The first decrees of Soviet power and their role in the formation of a new state

The October Revolution, carried out by the Bolshevik Party in 1917, opened a new page in the history of our country. It is not only and not so much that, as a result of the armed coup, the Socialist-Revolutionary Menshevik Provisional Government was replaced by the Council of People's Commissars of the Bolsheviks, but that, beginning with this significant October night, the basic principle of the organization of power in the Russian republic A revolution in the relationship between the state and society.

In the first hours, days, months of the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, they adopted a number of legislative acts that created a legal basis for the exercise of their power. Until the adoption of the first official Constitution in 1918, it was the first decrees of the Soviet government of 1917 that represented the basis of the constitutional legislation of our country. The beginning of this process was laid at the Second Congress, which included workers 'and soldiers' deputies, held in the alarming situation of the October uprising. The first decrees of Soviet power were adopted by this congress in the early morning of October 26, they concerned the three main issues of the current moment - peace, land and power.

By the Decree on Peace, the newly emerged Soviet state called upon all the belligerent countries to conclude a truce and sit down at the negotiating table. At the same time, these negotiations should be conducted without any demands for annexations and indemnities. In addition, the decree declared Russia's renunciation of secret diplomacy, as well as the desire of the new government to fight for the liberation of countries and peoples from colonial oppression. The first decrees of Soviet power could not but affect the country's most important internal problem - the question of land.

The Decree "On Land", adopted at the same Congress, was copied from many of its provisions from the program of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, who did not dare to implement it. In particular, the cornerstone of this decree was the renunciation of private ownership of land, the so-called "socialization of the land" was proclaimed, that is, its transfer to the ownership of the whole people. In fact, this meant two important consequences for the peasants: first, they could not dispose of the land at their discretion, but had to coordinate their actions with local authorities or with collective farms. Secondly, the peasants were to receive income from the common ownership of the land in the form of direct subsidies, as well as in the form of various social projects. The first decrees of the Soviet government and, first of all, the Decree on the Land gave a clear understanding that all the subsoil will belong to the state, which will assume the responsibility not only to develop them, but also to redistribute the revenues received from their exploitation.

The first decrees of the Soviet government were obliged to make it clear to the population, as well, who followed closely the development of events to foreigners, what will this Soviet power actually mean in practice? The first brick in this process was also adopted on October 26, the decree "On the establishment of SNK." The Council of People's Commissars, whose first staff consisted exclusively of representatives of the Bolsheviks, was declared the supreme executive authority in Soviet Russia. At the same time, the same decree specifically emphasized that control over the activities of the Council of People's Commissars, including the right to amend its membership, belongs to the Congress of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, and thus became nominally the highest authority in the state .

At the same time, the notion of "the first decrees of Soviet power" can not be limited only by these three legal acts. In the first weeks and months after the revolution, a number of decrees were adopted that laid the foundations of the Soviet system. All of them can be divided into the following groups:

1. Decrees of the Soviet government, laid the economic basis of the new system. These include the "Regulations on workers' control," the decrees "On the nationalization of banks" and "On the nationalization of foreign trade." In fact, it was these decrees that became the basis for the introduction of the policy of "military communism" in the future.

2. Decrees of the Soviet government, in which the legal basis of the new state was formulated. This is primarily the decrees "On the Approval of Laws", "On the Court", "On VSNKh."

3. The first decrees of the Soviet government, which paid attention to the legal status of various groups and strata of the population. This is the decree "On the eight-hour working day," the decrees "On the Press," and "On the Destruction of the Estates."

Thus, the first decrees of the Soviet government in 1917 laid a certain foundation in the formation of the young Soviet state. At the same time, it should be emphasized that the rapidly changing internal and external situation very quickly led Lenin and his colleagues to make changes to their initial decisions.