ABSTRACT
The first document adopted by the first official organ of Soviet power, the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, meeting on November 7, 1917, promised to guarantee "all nations inhabiting Russia" the "complete right of self-determination". In the struggle for ascendancy after the seizure of power, the Bolsheviks, with promises of peace, land, food, and power to the Soviets, won popular support in the Russian heartland. The first Soviet Constitution was adopted in July 1918. It announced the legal creation of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR). The RSFSR was called "federated" because it contained within it smaller politico-administrative units, eight so-called "autonomous republics" and thirteen "autonomous regions". The federal structure was rationalized by Stalin as a basis for maintaining the Leninist line of nationality policy. Stalin, like Lenin, regarded federalism as transitional. He explained that: in all existing federative organizations—;;the most characteristic of the bourgeois-democratic type are the American and Swiss federations.
