5th All Russian Congress

Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers, Peasants, Red Army and Cossack Deputies, July 4-10, 1918

Verbatim report. Moscow: Publishing house of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of Soviets R., S., K., and K. d., 1918.

Verbatim report of the All-Russian V Congress of Soviets, held on July 4-10, 1918 in Moscow. At the congress, the Constitution of the RSFSR was adopted, the decision to exclude the Left SRs from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Soviets.

The congress was attended by 1164 delegates with a decisive vote - 773 Bolsheviks, 353 Left Social Revolutionaries, 17 Maximalists, 4 Anarchists, 4 Mensheviks-internationalists, 2 representatives of national groups (Dashnaksutyun, Poalei Tsion), 1 Right Socialist Revolutionary, 10 non-party. The order of the day: reports of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars (lecturers V. I. Lenin and Y. M. Sverdlov); the food issue (A. D. Tsyurupa); the organization of the socialist Red Army (L. D. Trotsky); Constitution of the Russian Republic (Yu. M. Steklov); elections to the Central Executive Committee. At the congress, the leaders of the Left Social Revolutionaries (M.A. Spiridonova, B.D. Kamkov, V.A. Karelin and others) made provocative calls to reject the decrees on the food, dictatorship, and the organization of committees of the poor, to express distrust in the policy of the Soviet government, to tear up the Brest Peace 1918 with Germany. The congress rejected the demand of the Left Social Revolutionaries and by a majority vote approved on July 5 the foreign and domestic policy of the Soviet government.

The anti-Soviet speeches of the Left SRs at the congress culminated in their mutiny in Moscow on July 6-7 (see Left SR revolt of 1918), in the suppression of which the Bolshevik faction of the congress took part. In connection with the mutiny, the sessions of the congress on July 6 were temporarily interrupted, and the Left SR faction was arrested (later, the Left SRs who were not involved in the rebellion were released; about 200 of them returned to the meetings of the congress and condemned the rebels).

On July 9, resuming its work, the congress heard a report on the events of July 6-7, condemned the conspirators - the Left SRs, approved the actions of the Soviet government to liquidate the rebellion and issued a directive to purge the Soviets of that part of the Left SR elements that was in solidarity with the anti-Soviet policy of their Central Committee.

The congress adopted a resolution on the food issue, approved the food policy of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars, their decrees on granting the People's Commissar of food extraordinary powers to fight the village bourgeoisie, hiding bread, and speculating with it, on organizing the rural poor and creating food detachments.

On July 10, a decree on the Red Army was adopted. It indicated that the Red Army should be centralized, well trained, and equipped, welded together by iron discipline. To create such an army, military specialists of the pre-revolutionary period should be used, capable of honestly cooperating with the Soviet government. At the same time, the task was put forward to accelerate the training of commanders from among workers and peasants, to strengthen the composition of military commissars. A directive was adopted to carry out in a short time the mobilization of several ages of workers and working peasants into the army.

On July 10, 1918, the congress adopted the Constitution of the RSFSR, the first constitution of the Soviet state. The Constitution was promulgated and entered into force on July 19, 1918. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee, consisting of 200 people, was elected.