The Soviet Republic was formed as a result of the October Revolution of 1917. It was the main state of the Reds during the Civil War in Russia.

 

On October 25–26, 1917, after the Provisional Government was overthrown by left-wing radical forces headed by the Bolsheviks, the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets formed new government bodies and adopted decrees on peace and land, initiating radical social, economic, and political transformations. From October 1917 to February 1918, Soviet power was established in most of the territory of Russia. However, it was not recognized by several political forces.

 

The All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’, Peasants’, Red Army soldiers’, and Cossacks’ Deputies became the supreme body of power in Soviet Russia. During inter-Congress periods, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) operated, which implemented the Congress’ decisions and formed the government, the Council of People’s Commissars (SNK). Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik Party’s leader became the first Chairman of the SNK. Subsequently, the VTsIK was headed by Yakov Sverdlov (from November 8, 1917, to March 16, 1919), and later by Mikhail Kalinin. The Bolsheviks and their political allies played a key role in the Soviet government. From December 1917 to March 1918, the SNK included representatives of Left Socialist Revolutionaries (Left SRs). After July 1918, a one-party dictatorship of the Bolsheviks was established in the country, and the Party became a component of the state machinery.

 

The Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia (November 2, 1917) proclaimed the equality and sovereignty of all the peoples of the country, the right to free self-determination including secession and the formation of independent states. Such policy of the Bolsheviks promoted the development of disintegration processes in the post-imperial space. On December 4, the SNK recognized the right of Ukraine to self-determination and the establishment of the Ukrainian People’s Republic. December 18 saw the independence of Finland recognized. On January 18, 1918, the 3rd Congress of Soviets adopted the Declaration of Rights of Working and Exploited People, which declared Russia a federation of Soviet national republics. The official name of the country, the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, was enshrined in the first constitution, which came into effect on July 19, 1918.

 

Since November 1917, the Soviet government had been negotiating with representatives of Central Powers on the cessation of hostilities. On March 3, 1918, the Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed. Under the treaty, Russia renounced claims on the territory of Finland, the Baltic states, Byelorussian territories, Ukraine, Crimea, and pledged to withdraw its troops from the territory of the Ottoman Empire and hand over the districts of Ardahan, Batum, and Kars to it. The conclusion of a separate peace and the terms of the Treaty led to an aggravation of the Civil War in Russia. On March 10, 1918, under the threat of a German offensive, the Soviet government moved from Petrograd to Moscow.

 

During the Civil War, the Russian SFSR’s Red Army defeated the Russian Army of Aleksander Kolchak, the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, the North-Western Army of Nikolay Yudenich, the Army of the Northern Region, etc. The Bolsheviks conducted intense reprisals against political opponents, pursued an emergency economic policy of War Communism (centralized management of the economy, food dictatorship, distribution of products by the state, prohibition of private trade, universal labour conscription, etc.). The emergency economic policy provoked several major uprisings (Aleksander Antonov uprising, the West Siberian uprising, etc.), which forced the Bolsheviks to switch to a New Economic Policy with market features in 1921.

 

During the Civil War, Soviet Russia was the main state of the Reds; it included most of the other Soviet republics that existed in 1917–1922. Under the direct influence of the Russian SFSR, Soviet power was established in Byelorussia, Ukraine, Transcaucasia, and Central Asia. On December 30, 1922, the Russian SFSR concluded an alliance agreement with the Ukrainian SSR, the Byelorussian SSR, and the Transcaucasian SFSR and became part of the USSR.