory. There was a great distance between him and the hall. And the welcoming, fundamental speech of the chairman not only did not overcome the resulting "dead space" - it even increased the distance separating him from the meeting. In the most "shock" parts of Chernov's speech, a clear chill ran through the right sector. The speech caused dissatisfaction among the leaders of the faction and an innocent misunderstanding of this dissatisfaction on the part of the orator himself.<...>

Long and agonizing hours passed before the meeting was freed from the hostile factions that hindered its work. The electricity has been on for a long time. The tense atmosphere of the military camp was growing and was looking for a way out. From my chair as a secretary on the rostrum, I saw how the armed people, after the Bolsheviks left, more and more often began to throw up their rifles and take those on the rostrum or those sitting in the hall "to the gun". O.S. Minora's gleaming bald head was an attractive target for soldiers and sailors who whiled away the time. Shotguns and revolvers threatened to discharge themselves every minute, hand bombs and grenades to explode on their own.<...>

Coming down from the platform, I went to see what was going on in the choir. In the semicircular hall, grenades and ammunition bags are stacked in the corners, and rifles are drawn up. Not a hall, but a camp. The Constituent Assembly is not surrounded by enemies, it is in the enemy camp, in the very lair of the beast. Some groups continue to "hold meetings" and argue. Some of the deputies are trying to convince the soldiers of the rightness of the assembly and the crime of the Bolsheviks. Sweeps:

And a bullet for Lenin if he deceives him!

The room reserved for our faction has already been taken over by the sailors. The commandant's office helpfully informs that it does not guarantee the immunity of the deputies - they may be shot at the very session. Longing and grief are aggravated by the consciousness of complete powerlessness. Sacrificial readiness finds no way out for itself. What they are doing, let them do it as soon as possible!

In the meeting hall, the sailors and the Red Army men have finally ceased to be shy. They jump over the barriers of the boxes, click the bolts of the rifles on the move, rush into the choir in a whirlwind. Of the Bolshevik faction, only the more prominent left the Tauride Palace. The lesser known have just moved from the delegates' seats to the choirs and aisles of the hall, and from there they observe and give remarks. The audience in the choir is in alarm, almost in panic. Local deputies are motionless, tragically silent. We are isolated from the world, as the Tauride Palace is isolated from Petrograd and Petrograd from Russia. There is a noise all around, but we are, as if in the desert, given over to the will of the triumphant enemy, so that we can drink a bitter cup for the people and for Russia.

They say that carriages and cars have been sent to the Tauride Palace to take the arrested people away. There was even something reassuring about it - after all, a certain certainty. Someone begins to hastily destroy incriminating documents. We pass on something to our loved ones - in the public and in the box of journalists. Among the documents, the "Report to the All-Russian Constituent Assembly of the members of the Provisional Government" who were at large was also handed over. The prison carriages, however, do not arrive. New rumor - electricity will be turned off. A few minutes later, A.N.Sletova had already obtained dozens of candles.

It was five in the morning. The prepared land law was announced and voted on. An unknown sailor ascended to the podium - one of many who loitered all day and night in the lobbies and aisles. Approaching the chair of the chairman, busy with the voting procedure, the sailor stood for some time as if in thought and, seeing that they were not paying attention to him, decided that the hour had come to "go down in history." The owner of the now famous name, Zheleznyakov, touched the chairman by the sleeve and said that, according to the instructions he received from the commissar (Dybenka), those present should leave the hall.

An altercation began between VM Chernov, who insisted that "the Constituent Assembly can only disperse if force is used," and the "citizen sailor" who demanded that "they immediately leave the meeting room." The real power, alas, was on the side of the anarchist-communist, and it was not Viktor Chernov that won, but Anatoly Zheleznyakov.

We quickly hear a number of extraordinary statements and, in a hurry, adopt the first ten articles of the basic law on land, an appeal to the allied powers rejecting separate negotiations with the central powers, and a decree on the federal structure of the Russian democratic republic. At 4 hours 40 minutes. in the morning the first meeting of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly is closed.

M. Vishnyak. Convocation and dispersal of the Constituent Assembly // October Revolution. The 1917 revolution through the eyes of its leaders. Memoirs of Russian politicians and a commentary by a Western historian. M., 1991.

"CARAUL IS TIRED"

Citizen sailor. I received instructions to inform you that everyone present should leave the meeting room because the guard is tired. (Voices: we don't need a guard.)

Chairman. What instruction? From whom?

Citizen sailor. I am the head of the guard at the Tauride Palace and have instructions from the commissar Dybenka.

Chairman. All the members of the Constituent Assembly are also very tired, but no amount of fatigue can interrupt the promulgation of the land law that Russia is waiting for. (A terrible noise. Shouts: Enough! Enough!) The Constituent Assembly can disperse only if force is used. (Noise. Voices: Down with Chernov.)

Citizen sailor. (Inaudible) ... I ask you to leave the meeting room immediately.

Chairman. The Ukrainian faction is asking for the floor on this issue that suddenly burst into our meeting for an extraordinary statement ...

I.V. Streltsov. I have the honor to make an extraordinary statement on behalf of a group of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party. Ukrainians of the following content: standing on the point of view of resolving the question of peace and land, as it is resolved by all the working peasantry, workers and soldiers, and as it is set forth in the declaration of the Central Executive Committee, the group of left-wing Socialist-Revolutionaries. Ukrainians, however, taking into account the situation that has arisen, subscribes to the declaration of the party of Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionaries, with all the ensuing consequences. (Applause.)

Chairman. The following proposal has been made. To end the meeting of this Meeting by adopting the read part of the basic law on land without debate, and transfer the rest to the commission for submission within seven days. (A ballot.) The proposal was accepted. A proposal has been made to abolish roll-call voting in view of the current situation to conduct an open vote. (A ballot.) Accepted. The announced main provisions of the land law are put to the vote. (A ballot.) So, citizens, members of the Constituent Assembly, you have accepted the main provisions, announced by me, on the land question.

There is a proposal to elect a land commission, which would consider all the remaining unpublished clauses of the land law within seven days. (A ballot.) Accepted. (Can't hear ... Noise.) Proposals have been made to adopt the announced statements: an appeal to the allies, to convene an international socialist peace conference, to accept by the Constituent Assembly peace negotiations with the belligerent powers and to elect a plenipotentiary delegation. (Is reading.)

"In the name of the peoples of the Russian Republic, the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, expressing the unyielding will of the people to immediately end the war and conclude a just universal peace," appeals to the powers allied with Russia with a proposal to begin jointly determining the exact conditions for a democratic peace acceptable to all the belligerent peoples in order to present these conditions on behalf of the entire coalition to states waging a war with the Russian Republic and its allies.

The Constituent Assembly is filled with unshakable confidence that the desire of the peoples of Russia to end the destructive war will meet with a unanimous response in the peoples and governments of the allied states and that by joint efforts a speedy peace will be achieved that will ensure the good and dignity of all the belligerent peoples.

Expressing on behalf of the peoples of Russia regret that the negotiations with Germany begun without a preliminary agreement with the union democracies acquired the character of negotiations on a separate peace, the Constituent Assembly, in the name of the peoples of the Russian Federal Republic, continuing the established truce, takes upon itself the further negotiations with the powers at war with us, so that, defending the interests of Russia, to achieve, in accordance with the will of the people, universal democratic peace "

"The Constituent Assembly declares that it will render every possible assistance to the initiatives of the socialist parties of the Russian Republic in the matter of the immediate convocation of an international socialist conference in order to achieve universal democratic peace."

"The Constituent Assembly decides to elect from among its members a plenipotentiary delegation to negotiate with representatives of the Allied Powers and to present them with an appeal for joint clarification of the conditions for an early end to the war, as well as to implement the decision of the Constituent Assembly on the issue of peace negotiations with the powers waging a war against us. ...

This delegation has the authority, under the leadership of the Constituent Assembly, to immediately begin to fulfill the duties entrusted to it. "

The delegation is proposed to elect representatives of various factions on a proportional basis.

(A ballot.) So, all the proposals have been accepted. A proposal has been made to adopt the following resolution on the state structure of Russia:

"In the name of the peoples, the state of the Russian constituent, the All-Russian Constituent Assembly decides: the Russian state is proclaimed the Russian Democratic Federal Republic, uniting in an indissoluble union the peoples and regions within the limits established by the federal constitution, sovereign."

(A ballot.) Accepted. (It is proposed to schedule the next meeting of the Constituent Assembly for tomorrow at 12 noon. There is another proposal - to schedule a meeting not at 12 noon, but 5 o'clock. (Voting.) For - 12, minority. So, tomorrow the meeting is scheduled for 5 pm (Voices: today.) My attention is drawn to the fact that it will be today. So today the meeting of the Constituent Assembly is announced closed, and the next meeting is scheduled for today at 5 pm.

From the transcript of the meeting of the Constituent Assembly

DECREE OF THE VTSIK ON THE DISSOLUTION OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

The Constituent Assembly, elected from the lists drawn up before the October Revolution, was an expression of the old correlation of political forces, when the Compromisers and the Cadets were in power.

The people could not then, voting for the candidates of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, make a choice between the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, supporters of the bourgeoisie, and the Left, supporters of socialism. Thus, this Constituent Assembly, which was supposed to be the crown of the bourgeois parliamentary republic, could not but stand in the way of the October Revolution and Soviet power. The October Revolution, having given power to the Soviets and through the Soviets to the working and exploited classes, evoked desperate resistance from the exploiters and in the suppression of this resistance fully revealed itself as the beginning of the socialist revolution.

The working classes had to be convinced by experience that the old bourgeois parliamentarism outlived itself, that it is completely incompatible with the tasks of realizing socialism, that not national, but only class institutions (such as the Soviets) are able to defeat the resistance of the possessing classes and lay the foundations of a socialist society.