Part 1. The Defeat of the Moderates
Forming a Government
The severe setback that Bolshevik moderates suffered at the opening session of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets did not end their efforts, or those of other left socialist groups, to form a multiparty, homogeneous socialist government at the Soviet Congress and in its immediate aftermath. During these days, they sought to restore the movement toward creation of a broad socialist coalition that had been destroyed by the violent overthrow of the Provisional Government engineered by Lenin just before the opening of the Congress of Soviets. When that failed, they strived mightily to ensure that the exclusively Bolshevik cabinet ultimately…
Rebels into Rulers
The collapse of efforts to broaden the Sovnarkom or even make it accountable to the multiparty CEC, coupled with the unwillingness of all Russian political groups, except for the Bolsheviks and Left SRs, to recognize the legitimacy of Soviet power, meant that in the wake of the October revolution the Bolsheviks bore exclusive responsibility for maintaining order and providing municipal services, and food and fuel, to Petrograd and the surrounding region. In proclaiming the transfer of all government power in Russia to the soviets and rejecting broad political alliances, Lenin and Trotsky were not particularly concerned with the practical implications…
Gathering Forces
In December 1917, in spite of tension between hard-line Bolshevik policies and Left SR ideals reflected in conflict over repression of the Kadets and the structural relationship between the Sovnarkom and the CEC, the Left SRs agreed to accept posts in the Sovnarkom. Contrary to accepted wisdom, directly connected to this development was the founding of one of the pillars of early Soviet repression, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counterrevolution, Speculation, and Sabotage (VCheka).
According to traditional interpretations of the creation of the VCheka, by the first week of December 1917 the MRC, recognizing that its mission of seizing…
The Fate of the Constituent Assembly
The day had arrived, 5 January 1918, that was to mark the end of efforts to establish a Western-style, multiparty democratic system in Russia for most of the twentieth century. The Constituent Assembly was scheduled to convene at 1:00 pm. According to plans developed and widely circulated by the UDCA, participants in its mass demonstration were to gather at nine assembly points during the morning. From there, they were to march to the communal grave on to the Field of Mars, merge into one grand procession, proceed to the Taurida Palace, march by its vast, snow-covered gardens without stopping, and…