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Constituent Assembly is dispersed after one session

On 19 January 1918 N.S. (6 January O.S.), after a single session in which SRs held the majority, the Constituent Assembly was prevented from reconvening. In the causal graph this event weakens Democratic Resilience, a driver that strengthens Having a say in government — a worsening welfare path.

Sources: [1][2]

Read the full account

On 19 January 1918 N.S. (6 January O.S.), after a single session in which SRs held the majority, the Constituent Assembly was prevented from reconvening. The Bolshevik All-Russian CEC declared it dissolved. Lenin had published theses denying its supremacy.

Context

Elections in November 1917 had given SRs a plurality. Closing the Assembly is the Fact. Civil war violence is a related cluster.

Shared responsibility with other offices is part of the record. Sharing is not a reason to drop this person's documented role, and it is not a reason to treat every later consequence as their handwriting.

Why it matters

Weakens democratic resilience. Direct contribution. High confidence.

Who was responsible

Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.

  • Vladimir Lenin

    Person

    Direct responsibility

    responsibility level 0.8 · verified

    Lenin’s theses rejected the Assembly as outdated. Sailors and guards closed it. The All-Russian CEC issued the dissolution.

What changed

Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.

    1. FactConstituent Assembly is dispersed after one session
    2. weakensDriverDemocratic Resilience
    3. strengthensIndicators (3)Having a say in government
    Worsening path

    impact weight 0.85 · Effect from 19 January 1918 · verified

    Dispersing the only nationwide elected assembly of 1917 ended competitive national representation.

    • Having a say in government

      via Democratic Resilience

      Worse

      Strengthens · Relationship strength 0.59 (weight 0.85 × strength 0.7)

      Observed

      29.8% of population aged 16-65 years · 8.13 below the normal line (2023)

      Worse than normal

      Two readings: 30.2% of population aged 16-65 years (2021) and 29.8% of population aged 16-65 years (2023).

      20212023

      Above normal = better

    • Clean elections index

      via Democratic Resilience

      Worse

      Strengthens · Relationship strength 0.38 (weight 0.85 × strength 0.45)

      Observed

      0.53 score from 0 to 1 · 0.34 below the normal line (2024)

      Worse than normal

      125 readings, 1900–2024: rose from 0.17 score from 0 to 1 to 0.53 score from 0 to 1.

      Above normal = better

    • WJP Rule of Law Index (global)

      via Democratic Resilience

      Worse

      Strengthens · Relationship strength 0.38 (weight 0.85 × strength 0.45)

      Observed

      0.55 index score (0-1) · 0.26 below the normal line (2024)

      Worse than normal

      Above normal = better

Evidence

The sources behind this fact and its verification state.

Verified2 sources on file
  1. 1.Britannica — Constituent Assembly dissolved January 1918Encyclopaedia Britannica · High credibility · verified
  2. 2.Lenin, Theses on the Constituent Assembly, 1918Marxists Internet Archive · High credibility · verified
What the sources establish

Lenin’s theses and the CEC decree are official. Britannica independently dates the dispersal. Radkey reconstructs the election results.

Later commission estimates are attributed to those commissions.

Established: the Assembly was dispersed after 19 January 1918 N.S. Not established: that it could have ended the war or fed the cities.

Central files can show that an order was issued; they cannot reconstruct every locality's implementation. Memoir and literary evidence is independent texture, never the sole causal source. Official statistics of the period are treated as claims with known incentives. Later archival openings and museum publications are independent or successor-state records. The contribution is direct where this person signed, chaired, or issued the act, and remains bounded by other offices that had to act. Readers who want the welfare path should open the named driver rather than treating a portrait as the mechanism.

Causal path

How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.

  1. ActorVladimir Lenin
  2. contributed toFactConstituent Assembly is dispersed after one session
  3. weakensDriverDemocratic Resilience
  4. strengthensIndicatorHaving a say in government

Cite this page

Factrail. (2026). Constituent Assembly is dispersed after one session. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/ru-constituent-assembly-dissolved-1918

https://factrail.ai/facts/ru-constituent-assembly-dissolved-1918

Accessed 17 October 2026.

By the · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed

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