As a result of the proposition put forward by the Bolsheviks, the preparation for the assembly of the All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets was undertaken by the regional executive committee of councils of workers', peasants, and soldiers' deputies of the Southwestern Krai that was created in the spring of 1917 in Kyiv.

Representatives of all the councils of workers', peasants', and soldiers' deputies from guberniyas, counties, and cities should have participated in the Congress, including ones that were under influence of Ukrainian parties.

However, the representational system gave a great advantage to delegates from the councils of the industrial regions and the big cities where Bolsheviks had the biggest influence.

[citation needed] The Central Council of Ukraine had already passed a bill concerning elections to the Ukrainian Constituent Assembly, but over two weeks later, on 30 October [O.S.

17 October] 1917, the Russian Provisional Government accused the General Secretariat of Ukraine of separatism and threatened to take the matter to court.

On 20 November 1917 the Central Council of Ukraine issued its Third (Universal) Decree in which it announced the date for the convening of the Ukrainian Constituent Assembly as 9 January 1918.

For this purpose Grigoriy Zinoviev, a member of the Communist Central Committee arrived in Kyiv along with Semyon Roshal, a Russian government commissar from the Romanian Front.

Simultaneously Yevgenia Bosch managed to direct the 2nd Guard Corps of the 7th Army from the Romanian Front to Kyiv in support of another Bolshevik uprising.

This uprising was preemptively put down with almost no bloodshed due to the efforts of Yuriy Kapkan, the Kyiv commandant, and Pavlo Skoropadsky, the General of the 1st Ukrainian Corps.

The party elected a Chief Committee that consisted of Aussem, Shakhrai, Lapchinsky, Bosch, Zatonsky, Aleksandrov, Kulik, Grinevich, Gorvits and candidates Lyuksemburg, Gamarnik, Galperin, Pyatakov.

4 December] 1917) the government of Soviet Russia sent an ultimatum to the Central Council signed by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky giving the Ukrainian side 48 hours to respond.

The next day the government of Russia, without waiting for an answer, declared that it considered the Central Council of Ukraine its enemy and appointed Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko as the commander of the Soviet Red Guards.

7 December] 1917 the Central Council of Ukraine sent an answer to the Soviet ultimatum signed by Volodymyr Vynnychenko and Symon Petlyura, rejecting it.

[citation needed] The decline of Russian moderate socialists after the October Revolution drove more supporters towards the Ukrainian nationalist parties.

30 December] 1918 Vasiliy Shakhrai, who left to participate in the Brest-Litovsk peace talks, was replaced by the Ukrainian Bolshevik Yuriy Kotsyubynsky.