Russian SFSR

The **Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic** (**Russian SFSR** or **RSFSR** for short), simply known as **Russia**, was a country that existed from the October Revolution in 1917 until its dissolution in May 1920 after the White Army defeated the Red Army in the Russian Civil War (1917–1920). It was a federal Marxist–Leninist one-party socialist soviet republic, with Vladimir Lenin as the sole leader of the SFSR from its creation until its dissolution.

## History

### Background

Modern revolutionary activity in the Russian Empire began with the 1825 Decembrist revolt. Although serfdom was abolished in 1861, it was done on terms unfavorable to the peasants and served to encourage revolutionaries. A parliament—the State Duma—was established in 1906 after the Russian Revolution of 1905, but Tsar Nicholas II resisted attempts to move from absolute to a constitutional monarchy. Social unrest continued and was aggravated during the First Great War by military defeat and food shortages in major cities. After the signing of the Treaty of Kaiserreich on 27 January 1916, Russia's economy began to go disasterously down, with people being unhappy. Plans for a revolution, however, weere being planned before the War, but the loss of the war made the ringleaders more determined.

A spontaneous popular uprising in Petrograd, in response to the wartime decay of Russia's economy and morale, culminated in the February Revolution and the toppling of Nicholas II and the imperial government in March 1917. The tsarist autocracy was replaced by the Russian Provisional Government, which intended to conduct elections to the Russian Constituent Assembly.

At the same time, workers' councils, known in Russian as "Soviets", sprang up across the country. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, pushed for socialist revolution in the Soviets and on the streets.

### Formation

Failed military offensives in summer 1917 and large scale protesting and riots in major Russian cities (as advocated by Lenin in his Theses, known as the July Days) led to the deployment of troops in late August to restore order. The July Days were suppressed and blamed on the Bolsheviks, forcing Lenin into hiding. Still, rather than use force, many of the deployed soldiers and military personnel joined the rioters, disgracing the government and military at-large. It was during this time that support for the Bolsheviks grew and another of its leading figures, Leon Trotsky, was elected chair of the Petrograd Soviet, which had complete control over the defenses of the city, mainly, the city's military force.

On 24 October, in the early days of the October Revolution, the Provisional Government moved against the Bolsheviks, arresting activists and destroying pro-Communist propaganda. The Bolsheviks were able to portray this as an attack against the People's Soviet and garnered support for the Red Guard of Petrograd to take over the Provisional Government. The administrative offices and government buildings were taken with little opposition or bloodshed. The generally accepted end of this transitional revolutionary period lies with the assault and capture of the poorly defended Winter Palace (the traditional home and symbol of power of the Tsar) on the evening of 26 October 1917.

The Mensheviks and the right-wing of the Socialist Revolutionaries, outraged by the abusive and coercive acts carried out by the Red Guard and Bolsheviks, fled Petrograd, leaving control in the hands of the Bolsheviks and remaining Left Socialist Revolutionaries. On 25 October 1917, the Sovnarkom was established by the Russian Constitution of 1918 as the administrative arm of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets.

### Russian Civil War

Prior to the revolution, the Bolshevik doctrine of democratic centralism argued that only a tightly knit and secretive organization could successfully overthrow the government; after the revolution, they argued that only such an organization could prevail against foreign and domestic enemies. Fighting the civil war would actually force the party to put these principles into practice.

Arguing that the revolution needed not a mere parliamentary organization but a party of action which would function as a scientific body of direction, a vanguard of activists, and a central control organ, the Tenth Party Congress banned factions within the party, initially intending it only to be a temporary measure after the shock of the Kronstadt rebellion. It was also argued that the party should be an elite body of professional revolutionaries dedicating their lives to the cause and carrying out their decisions with iron discipline, thus moving toward putting loyal party activists in charge of new and old political institutions, army units, factories, hospitals, universities, and food suppliers. Against this backdrop, the *nomenklatura* system (a class of people who were granted key positions only with approval of the party) would evolve and become standard practice.

In theory, this system was to be democratic since all leading party organs would be elected from below, but also centralized since lower bodies would be accountable to higher organizations. In practice, "democratic centralism" was centralist, with decisions of higher organs binding on lower ones, and the composition of lower bodies largely determined by the members of higher ones. Over time, party cadres would grow increasingly careerist and professional. Party membership required exams, special courses, special camps, schools, and nominations by three existing members.

In December 1917, the Cheka was founded as the Bolshevik's first internal security force following the failed assassination attempt on Lenin's life. Later it changed names to GPU, OGPU, MVD, NKVD and finally KGB. The Red Terror became the instrument to eliminate groups defined as "enemies" of the new society. Summary executions were withspead. At the same time, the White Terror, mostly uncontrolled and perpetrated by such warlords as the Cossack Atamans Grigory Semenov or Boris Annenkov, targeted suspected Bolshevik sympathizers.

By 6 January 1918, the VTsIK, supported by the Bolsheviks, ratified the dissolution of the Russian Constituent Assembly, which intended to establish the non-Bolshevik Russian Democratic Federative Republic as the permanent form of government established at its Petrograd session held 5 and 6 January 1918. At the third meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets on 25 January 1918, the unrecognised state was renamed the Russian Soviet Republic. On 10 July 1918, the Russian Constitution of 1918 renamed the country the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. By 1918, during the Russian Civil War, several states within the former Russian Empire had seceded, reducing the size of the country even more.

### Downfall

By 1919, however, the Russian SFSR was having to deal with riots of its own - on 15 July 1919, riots took place in the streets of Petrograd, where people were tired of war and horrifying food shortages - the SFSR army supressed the riots, killing over 150 people in the process, which damaged the country's reputation. In April 1920, a food famine struck the Russian SFSR, which caused more unrest within the country. Lenin was then advised by one of his ministers to make peace with the Republicans and focus on improving conditions for the publi. Lenin refused, saying:

> *"No, why should I make peace with those republicans! One of us has to be the leaders of our Great Russia! F\*ck the people, importance and leadership comes first! First, we must WIN this war, THEN we focus on the people!"*
>
>

As a result of this, many people in the Red Army left and joined the White Army, which significantly lowered the SFSR's chance of winning. Then, on 2 May 1920, Germany re-declared war on the SFSR, joining the Republican side.

### Dissolution

On 21 May 1920, Germany and the White Army led a campaign to take over Petrograd and Moscow, causing the SFSR government to go unstable and collapse. By 25 May, they had taken over Moscow, and by 28 May, Petrograd was finally in the Republic's hands. Lenin was arrested, and exiled temporarily to Berlin while the victors would decide what to do with him. The Russian SFSR was dissolved, with the Russian Republic being officially established as the country's government.