Provisional Workers and Peasants Government

the original name of the Council of People’s Commissars, created by the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies on Oct. 26 (Nov. 8), 1917, “until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly.” The Constituent Assembly was convened on Jan. 5 (18), 1918. The counterrevolutionary majority of the delegates refused to confirm the Declaration of Rights of the Working and Exploited People. On January 6 (19), the All-Russian Central Executive Committee dissolved the Constituent Assembly. On January 18 (31) the Third All-Russian Congress of Soviets confirmed the dismissal of the Constituent Assembly and adopted a resolution on the elimination of all references to it from Soviet legislation. By the decree of the congress On a New Designation for the Present Supreme State Government, the Soviet government was given a new name—“Workers’ and Peasants’ Government of the Russian Soviet Republic.”