The Proletarian Revolution in Russia/Part 5/Chapter 4
IV
THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY
The Constituent Assembly was an important issue in the course of the Revolution. It represented an aspiration of democratic Russia, and particularly precious in the eyes of the petit bourgeois democracy. But Coalition Government after Coalition Government had postponed its convocation; Kerensky called conference after conference, and finally issued a call for the Constituent Assembly only under pressure. The Bolsheviki made much of the postponments of the Assembly, not because they considered it important in itself, but because its postponement was an expression of the counter-revolutionary character of the Provisional Government. The Constituent Assembly was an expression of the bourgeois democratic revolution; after the proletarian revolution, it was superfluous. The Soviet Government, however, allowed the Constituent Assembly to convene on January 18.
The situation was instinct with a fatal logic: if the Constituent Assembly accepted the authority of the Soviet Government, it was as an institution unnecessary, and after ratifying the accomplished fact of November 7 it would disperse; if it set itself against the Soviet authority, it was counter-revolutionary and would have to be dissolved by force, if necessary.
The Constituent Assembly was in session one day. It had a majority of Social-Revolutionists of the Right The chairman of the AU-Russian Soviet Executive Committee, Sverdlov, read a declaration declaring Russia a Federal Soviet Republic, and recognizing the authority and measures of the Soviet Government. The declaration was decisively defeated. The Bolsheviki and Social-Revolutionists of the Left, who were about a third of the delegates, thereupon withdrew from the Assembly, after reading the following proclamation:
"The great majority of toiling Russia, the workers, peasants and soldiers, have demanded that the Constituent Assembly recognize the results of the great November Revolution, the Soviets' proclamation regarding land, peace and control of working conditions, and above all, that it should recognize the Soviet Government. Fulfilling this demand of the great majority of Russian working classes, the All-Russian Executive Committee has proposed to the Constituent Assembly that it should recognize this demand as binding. The majority of the Constituent Assembly has, however, in accordance with the demands of the bourgeoisie, refused to approve this proposition, thereby throwing a challenge of battle to all of toiling Russia. The Social-Revolutionary right wing, the party of Kerensky, Avksentyev and Chernov, has obtained the majority in the Constituent Assembly. This party, which calls itself a Social Revolutionary Party, is directing the fight of bourgeois elements against the workers' revolution and in reality is a bourgeois counter-revolutionary party. The Constituent Assembly in its present state is a result of the relative party power in force before the great November Revolution. The present counter-revolutionary majority of the Constituent Assembly, elected on the basis of the obsolete party lists, is trying to resist the movement of the workers and peasants. The day's discussions have clearly shown that the Social-Revolutionary Party of the Right Wing, as in the time of Kerensky, makes concessions to the people, promising them everything, but in reality has decided to fight against the Soviet Government, against the Socialistic measures to give the land and all its appurtenances to the peasants without compensation, to nationalize the banks and to annul the debts of the nation.
"Without wishing for a moment to conceal the crimes of the enemies of the people, we announce that we are withrawing from the Constituent Assembly in order to let the Soviet power finally decide the question of its relation toward the counter-revolutionary part of the Constituent Assembly."
The very same day the Constituent Assembly was dispersed by the bayonets of the Red Guard; and on January 19 the Soviet Government issued a decree officially dissolving the Assembly. The Revolution, declared the decree of dissolution, created the Workers' and Soldiers' Soviet—the only organization able to direct the struggle of the exploited classes for complete political and economic liberation; this Soviet constituted a revolutionary government through the November Revolution, after perceiving the illusion of an understanding with the bourgeoisie and its deceptive parliamentary organization; the Constituent Assembly, being elected from the old election lists, and intended to be the crown of the bourgeois parliamentary republic, necessarily became the authority of the bourgeois republic, setting itself against the Revolution of November and the authority of the Soviet Government; the old bourgeois parliamentarism has had its day and is incompatible with the tasks before Socialism; hence it was unavoidable that the Constituent Assembly, necessarily counter-revolutionary, should be dissolved.[1]
Any other attitude of the Soviet Government would have been self-stultification. The proletarian revolution is relentlessly logical. It is a denial of bourgeois democracy. It is openly a dictatorship. Its practice must be in accord with its theory—otherwise the proletarian revolution limps, degrades itself, and prepares the forces for its destruction. The Soviet Government was organized not as a representative of all classes, but as the representative of the revolutionary masses, the dictatorship of the proletariat. It had to act accordingly.
All democracy is relative, is class democracy. As an historical category, democracy is the instrument of a class: bourgeois democracy is the form of expression of the tyranny of Capitalism, the form of authority of the oppressing class over the oppressed class. The democracy of Socialism annhilates the democracy of Capitalism—relative, authoritarian democracy is superseded by the actuality of the full and free democracy of Communist Socialism. The proletarian revolution does not allow the "ethical concepts" of bourgeois democracy to interfere in its course; it ruthlessly casts aside bourgeois democracy in the process of establishing proletarian democracy. Capitalism hypocritically insisits upon a government of all the classes, which in reality is the government of one class, the capitalist class; the proletarian revolution frankly institutes the government of one class—the proletariat—which ultimately means the end of "government" as hitherto constituted. The state is an instrument of coercion; but where the bourgeois state considers itself as sacrosanct and eternal, the revolutionary proletarian state considers itself a temporary necessity that will gradually become superfluous in the measure that the process of reconstruction emerges definitely into the Socialist Communist society of the organized, self-governing producers.
The Constituent Assembly was an expression of government of all the classes, of the bourgeois regime; it was, accordingly, necessarily and essentially a reaction against the proletarian revolution. Moreover, the Constituent Assembly was a phase of the parliamentary regime of the bourgeois republic. The parliamentary system is not an expression of fundamental democracy, but of the ruling requirements of Capitalism. Parliamentarism, presumably representing all the classes, actually represents the requirements of the ruling class alone,—with due consideration to "concessions" to the subject class. The division of functions in the parliamentary system into legislative and executive has for its direct purpose the indirect smothering of the opposition—the legislature talks and represents "democracy," while the executive acts autocratically. Socalism can not conquer Capitalism by assuming control of and using the parliamentary system: the system must be destroyed; and Socialism, accordingly, actually or potentially, prepares the norms of the proletarian state, the state of the industrually organized producers. The proletarian revolution annhilates the parliamentary system and its division of functions, legislative and executive. being united into one working body,—as in the Soviets of Workers and Peasants. The parliamentary state is purely territorial; the proletarian state, during its period of dictatorship, is territorial and industrial, until it emerges definitely into Socialism, when the state disappears, being replaced by the "administration of things," an industrial "state" functioning through the organized producers.
During its one day's session, the Constituent Assembly adopted a number of resolutions, declaring Russia a Democratic Federated Republic; abolishing "forever … the right to privately own land," placing all land, mines, forests and waters under the control of the Republic, making the use of these "free to all citizens of the Russian Republic, regardless of nationality or creed." Another resolution, "expressing the firm will of the people to immediately discontinue the war and conclude a just and general peace, appeals to the Allied countries proposing to define jointly the exact terms of a democratic peace acceptable to all the belligerent nations, in order to present these terms, in behalf of the Allies, to the Governments fighting against the Russian Republc and her Allies." … "Expressing, in the name of the people of Russia, its regret that the negotiations with Germany, which were started without a preliminary agreement with the Allied democracies, have assumed the character of negotiations for a separate peace, the Constituent Assembly, in the name of the peoples of the Russian Federal Republic, while continuing the armistice, accepts the further carr3ring on of the negotiations with the countries warring against us in order to work towards a general democratic peace which shall be in accordance with the people's will and protect Russia's interests."
Shortly after the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, the All-Russian Soviet Congress approved the action of its Executive Committee in dissolving the Assembly, and about the same time a Peasant's Assembly also ratified the dissolution. The peasants, through the Social-Revolutionists of the Left, now the dominant factor in the Social-Revolutionary Party and who accepted the program of the Bolsheviki and the Soviets, approved not only the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly but the general legislative measures of the Soviet regime.
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Declaration of the Soviet Executive Committee, read at the opening session of the Constituent Assembly for adoption, and rejected:
I
1.—Russia is to be declared a Republic of the workers', soldiers' and peasants' Soviets. All power in the cities and in the country belongs to the Soviets.
2.—The Russian Soviet Republic is based on the free federation of free peoples, on the federation of National Soviet Republics.
II
Recognizing as its duty the destruction of all exploitation of the workers, the complete abolition of the class system of society, and the placing of society on a Socialistic basis, and the ultimate bringing about of a victory for Socialism in every country, the Constituent Assembly decides further:
1.—The socializing of land will be carried out, private ownership of land will be abolished, all the land is proclaimed to be the common property of the people and will be given to the toiling people without compensation on the principle of equal right to use the land.
All the forests, mines and waters, which are of social importance, as also all living and other property, and all agricultural enterprises will be declared national property.
2.—To confirm the Soviets' law concerning the control of working conditions, the highest Council of National Economy, which is the first step in bringing about the ownership by the Soviets of the factories, mines, railroads and means of production and transportation as property of the Soviet Republic.
3.—To confirm the transferring of all banks over into the hands of the Soviet Republic, which is one of the steps in the freeing of the toiling masses from the yoke of Capitalism.
4.—To enforce general compulsory labor, in order to destroy the class of parasites and to organize economic life. In order to make the power of the toiling masses secure and to hinder the restoration of the rule of exploiters, the toiling masses will be armed and a Red Guard, composed of workingmen and peasants, formed, and the exploiting classes will be disarmed.
III
1.—Declaring its firm determination to free society from the claws of Capitalism and Imperialism, which have drenched the country in blood in this, the most criminal of all wars, the Constituent Assembly accepts completely the policy of the Soviets, whose duty it is to publish all secret treaties, to organize the most extensive faternization among the workers and peasants of the warring armies, and to bring about by the use of revolutionary methods a democratic peace among the nations without annexations and indemnities, on the basis of free self-determination of the nations—at any price.
2.—For this purpose the Constituent Assembly demands complete separation from the brutal policy of the bourgoisie, which is furthering the well-being of exploiters among a few selected nations by enslaving hundreds of millions of the toiling people, in colonies generally and in small countries.
The Constituent Assembly accepts the policy of the Council of People's Commissaires, which has given complete independence to Finland, begun the transferring of soldiers from Persia, and declared for Armenia the right of self-determination.
A first blow to international bank and finance capital, declares the Constituent Assembly, is a law which annuls those loans made by the governments of the Czar, of landowners and bourgeoisie; and that the Soviet Government is to continue firmly on this road until the final victory from the yoke of capital is won through the international workers' revolt.
As the Constituent Assembly was elected en the basis of the lists of candidates nominated before the November Revolution, when the people as a whole could not yet rise against their exploiters, and did not know the extent of the latter's might of opposition in defending their own privileges, and had not yet begun to create a Socialistic society, the Constituent Assembly would consider it, even from a formal point of view, as unjust to put itself against the Soviet power. The Constituent Assembly is of the opinion that now, in the decisive moment of the struggle of the people against the exploiters, the exploiters cannot have any seat in any of the Government organizations. Power must completely and without exception belong to the people and to the authoriative representatives—to the workers', soldiers' and peasants Soviets.
Supporting the Soviet rule and accepting the orders of the Council of People's Commissaires, the Constituent Assembly acknowledges that its duty is to outline a form for the reorganization of society on a Socialistic basis.
Striving at the same time to organize a free and voluntary, and thereby also a complete and strong union among the toiling classes of all the Russian nationalities, the Constituent Assembly is content to outline the basis of the federation of Russian Soviet Republics, leaving to the people, to workingmen and soldiers, to decide for themselves in their own Soviet meetings, whether they are willing, and on what conditions, to join the federated government and other unions of the Soviet enterprises.
These great principles are to be published without delay and the official representatives of the Soviets are required to read them at the opening of the Constituent Assembly. These principles are the working basis of the Assembly.
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Decree of the Executive Committee of the All-Russian Soviets officially dissolving the Constituent Assembly:
The Russan Revolution has from the beginning put to the fore the workers' and peasants' Soviets as a mass organization of all workers and exploited classes, which is the only body capable of directing the struggle of these classes for their complete political and economic liberation. During the first period of the Revolution the Soviets increased, developed and were strengthened, on the basis of their own experience, rejecting the idea of the possibility of a compromise with the bourgeoisie and rejecting the deceptive bourgeois democratic parliamentary formalities, coming, in practice, to the conclusion that the liberation of the oppressed classes is impossible unless all such formalities and compromises are rejected. These relations were finally broken by the November Revolution which gave complete power to the Soviets. The Constituent Assembly, elected on the basis of the lists prepared prior to the November Revolution, was the result of the relative party power in force at the time when the government was composed of men favoring a policy of compromise with the Cadets. The people could not at that time, when there were only Social-Revolutionary candidates, differentiate between the supporters of the Right Wing Social-Revolutionists, the supporters of the bourgeoisie, and the Left Wing, supporters of Socialism. Therefore, this Constituent Assembly which was intended to be the crown of the bourgeois parliamentary republic, because of its very composition, had to oppose the November Revolution and the Soviet Government. The November Revolution, which gave power to the Soviets and through them to the workers and exploited class, was strongly opposed by the exploiters. The crushing of this opposition clearly showed the banning of a Socialist revolution. The working class became convinced by their experience that the old parliamentarism had outlived its time, that it could not comply with the realization of the tasks of Socialiism, and that, not the social but only class institutions, such as the Soviets, are capable of crushing the opposition of the propertied classes and to lay the foundations of a Socialistic commonwealth.
The refusal of the Soviets to use their full power and to abandon the Soviet Republic, which is supported by the people, on behalf of bourgeois parliamentarism and of Constituent Assembly, would now be a step backward and lead to the destruction of the November Revolution.
The majority in the Constituent Assembly, which opened on the 18th of this month, is composed of the Social-Revolutionary Party's Right Wing, the party of Kerensky, Avksentyev and Chernov. It is but natural that this party refused to take under consideration the complete, exact and dear proposition of the highest body of the Soviet Government, which proposition in no way could have been misunderstood, and that it refused to accept the proclamation of the rights of the toiling and exploited people and to recognize the November Revolution and the Soviet Government. Thus the Constituent Assembly broke all its ties with Russian Soviet Republic. The Bolsheviki and the left wing Social-Revolutionists, who are supported by the great majority of the workers and peasants, were under such conditions compelled to withdraw from this Constituent Assembly. Ouside of the Constituent Assembly, the members of the Social-Revolutionary Right Wing and the Mensheviki, the majority in the Constituent Assembly, are openly fighting against the Soviet Government, agitating in their newspapers that their supporters overthrow this government, and thus they are suffering exploiters who are opposing the transferring of land and factories to the workers and peasants.
It is thus clear that the remaining part of the Constituent Assembly can give their support only to the bourgeois counter-revolution in its fight to crush the Soviets. Therefore, the Executive Committee of the Soviets has decided to dissolve the Constituent Assembly.
- ↑ It is said: if the Bolsheviki were right in dissolving the Constituent Assembly, why did they emphasize its convocation as one of their demands prior to the November Revolution? A measure may correspond to an earlier stage of the Revolution, and not to a later. Proposed measures are developmental, not static. The November Revolution having organized a revolutionary proletarian government, the Constituent Assembly corresponded to an older, outgrown set of facts, and was no longer necessary: it had to be dispersed.