On January 5, 1918, at about 4 pm, a meeting of the Constituent Assembly opened in the building of the Tauride Palace in Petrograd. There were at least 410 deputies (not all the deputies managed to get mandates; the exact party composition is not known), who took the places assigned to them: the left sector was occupied by the Bolsheviks and the Left Socialist Revolutionaries (Left SRs), the center and the right sector by Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs), the Mensheviks, representatives of other factions. As the revolutionary democracy representatives (primarily, the SRs) opposed to the Soviet power won the majority during the election, the opening and work of Constituent Assembly proceeded in the tense atmosphere. In the morning of January 5, the units of Petrograd garrison, sailors and Red Guards dispersed the peaceful demonstration in support of the assembly, organized by the Union for the Defense of the Constituent Assembly. 12 people were killed.

On behalf of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK), its chairman, Yakov Sverdlov, read out the draft Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People authored by Vladimir Lenin. Sverdlov called upon “the Constituent Assembly to fully recognize all decrees and decisions of the Council of People’s Commissars” and proposed to adopt the “Declaration”. Most of the deputies refused to discuss this project.

Viktor Chernov, for whom 244 deputies voted, was elected Chairman of the Constituent Assembly. Maria Spiridonova, a candidate from Bolsheviks and the Left SRs, who had also claimed the post, received 153 votes. Late at night after the meeting refused to adopt the Declaration and to recognize the supremacy of Soviet power, the Bolsheviks left the meeting. Following the Bolsheviks, at 4 am the Left SRs also left the hall.

After the demand of the Head of the guard of the Tauride Palace, anarchist sailor Anatoly Zheleznyakov to Viktor Chernov, to close the meeting because “the guard is tired” (this phrase went down in history). The remaining deputies continued their work and adopted in a hurry the law on land, repeating the main points of the SR Party’s program, proclaimed Russia as a democratic federal republic and proposed to appeal the allied powers specifying the exact terms for a democratic world.

On January 6, 1918, at 4:40 am, the meeting of the Constituent Assembly was closed. The next meeting was scheduled for 5 pm on the same day. However, the deputies who came, failed to enter the building of the Tauride Palace, since it had been closed by order of the Soviet authorities. On the night of January 6–7, 1918, VTsIK adopted a decree dissolving the Constituent Assembly. The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly contributed to the growth of political confrontation in Russia and became one of the reasons for the outbreak of a large-scale Civil War.