The first All-Russian Central Executive Committee was elected at the
First All-Russian Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies' Soviets, held in
Petrograd, June 3–24, 1917. The first Central Executive Committee of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets was not a governing body, and its chairman
Nikolai Chkheidze was not the head of the Russian state.
Menshevik period The congress elected the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of 320 deputies. It included 123
Mensheviks, 119
Social Revolutionaries, 58
Bolsheviks, 13 United Social Democrats, 7 others, which roughly corresponded to the Social Revolutionary-Menshevik composition of the delegates to the First Congress of Soviets. The Menshevik
Nikolay Chkheidze became the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. After the
July events, representatives of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee took part in the work of the commission on the establishment of order in Petrograd, established by the
Provisional Government. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee supported the actions of the Provisional Government, welcomed the appointment of Social Revolutionary
Aleksandr Kerensky as minister-chairman of the government and decided to recognize unlimited powers for the government. Until August 1917, All-Russian Central Executive Committee sat in the
Tauride Palace, after which it moved to
Smolny.
Bolshevik ascendency In early September, after the liquidation of the Kornilov revolt, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, jointly with the executive committee of the All-Russian Council of Peasant Deputies, initiated the convening of a
Democratic Conference, as opposed to the August
Moscow State Conference. In a telegram inviting representatives of parties and public organizations to take part in the meeting signed by the Chairmen of the Central Executive Committees
Nikolay Chkheidze and
Nikolay Avksentiev, it was said that "a congress of all organized Democracy of Russia in Petrograd would create a strong revolutionary government capable of uniting all revolutionary Russia to repel external to enemies and for the suppression of any attempts on conquered freedom". The All-Russian Central Executive Committee tried to counteract the process of
Bolshevization of Soviets, which began in August, which intensified in September–October 1917 and was accompanied by the ousting of moderate socialists that had previously dominated them, especially the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, from these authorities. By the beginning of November, the Bolsheviks occupied up to 90% of the seats in the
Petrograd Soviet, up to 60% in Moscow, the majority of the seats in the 80 local Soviets of large industrial cities. In September, the Bolshevik
Viktor Nogin became the chairman of the Presidium of the Moscow Council,
Lev Trotsky – the chairman of the Petrograd Council. Soldiers' committees, primarily the Northern and Western fronts, the Petrograd garrison and
Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet went over to the Bolsheviks. At the Second Congress of the Deputies of the Baltic Fleet, the Bolshevik-Left Socialist Revolutionary Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet was elected. "Bolshevization" of soldiers' committees, starting from the bottom, reached the committees of the regimental level. At the same time, the
Army Committees until November 1917 remained Socialist Revolutionary–Menshevik. Having received an absolute majority of seats in the Petrograd Council, the Bolsheviks began active work in winning the upcoming Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, and, accordingly, its permanent body, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. On the eve of the Second Congress, the Bolshevik Petrograd Soviet organized the First Congress of Soviets of the Northern Region, in which Petrograd was included, with the participation of representatives of the Baltic Fleet. The congress, which took place on October 24–26 in Petrograd, was characterized by a sharp predominance of radical socialists – the Bolsheviks and the Left Socialist Revolutionaries. The Socialist Revolutionary-Menshevik All-Russian Central Executive Committee refused to recognize the legality of this congress, accusing the Bolsheviks of violating the procedures for electing delegates. On the other hand, the leadership of the
Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks), and first of all
Lenin personally, considered the possibility of declaring the Congress of the Northern Region to be the highest authority, but delegates adopted a resolution that the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets should decide the issue of power. The Northern Regional Committee, elected at the congress of 11 Bolsheviks and 6 left-wing Socialist Revolutionaries, launched a stormy activity to prepare the Second All-Russian Congress. This activity took place against the backdrop of the reluctance of the Mensheviks and right-wing Socialist Revolutionaries to convene this Congress as a matter of fact which predetermined the will of the Constituent Assembly on the question of power in the country. Particularly strong was the opposition of the Right Socialist Revolutionary permanent bodies of the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Peasant Deputies.
Richard Pipes also indicates that the initiative of the regional Congress of Soviets to convene the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets was itself illegal and not coordinated with the old Soviet bodies. According to the procedures that existed at that time, only the All-Russian Central Executive Committee – the permanent body of the previous Congress – was entitled to convene a new All-Russian Congress of Soviets. However, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was of the Social Revolutionary-Menshevik composition, and he was not going to convene a new Congress. The old Central Executive Committee declared that, in connection with violations, the Second Congress would be only an illegal "private meeting of individual Soviets". On October 19, the official Soviet newspaper
Izvestia noted that The Socialist Revolutionary and Menshevik All-Russian Central Executive Committee accused the Bolsheviks of frauds in organizing the elections for the Second Congress; in violation of electoral procedures, the Bolsheviks organized the election of soldiers' delegates not from army-level army committees, but from regimental, divisional, and corps-level, mainly pro-Bolshevik soldier-level committees, and the Bolsheviks launched re-election and army committees. In addition, the Bolsheviks took full advantage of the chaos and disproportionate representation that existed in the Soviet system at that time, artificially overstating the number of delegates from those Soviets where they had the majority. As a result, for example, 10% of the Congress delegates were Latvians, which did not correspond to their share in the population. The peasant majority of the country's population, which supported primarily the Social Revolutionaries, was not represented at all at the Congress; the Second All-Russian Congress of Peasant Deputies was held, like the First Congress, separately from the Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. In advance declaring the Second Congress of Soviets illegal, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, however, agreed to convene it, postponing only the opening date of the Congress from October 20 (NS: November 2) to October 25 (NS: November 7) of 1917.
After the October Revolution The congress opened on November 7 at 10:40 pm, at the height of the
armed uprising that began in Petrograd. The peasant councils and all the soldier-level committees of the army refused to participate in the activities of the congress. The Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries condemned the Bolshevik's actions as an "illegal coup". The old composition of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee also condemned the Bolsheviks, saying that On November 8, at the evening session of the congress, Lenin proposed to dissolve the old composition of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, choosing instead the new composition of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and forming a temporary workers' and peasants' government – the
Council of People's Commissars. Among the 101 members of the new All-Russian Central Executive Committee were 62 Bolsheviks and 29 Left Social Revolutionaries. Although the Bolsheviks and the Left Social Revolutionaries secured a majority in advance, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee also represented a fraction of the Menshevik Internationalists close to the Bolsheviks, Ukrainian socialists, there was one representative of the radical faction of the maximalist Socialist Revolutionaries. Representatives of moderate socialists did not join the All-Russian Central Executive Committee because of their boycott.
Lev Kamenev became the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. On November 9, the Congress issued an appeal to the local Soviets with a call to "rally around the new composition of the Central Executive Committee", the powers of the commissars of the former (Socialist Revolutionary-Menshevik) composition of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in the army and on the ground were declared discontinued. On November 14, 1917, the new All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a resolution "On the terms of an agreement with other parties", in which it explicitly indicated that it considers the "agreement of the socialist parties desirable". The terms of such an agreement were set forth as follows: On November 28, 1917, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, elected by the Second All-Russian Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies' Soviets, merged with the executive committee (108 people) elected at the Extraordinary All-Russian Peasants' Congress, after which the left Socialist Revolutionaries agreed to join the
Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Soviet Republic and form a coalition with the Bolsheviks. It was composed of 62
Bolsheviks, 29
Left SRs, and 10
Mensheviks and
Right SRs The chairman of the second All-Russian Central Executive Committee was
Lev Kamenev, who directed the day-to-day work of the committee and had a tie-breaking vote. Following the adoption of the
1936 Soviet Constitution, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was replaced with the
Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR. ==Chairmen of the Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR==