The seizure of power by the Bolsheviks promised for a while to clear up conditions. No one believed that the Bolshevik party would be able to maintain itself long in power but at the same time it made all talk of a federal Russia purely theoretical and placed upon Ukraine and the Rada the task of maintaining law and order in its own territory, of solving the economic problems of the country, and of setting up a generally efficient government. This was an overpowering task, for the political revolution and the agrarian movement were moving along at a rapid pace. Disorder reigned in the country and there was no time to bring together the various conflicting points of view. At the same time the curious political philosophy of the Bolsheviks was complicating the situation still further. The Soviets were perfectly willing to grant independence to Ukraine or to any of the other border territories, but they insisted that the power could only be turned over to true representatives of the workers and peasants, i.e. the Bolsheviks themselves, since all other elements of the population were clearly counter-revolutionary and not typical of the ideals of the workers and peasants. As most of their leaders in Ukraine were of non-Ukrainian origin, this meant that the Ukrainians as a people were to be governed by the Russians, who alone were able to speak for the Ukrainian population. This novel philosophy forced the Rada to take definite action, and on November 7/20, it issued the Third Universal, which declared that “from this day on, Ukraine becomes the Ukrainian People’s Republic.” There is a definite ambiguity in this phrase, for in Ukrainian the word “Narodna” means both “People’s” and “National.” It expressed both the idea of a government of the Ukrainian people as a separate nation and also the idea of the government as one preeminently of the common people, i.e. those who were concerned with the vague but revolutionary agrarian program. As a matter of fact the term had become a slogan in all the area affected by the Russian Revolution and like all such slogans with an indefinite and unclear meaning, it created as much confusion as it did agreement. Under the terms of this declaration the Council attempted to establish a definite government. It passed certain liberal regulations on land ownership for the benefit of the peasants, it instituted the eight hour day, granted amnesty to political prisoners, and also called for the holding of a Pan-Ukrainian Congress, to be composed of elective members, to found a constitutional government. This election was to be held on January 9, 1918 and the Constituent Assembly was to meet on January 22.