Russian Constituent Assembly

The Russian Constituent Assembly was an elected national legislature that met in Petrograd on 18 January 1918 and was dissolved by the Bolsheviks after one session.

February Revolution: The 1917 Russian uprising that ended the monarchy and established a provisional government. Its overthrow of the tsarist regime made a constituent election politically possible.
Soviet democracy: A political system organized around elected councils of workers, soldiers, and peasants. Bolsheviks defended rule through the soviets against the assembly’s nationwide electoral mandate.
Soviet Russia: The Russian state governed by the Bolsheviks and their successors from 1917 to 1922. After dissolving the assembly, the Bolsheviks built a state based on soviet institutions.
Congress of Soviets: A national assembly of delegates chosen by Russia’s soviets of workers, soldiers, and peasants. Bolsheviks treated the congress as a more legitimate source of authority than the elected constituent body.
Russian Provisional Government: The government that ruled Russia between the February and October Revolutions of 1917. It scheduled the election and transferred authority to the assembly it had promised.
Viktor Chernov: A Russian revolutionary and Socialist Revolutionary leader who chaired the Constituent Assembly’s opening session. His election as chairman became an immediate test of Bolshevik control inside the chamber.
Left Socialist-Revolutionaries: A radical faction that split from Russia’s Socialist Revolutionary Party in 1917 and briefly joined the Bolshevik government. Their alliance with the Bolsheviks weakened after the assembly’s dissolution and the ensuing political conflict.
All-Russian Central Executive Committee: The executive body elected by the All-Russian Congress of Soviets to govern between congresses. Its authority embodied the soviet system that displaced the assembly’s parliamentary claim.
Russian Constituent Assembly election: The nationwide vote held in Russia in November 1917 to elect delegates to a constituent legislature. Its results determined the assembly’s membership and exposed the Bolsheviks’ limited electoral support.
Tauride Palace: A historic palace in Petrograd used as the meeting place of Russia’s Constituent Assembly in January 1918. The assembly held its only session in this building, which guards closed after adjournment.

Linked from 15 pages