Various Press Accounts, Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly. January 19, 1918

[Meeting of January 19, 1918]

Novaia Zhizn, No. 6, January 22, 1918, p. 4.

Sverdlov opened the session with the statement that the Sovnarkom had introduced a decree to dissolve the Constituent Assembly and a proposal to include the Socialist-Revolutionaries of the Left and the Bolshevik members of the Constituent Assembly in the Central Executive Committee ...

Greeted by applause from the majority in the hall and cries of "Dictator" from the Left, Lenin began his two-hour speech defending the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly.

[Lenin's Speech]

Izvestiia, No. 5, January 20, 1918, p. 4.

Comrades! The collision between the Soviet Government and the Constituent Assembly has been prepared by the entire history of the Russian Revolution, which has been confronted with the unheard-of task of a socialist reconstruction of society. After the events of 1905 there was no longer any doubt that tsarism was doomed, and that it succeeded in rescuing itself from the abyss only through the backwardness and ignorance of the village. The revolution of 1917 has caused, on the one hand, the transformation of the bourgeois-imperialist party, which tinder the pressure of events became a republican party, and, on the other hand, the emergence of democratic organizations, Soviets, dating from 1905. Even at that early date Socialists understood that by organizing those Soviets something great would be created, something new and unprecedented in the history of the world revolution. The Soviets, which the people themselves created, are a form of democracy of which there is no equal in any other country ... When I hear the opponents of the November Revolution shouting about the unpractical and utopian ideas of socialism, I usually ask them a simple and plain question: How about the Soviets? What are the facts that gave birth to these organizations of the people unknown in the whole history of the world revolution? To these questions I have not been able yet to get a definite answer. In their stubborn defense of the bourgeois system, the opponents of the November Revolution oppose these mighty organizations which not one of the revolutions of the world has ever witnessed before. But those who fight the landlords go to the Soviets of peasants' deputies. The Soviets receive one and all, anyone who, not wishing to remain inactive, is ready to enter upon the path of creative work. The entire country Is covered with their network, and the tighter this net of people's Soviets is drawn the less will be the exploitation of the toiling masses, because the existence of the Soviets is incompatible with the flourishing of the bourgeois system; therein lies the source of all the contradictions of the representatives of the bourgeoisie who are fighting against our Soviets in the name of their interests.

The transition from a capitalistic to a socialistic structure of society must necessarily be accompanied by a long and stubborn struggle. The Russian Revolution, having overthrown tsarism, could not stop at the stage of a bourgeois revolution; it had to go further because the war with its resulting unheard-of suffering of the exhausted nations produced the soil for the outbreak of the social revolution. There is, therefore, nothing more ridiculous than to say that the further course of the revolution and the wrath of the masses have been brought about by any one party, by a single individual, or, as they lament, by the will of a dictator. The revolutionary conflagration burst forth only because of the ignorance and the incredible sufferings of Russia and because the conditions created by the war confronted the toiling masses in a decisive way with the alternatives either to take a bold, audacious, and fearless step or to perish and die of hunger. (Shouts of applause.)

This revolutionary fire manifested itself in the fact that the Soviets, this prop of the workers' revolution, were established. The Russian People accomplished a tremendous leap, a jump from tsarism to the Soviets. This is an undeniable and hitherto unparalleled fact. And while the bourgeois parliaments of all nations and states within the confines of capitalism and private property have nowhere and at no time given any support to the revolutionary movement, the Soviets, fanning the flame of revolution, imperatively command the people: Fight, take everything into your own hands, organize yourselves!

There is no doubt that in the process of revolutionary development called forth by the power of the Soviets, there will be all sorts of errors and blunders, but it is no secret to anyone that any revolutionary movement inevitably and always is accompanied by a temporary chaos, destruction, and disorder. Bourgeois society ... is synonymous with war and throat-cutting, a fact which brought about and sharpened the conflict between the Constituent Assembly and the Soviets. Those who remind us of the time when we also stood for the Constituent Assembly and rebuke us for now "dispersing" it simply show that they have not a single idea in their minds and are using pompous and empty phrases. For as compared with the ill-fated institutions of tsarism and the Kerenskii republic the Constituent Assembly seemed to us then a step forward. But with their establishment the Soviets, being revolutionary mass organizations, naturally became immeasurably superior to any other parliament in the world, a fact which I emphasized as early as April last year. The Soviets, in undertaking to break up the bourgeois and the landlords' world of private property, thus aiding in the triumph of the social revolution which will sweep away all remnants of bourgeois society, have started us on a road which is leading the people to the building of a new life. We have already taken up this great constructive task, and we have done well to take it tip. There is no doubt that the socialist revolution cannot be presented to the people in its pristine, smooth, and flawless perfection; it cannot help leading to civil war, sabotage, and opposition. Those who would teach us the opposite are either liars or men living in a casket. (Shouts of applause.) ...

The people at large have not as yet realized all the implications of the November Revolution. This Revolution has shown in fact how the people must proceed to take over the land, the national wealth, and the means of production and transport and place them in the hands of the workers' and peasants' government.

All power to the Soviets we said then, and for this we are fighting. The people desired to call the Constituent Assembly, and we called it. But the people soon realized what this vaunted Constituent Assembly really represents. And now, once more, we are fulfilling the will of the people, which declared: All power to the Soviets! And we shall crush the saboteurs ...

The transfer of all power to the Constituent Assembly is nothing but the old policy of "conciliation" with the malevolent bourgeoisie. The Russian Soviets place the interests of the toiling masses much higher that the interests of the treasonable conciliators clad in a new garb ... As long as Kaledin exists, and as long as the slogan, "All power to the Constituent Assembly" is used as a cloak to the slogan, "Down with the Soviet power," so long will there be no escape from civil war, for we will not give up the Soviet power for anything in the World! (Shouts of applause.) The Constituent Assembly, which failed to recognize the power of the people, is now dispersed by the "Will of the Soviet power. The Soviet Republic will triumph, no matter what happens.

[Stroev's Speech]

Novaia Zhizn, No. 6, January 22, 1918, p. 4.

Stroev, a representative of the United Internationalists, takes the floor.

I know, he says, that my speech will remain a voice crying in the wilderness. When people are making a desperate plunge it is useless to appeal to their reason. Lenin has been telling us that the people are disillusioned about the Constituent Assembly. All that Lenin has to go on are his observations of the representatives of the "poor peasantry," the Socialist-Revolutionaries of the Left, who showed themselves to be very clever fellows. They managed to lose their faith in the Constituent Assembly in about an hour and a half, but do they really think that that time is sufficient for the people to do the same? For many years ... the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Social-Democrats have been instilling in the people faith in the Constituent Assembly, and now you wish to make a headlong plunge.

Yesterday red banners were being snatched from the hands of workers. One more illusion is being done away with. The respect for socialist banners reddened with proletarian blood (Cries, "Enough!")

The tumult drowns the words from the speaker). I am used to speaking against noises like these. I talked against the cries of the Black Hundred and wild vociferations of the mob. I should like to think that am now under the protection of the red flag. (A tremendous uproar the hall. The chairman calls upon the speaker to refrain front such comparisons.)

The Bolsheviks who control the government failed to carry out the wishes of the Second Congress of Soviets ... which resolved to call the Constituent Assembly and not to disperse it. (Cries and hisses in the hall.)

[Stroev was not allowed to go on with his speech, and he concluded reading a resolution of his party which ended as follows]

The Constituent Assembly alone is capable of uniting all parts of Russia to put an end to the civil war which is speeding up the economic ruin of the country, and to solve all essential questions raised by the revolution ... In view of this the CEC resolves that the Sovnarkom make it possible for the Constituent Assembly to go on with its work uninterruptedly, and that a new government be formed in agreement with the Socialist majority of the Constituent Assembly.

[Other Speeches]

Riazanov [Bolshevik] took the floor. He said that the Constituent Assembly was never a fetish to him, yet once it was called it should be given a chance to show what it could do. This had not been done. The people could not form an idea of its possibilities in one day. Under the circumstances Riazanov announced that he would vote against the [Bolshevik] resolution.

Pravda, No. 7, January 24, 1918, p. 2.

Avilov [United-Internationalist] pointed out that Lenin talked exclusively about the superiority of the Soviet form of organization but failed to say why the Constituent Assembly did not reflect the will of the people ...

Sukhanov [United-Internationalist] said that the reasons for dispersion indicated in the resolution were known prior to the calling of the Assembly. There is one additional reason, viz., that the people have no more faith in the Constituent Assembly; but this is a lie. Neither is it true that the Constituent Assembly refused to recognize the Soviet Government. That question was never brought tip. Sukhanov, therefore, proposed that the concluding part of the [Bolshevik] resolution be deleted ...

The decree to dissolve the Constituent Assembly is put to a vote and is accepted ... Lozovskii and Riazanov voted against ...

Novaia Zhizn, No. 6, January 22, 1918, p. 4.

Source: James Bunyan and H.H. Fisher, ed., Bolshevik Revolution, 1917-1918; Documents and Materials (Stanford: Stanford University Press; H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1934), pp. 380-384.