Soviet Decrees

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Soviet Decrees

Decrees were legislative acts of the highest Soviet

Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
institutions, primarily of the Council of People's Commissars (the highest executive body) and of the Supreme Soviet

Supreme Soviet

The Supreme Soviet of the USSR was the highest legislative body in the Soviet Union in the interim of the sessions of the Congress of Soviets, and the only one with the power to pass constitutional amendments....
or VTsIK (the highest legislative body), issued between 1917 and 1924. Such acts issued after 1924 are referred to as Decisions or Ukase

Ukase

Ukase in Imperial Russia was a proclamation of the tsar, government, or a religious leader that had the force of law. Adequate translations are "edict" or "decree" of Roman law....
s in Soviet sources.

Bolshevik Initial Decrees were announced as soon as the Bolsheviks declared their success in the October Revolution (October 26, 1917).

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Decrees were legislative acts of the highest Soviet

Soviet Union

Supreme Soviet

Ukase

Bolshevik Initial Decrees

The Bolshevik Initial Decrees were announced as soon as the Bolsheviks declared their success in the October Revolution (October 26, 1917). The decrees seemed to conform to the popular Bolshevik slogan "Peace, Bread, and Land", taken up by the masses during the July Days (July 1917), an uprising of workers and military forces. The slogan succinctly articulated the grievances of the Russian peasantry, armed forces and proletariat (the working-class sections of Russian society). As revisionist historian Christopher Read suggests, "The Bolsheviks were successful in uniting the diverse revolutionary movements and directing them towards one goal", namely the establishment of state-socialism.

The Decree on Peace outlined measures for Russia's withdrawal from the First World War without "payment of indemnities or annexations". This decree aimed to secure the support of many soldiers on the disintegrating Russian front. The sincerity of this Bolshevik assurance came under scrutiny when V.L Lenin endorsed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty signed on March 3, 1918, at Brest-Litovsk between the Russian SFSR and the Central Powers, marking Russia's exit from World War I....
which divested Russia of its Baltic territory.

The Decree on Land outlined measures by which the peasants were to divide up rural land among themselves. It advocated the forceful dissolution of many wealthy estates by peasant forces. Such measures no doubt contributed to an increase in Bolshevik support amongst the peasantry, but were counterproductive in that the Russian war front disintegrated as soldiers (who were formerly peasants) returned to secure land for themselves.

The Workers' Decrees outlined measures for minimum wage, limitations on workers' hours, and the running of factories by elected workers' committees. This consolidated Bolshevik support amongst the working classes in the cities, where they had taken power.

The Bolsheviks also declared approximately 100 other decrees outlining the formal setup of Bolshevik government through the medium of the soviet institutions. Soviet political sovereignty was to be further challenged by the fact that the Social Revolutionary party attained over 50% of the votes in a democratically elected Assembly in January 1918. (This was promptly shut down by the Bolsheviks on the grounds that the Soviets were a more advanced democratic representation of the Russian people).

The significance of the initial decrees has been the subject of much historical debate. Some Liberal historians see the decrees as policy-making which was designed to secure the support of the population at a time of instability within the regime, only so that they could be betrayed by the Bolsheviks in search of an totalitarian state (Richard Pipes). More recently, revisionist historians have interpreted the initial decrees as popular social policy undertaken by the Bolsheviks with a view to precipitating a better quality of life for the Russian people. With this belief in mind, historian Richard Acton states, "The cleavage of the goals of the masses and that of the Bolsheviks was fundamental." It seems to be universally accepted that the initial decrees were an attempt by the Bolsheviks to secure popular support. However, historians question the intentions of the Bolsheviks in achieving widespread endorsement.

List of Soviet Decrees

1917

New Style Date Old Style and New Style dates Old Style and New Style are used in English language historical studies either to indicate that the start of the Julian year has been adjusted to start on :January 1 even though contemporary documents use a different start of year ; or to indicate that a date conforms to the Julian calendar , formerly in use in many countries, rathe...	Decree Name	Issued by
November 8	Decree on Peace Decree on Peace The Decree On Peace, written by Vladimir Lenin, was passed by the Second Congress of the Soviet of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies on the 26 October, 1917, following the success of the October Revolution....	2nd Congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies
	Decree on Land Decree on Land The Decree on Land, written by Vladimir Lenin, was passed by the Second Congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies on 26 October, 1917, following the success of the October Revolution....	2nd Congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies
	Decree on Establishment of the Workers' and Peasants' Government	2nd Congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies
November 9	Decree on Press	Sovnarkom
November 11	Decree on an Eight-Hour Working Day Eight-hour day The eight-hour day movement or 40-hour week movement, also known as the short-time movement, had its origins in the Industrial Revolution in UK, where industrial production in large factory transformed working life and imposed long hours and poor working conditions....	Sovnarkom
November 22	Decree on Establishment of the State Commission on Enlightenment	Sovnarkom
November 24	Decree Abolishing Classes and Civil Ranks	VTsIK
December 5	Decree on Courts	VTsIK
December 15	Decree on the Formation of the Supreme Economic Council of National Economy	VTsIK, Sovnarkom
December 27	Decree on the Nationalization of the Banks	VTsIK
December 29	Decree on the Election of Officers and on the Organization of Authority in the Army	VTsIK, Sovnarkom
December 29	Decree on the Equalization of Rights of All Serving in the Army	VTsIK, Sovnarkom
December 31	Decree on the State Independence of Finland	Sovnarkom

1918

New Style Date Old Style and New Style dates Old Style and New Style are used in English language historical studies either to indicate that the start of the Julian year has been adjusted to start on :January 1 even though contemporary documents use a different start of year ; or to indicate that a date conforms to the Julian calendar , formerly in use in many countries, rathe...	Decree Name	Issued by
January 4	Decree on the Clock Change Daylight saving time Daylight saving time is the convention of advancing clocks so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less. Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in autumn....	Sovnarkom
January 19	Decree on the Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly Russian Constituent Assembly The All Russian Constituent Assembly was a democratically elected constitutional body convened in Russia after the October Revolution of 1917. It met for 13 hours, from 4 p.m....	VTsIK
January 28	Decree on Establishment of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army	Sovnarkom
February 2	Decree on Freedom of Conscience, Church and Religious Societies	Sovnarkom
February 3	Decree on the Annullation of State Debts	VTsIK
February 8	Decree on Introduction of the Western European Calendar Gregorian calendar The Gregorian calendar is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was first proposed by the Calabrian doctor Aloysius Lilius, and decreed by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom it was named, on 24 February 1582 by the papal bull Inter gravissimas....	Sovnarkom
February 11	Decree on Establishment of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Fleet Soviet Navy The Soviet Navy was the naval part of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy would have been instrumental in any perceived Warsaw Pact role in an all-out war with NATO when it would have to stop the naval convoys bringing reinforcements over the Atlantic to the Western European theatre....	Sovnarkom
February 15	Decree on Courts N2	VTsIK
February 21	Decree "The Socialist Fatherland Is in Danger"	Sovnarkom
April 12	Decree on the Dismantling of Monuments Erected in Honor of the Tsars and Their Servants and on the Formulation of Projects of Monuments to the Russian Socialist Revolution	Sovnarkom
April 14	Decree on the Flag of the Russian Republic	VTsIK
April 22	Decree on the Nationalization of External Trade	Sovnarkom
April 22	Decree on Establishing Compulsory Military Training for Workers and Peasants of Age 18 to 40	VTsIK
May 2	Decree on the Nationalization of the Sugar Industry	Sovnarkom
May 13	Decree Giving the Food Commissariat Extraordinary Powers to Combat Village Bourgeoisie Who Were Concealing and Speculating on Grain Reserves	VTsIK, Sovnarkom
May 13	Decree on Forests	Sovnarkom
May 29	Decree on the Compulsory Recruitment into the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army	VTsIK
June 11	Decree on the Organisation of the Village Poor and Supply to Them of Grain, Prime Necessities and Agricultural Implements	VTsIK
June 28	Decree on the Nationalization of Large-Scale Industry and Railway Transportation Enterprises	Sovnarkom
September 4	Decree on the Nationalization of Private Railroads	Sovnarkom
September 5	Decree on Red Terror Red Terror The Red Terror in Soviet Russia was the campaign of mass arrests and executions conducted by the Bolshevik government. In Soviet historiography, the Red Terror is described as officially announced on September 2, 1918 by Yakov Sverdlov and ended in about October 1918....	Sovnarkom
September 14	Decree on the Introduction of the International Decimal Metric System Metric system The metric system is an international decimalised systems of measurement, founded by France in 1791, that is the common system of Unit of measurement used by most of the world....	Sovnarkom
October 5	Decree on Registration and Protection of Monuments of Culture and Ancient Art Cultural heritage Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical Cultural artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations.... , Owned by Private Persons, Societies and Institutions	Sovnarkom
October 19	Decree on the Establishment of the Labour Commune of Volga Germans Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic The Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was an autonomous republic established in Russian SFSR, with its capital at the Volga port of Engels ....	Sovnarkom
October 31	Decree on the Social Security Social security Social security primarily refers to a social insurance program providing social protection, or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others.... of Working People	Sovnarkom

1919

New Style Date Old Style and New Style dates Old Style and New Style are used in English language historical studies either to indicate that the start of the Julian year has been adjusted to start on :January 1 even though contemporary documents use a different start of year ; or to indicate that a date conforms to the Julian calendar , formerly in use in many countries, rathe...	Decree Name	Issued by
January 4	Decree on Release from Military Service Due to Religious Beliefs	Sovnarkom
January 11	Decree on Surplus Appropriation System Prodrazvyorstka Prodrazvyorstka , translated as food apportionment, was a governmental program in Russia which obliged peasantry to surrender the surpluses of almost any kind of agricultural produce for a fixed price....	Sovnarkom
February 8	Decree on the Introduction of Time Measurement According to International Time Zone Time zone A time zone is a region of the earth that has uniform standard time, usually referred to as the local time. By convention, time zones compute their local time as an offset from Coordinated Universal Time .... System	Sovnarkom
April 22	Decree on the Order of Preservation and Annihilation of Archive Acts	Sovnarkom
July 29	Decree on Abolishing Private Property Rights on Archives of Russian Writers, Composers, Painters and Scientists, Preserved in Libraries and Museums	Sovnarkom
December 26	Decree on Eradication of Illiteracy Likbez Likbez was a campaign of eradication of illiteracy in Russian SFSR in the 1920s and 1930s. The term was also used for various schools and courses established during the campaign.... among the Population of the Russian SFSR Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , also called the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, the Russian SFSR and the RSFSR for short, was the largest and most populous of the fifteen Republics of the Soviet Union of the Soviet Union and became the Russian Federation after the collapse of the Soviet Union....	Sovnarkom

1920

New Style Date Old Style and New Style dates Old Style and New Style are used in English language historical studies either to indicate that the start of the Julian year has been adjusted to start on :January 1 even though contemporary documents use a different start of year ; or to indicate that a date conforms to the Julian calendar , formerly in use in many countries, rathe...	Decree Name	Issued by
January 29	Decree on the Universal Labour Conscription	Sovnarkom
June 8	Decree on Labour Rewarding with Premiums	Sovnarkom
June 17	Decree on General Wage Wage A wage is a compensation, usually financial, received by a worker Coincidence of wants for their Labor .Compensation in terms of wages is given to worker and compensation in terms of salary is given to employees.... Regulations	Sovnarkom

1921

New Style Date Old Style and New Style dates Old Style and New Style are used in English language historical studies either to indicate that the start of the Julian year has been adjusted to start on :January 1 even though contemporary documents use a different start of year ; or to indicate that a date conforms to the Julian calendar , formerly in use in many countries, rathe...	Decree Name	Issued by
March 21	Decree on the Replacement of Surplus Appropriation System Prodrazvyorstka Prodrazvyorstka , translated as food apportionment, was a governmental program in Russia which obliged peasantry to surrender the surpluses of almost any kind of agricultural produce for a fixed price.... by the Food Tax Prodnalog Prodnalog was a fixed food tax in Bolshevist Russia, introduced by the Soviet Decrees of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on March 21, 1921 instead of prodrazvyorstka....	VTsIK
March 28	Decree on the Free Exchange, Purchase and Selling of Agricultural Goods in Guberniya Guberniya Guberniya was a major administrative subdivision of Imperial Russia, usually translated as government, governorate, or province. A guberniya was ruled by a governor or , a word borrowed from Latin , in turn from Greek .... s that Ended Surplus Appropriation System Prodrazvyorstka Prodrazvyorstka , translated as food apportionment, was a governmental program in Russia which obliged peasantry to surrender the surpluses of almost any kind of agricultural produce for a fixed price....	Sovnarkom
April 7	Decree on Consumers' Cooperation Consumers' cooperative A consumers' cooperative is a cooperative business owned by its customers for their Mutual aid. It is a form of capitalism that is oriented toward service rather than pecuniary profit....	Sovnarkom
July 7	Decree on Producers' Cooperation	VTsIK, Sovnarkom

1922

New Style Date Old Style and New Style dates Old Style and New Style are used in English language historical studies either to indicate that the start of the Julian year has been adjusted to start on :January 1 even though contemporary documents use a different start of year ; or to indicate that a date conforms to the Julian calendar , formerly in use in many countries, rathe...	Decree Name	Issued by
March 17	Decree on the Universal Food Tax Prodnalog Prodnalog was a fixed food tax in Bolshevist Russia, introduced by the Soviet Decrees of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on March 21, 1921 instead of prodrazvyorstka.... for Agricultural Goods	VTsIK, Sovnarkom
November 15	Decree on the Unification of the Russian SFSR Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , also called the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, the Russian SFSR and the RSFSR for short, was the largest and most populous of the fifteen Republics of the Soviet Union of the Soviet Union and became the Russian Federation after the collapse of the Soviet Union.... with the Far Eastern Republic Far Eastern Republic The Far Eastern Republic , sometimes called the Chita Republic, was a nominally independent state established at Blagoveshchensk, covering the former Russian Far East and Siberia east of Lake Baikal on April 6, 1920....	VTsIK
December 19	Decree on Giving Exit Visas Visa (document) A visa is an indication that a person is authorized to enter the country which "issued" the visa, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry.... and Passport Passport A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder.... s for Going Abroad	Sovnarkom

1924

New Style Date Old Style and New Style dates Old Style and New Style are used in English language historical studies either to indicate that the start of the Julian year has been adjusted to start on :January 1 even though contemporary documents use a different start of year ; or to indicate that a date conforms to the Julian calendar , formerly in use in many countries, rathe...	Decree Name	Issued by	E-text
December 19	Decree on Transforming Labour Commune of Volga Germans into ASSR Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic The Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was an autonomous republic established in Russian SFSR, with its capital at the Volga port of Engels ....	VTsIK