The Second All-Russian Congress of the Soviets decided in late January 1918 that Russia would become a federal republic and that a constitution should be written for it. In late March 1918 the central committee of the Bolshevik party instituted a commission to prepare the constitution. The commission was chaired by Y.M. Sverdlov, and its members included J.V. Stalin. The commission started work in early April 1918 and spent about three months on the project. Various aspects were discussed freely in the meetings, and the proceedings were recorded in the form of short-hand minutes. The members of the commission did not agree on the fundamental basis on which the federation should be constructed, nor did they hide their disagreement. The Bolshevik government saw the federal model as the solution for Russia's difficult ethnic question. Supported by Chairman Sverdlov, Stalin, who was People's Commissar for the Nationalities, insisted on the federal state being based on nationalities so that each nationality could establish either an autonomous republic or an autonomous area. In the constitution of Soviet Russia, adopted on 10 July 1918 by the Fifth All-Russian Congress of the Soviets, the right to autonomy was granted to areas with distinctive living conditions and a distinct ethnic composition. On 31 December 1917 the Soviet government had recognized Finland as an independent state. However, J.V. Stalin, when giving an interview to the Bolshevik press in Moscow, included Finland, together with Poland, Ukraine, the Crimea and Caucasus among the areas that could be considered to be members of the federation. Some exponents of the Finnish historiography have considered that this comment by Stalin showed how equivocal and deceitful the Bolsheviks were: when recognising Finnish independence, the Bolsheviks were not being honest as their real objective was to keep Finland, in one way or another, connected to Russia. The study of the material preserved from the work of the commission for the constitution does not seem to justify such a far-reaching conclusion. When recognising Finnish independence, the Bolsheviks seemed to be in earnest.
