A political organization that united representatives of various political groups opposed to the Bolsheviks.

 

The All-Russian Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution was formed in Petrograd on the night of October 25–26, 1917, as a response to the October coup carried out by the Bolsheviks. The Committee was headed by representatives of the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SRs) Abram Gots, Vladimir Zenzinov, Victor Chernov, Nikolay Avksentiev, as well as the Popular Socialist Nikolay Tchaikovsky.

 

The opposition to the Bolshevik government that was formed at the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies and left the Congress as a sign of protest, rallied around the Committee. The Committee included representatives of the central committees and factions of the Socialist Revolutionaries (right-wing and centrists), Mensheviks, Popular Socialists, former members of the executive committees of the Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies and the Soviet of Peasants’ Deputies, the Petrograd City Duma, the Pre-Parliament, as well as other organizations and associations.

 

On October 26, the Committee issued a proclamation “To the Citizens of the Russian Republic”, in which the Bolsheviks’ actions were called illegal, criminal, and unleashing a civil war. The Committee took the initiative to recreate the Provisional Government so that it could bring the country to the Constituent Assembly. On October 27, the Central Committee of the Socialist Revolutionary Party called to join the Committee to create a homogeneous socialist government of revolutionary democracy.

The Committee tried to influence the course of the armed conflict with the Bolsheviks, developed a plan for the march-off of the Junker schools and some parts of the capital’s garrison, which was to coincide with the offensive of troops led by Aleksander Kerensky and Pyotr Krasnov on Petrograd. The October 29–30 coup failed. On the same days, some of the Committee members took part in negotiations organized by Vikzhel (the All-Russian Executive Committee of the Union of Railwaymen) to reconcile the parties and create a multi-party socialist government. A compromise could not be reached.

 

In October–November 1917, the Committee tried to direct the activities of state ministries and departments and coordinated their employees’ resistance to the Bolsheviks. It appointed its commissars to the government agencies and regions, initiated the creation of local Committees for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution, interacted with anti-Bolshevik democratic army organizations.

 

November 9, 1917, the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee ordered to dissolve the Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution. Some of its former members joined the Union for the Defense of the Constituent Assembly. In some regions, local Salvation Committees resisted the Bolsheviks until the middle of the spring of 1918.