From V.I. Lenin’s Report on the tasks of Soviet power at a meeting of the Petrograd Council of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies on October 25 (November 7), 1917 (newspaper report): “Comrades! The workers' and peasants' revolution, the need for which the Bolsheviks kept talking about, has taken place.
What is the significance of this workers' and peasants' revolution? First of all, the significance of this revolution is that we will have a Soviet government, our own organ of power, without any participation of the bourgeoisie. The oppressed masses will create power themselves. The old state apparatus will be completely destroyed and a new administrative apparatus will be created in the form of Soviet organizations.”
V.I.Lenin. Full collection op. T. 35. P. 2.
From the resolution of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies “To Workers, Soldiers and Peasants!” written by V.I. Lenin: “The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies has opened. The vast majority of the Soviets are represented there. A number of delegates from the peasant Soviets are also present at the congress. The powers of the conciliatory Central Executive Committee have ended. Relying on the will of the vast majority of workers, soldiers and peasants, relying on the victorious uprising of the workers and garrison that took place in Petrograd, the congress takes power into its own hands.
The provisional government has been overthrown. Most members of the Provisional Government have already been arrested.
The Soviet government will offer immediate democratic peace to all peoples and an immediate truce on all fronts. It will ensure the free transfer of landowners', appanage and monastic lands to the disposal of peasant committees, will defend the rights of the soldier, carrying out the complete democratization of the army, will establish workers' control over production, will ensure the convening of the Constituent Assembly, will take care of the delivery of grain to the cities and basic necessities to the countryside, will provide all nations people living in Russia have a genuine right to self-determination.
The Congress decides: all local power passes to the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, which must ensure genuine revolutionary order."
V.I.Lenin. Full collection op. T. 35. P. 11.
Meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on November 4 (17), 1917. From V.I. Lenin’s Answer to the request of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries: “The living creativity of the masses is the main factor of the new public. Let the workers undertake the creation of workers' control in their factories and factories, let them supply the villages with manufactured goods, and exchange them for bread. Not a single product, not a single pound of bread should be left out of accounting, for socialism is, first of all, accounting. Socialism is not created by orders from above. Official-bureaucratic automatism is alien to his spirit; socialism is alive, creative, is the creation of the masses themselves.”
V.I.Lenin. Full collection op. T. 35. P. 57.
From V.I. Lenin’s work “The Infantile Disease of “Leftism” in Communism”: “Now we already have before us a very decent international experience, which speaks with complete certainty that some of the main features of our revolution are not local, not nationally special, not only Russian, but international significance. And I’m talking here about international significance not in the broad sense of the word: not some, but all the main and many secondary features of our revolution have international significance in the sense of its impact on all countries. No, in the narrowest sense of the word, that is, understanding by international significance the international significance or the historical inevitability of a repetition on an international scale of what we had, we have to recognize such significance behind some of the main features of our revolution.
Of course, it would be a great mistake to exaggerate this truth, to extend it not only to some of the main features of our revolution...
But at this historical moment, the situation is precisely this: the Russian example is showing all countries something, and very significant, from their inevitable and near future. Advanced workers in all countries have long understood this, and even more often they have not so much understood it as grasped it and sensed it with the instinct of the revolutionary class.”
V.I.Lenin. Full collection op. T. 41. pp. 3-4.
On the eve of the first anniversary of the October Revolution (1918), J.V. Stalin recalled: “The most important events that accelerated the October Uprising were: the intention of the Provisional Government (after the surrender of Riga) to surrender Petrograd, the preparation of the Kerensky government to move to Moscow, the decision of the command staff of the old army to transfer the entire garrison of Petrograd to the front, leaving the capital defenseless and, finally, the feverish work of the black congress, led by Rodzianko, in Moscow - the work of organizing a counter-revolution. All this, in connection with the growing economic devastation and the reluctance of the front to continue the war, determined the inevitability of a quick and strictly organized uprising as the only way out of the current situation.
Already at the end of September, the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party decided to mobilize all the forces of the party to organize a successful uprising. For these purposes, the Central Committee decided to organize the Military Revolutionary Committee in St. Petersburg, achieve the leaving of the Petrograd garrison in the capital and convene the All-Russian Congress of Soviets. Such a congress could be the only successor to power. The preliminary conquest of the most significant Soviets of Deputies in Moscow and Petrograd in the rear and at the front was certainly part of the general plan for organizing the uprising.
The Central Organ of the Workers' Way party, obeying the instructions of the Central Committee, began to openly call for an uprising, preparing workers and peasants for a decisive battle.
The first open clash with the Provisional Government occurred due to the closure of the Bolshevik newspaper Rabochy Put. By order of the Provisional Government the newspaper was closed. By order of the Military Revolutionary Committee, it was opened in a revolutionary way. The seals were torn, the commissioners of the Provisional Government were removed from their posts. It was October 24th.
On October 24, in a number of the most important state institutions, the commissars of the Military Revolutionary Committee forcibly removed representatives of the Provisional Government, as a result of which these institutions found themselves in the hands of the Military Revolutionary Committee, and the entire apparatus of the Provisional Government was disorganized. On this day (October 24), the entire garrison, all regiments in Petrograd decisively went over to the side of the Military Revolutionary Committee, with the exception of only some cadet schools and an armored division. Indecisiveness was noticed in the behavior of the Provisional Government. Only in the evening did it begin to occupy the bridges with shock battalions, having managed to disperse some of them. In response to this, the Military Revolutionary Committee sent sailors and Vyborg Red Guards, who, having removed the shock battalions and dispersed them, occupied the bridges themselves. From that moment on, open rebellion began. A whole number of our regiments were sent with the task of surrounding with a ring the entire area occupied by the headquarters and the Winter Palace. The Provisional Government met in the Winter Palace. The transition of the armored division to the side of the Military Revolutionary Committee (late at night on October 24) accelerated the favorable outcome of the uprising.
On October 25, the Congress of Soviets opened, to which the won power was transferred by the Military Revolutionary Committee.
Early in the morning of October 26, after the Aurora shelled the Winter Palace and headquarters, after a shootout between Soviet troops and cadets in front of the Winter Palace, the Provisional Government surrendered.
The mastermind of the coup from beginning to end was the Central Committee of the party, headed by Comrade Lenin. Vladimir Ilyich then lived in Petrograd, on the Vyborg side, in a safe house. On October 24, in the evening, he was summoned to Smolny to lead the movement.
An outstanding role in the October Uprising was played by Baltic sailors and Red Guards from the Vyborg side. Given the extraordinary courage of these people, the role of the Petrograd garrison was reduced mainly to moral and partly military support for the advanced fighters.”
I.V.Stalin. Op. T. 4. pp. 152-154.
From J.V. Stalin’s work “The October Revolution and the Tactics of Russian Communists”: “Three external circumstances determined the comparative ease with which the proletarian revolution in Russia managed to break the chains of imperialism and thus overthrow the power of the bourgeoisie.
Firstly, the fact that the October Revolution began during a period of desperate struggle between the two main imperialist groups, Anglo-French and Austro-German, when these groups, being busy in a mortal struggle among themselves, had neither the time nor the means to pay serious attention to the struggle with the October Revolution. This circumstance was of enormous importance for the October Revolution, for it gave it the opportunity to use the brutal clashes within imperialism to strengthen and organize its forces.
Secondly, the fact that the October Revolution began during the imperialist war, when the working masses, exhausted by the war and thirsting for peace, were led by the very logic of things to the proletarian revolution as the only way out of the war. This circumstance was of the greatest importance for the October Revolution, for it put into its hands a powerful instrument of peace, made it easier for it to combine the Soviet coup with the end of the hated war and, in view of this, created for it mass sympathy both in the West, among the workers, and in the East, among oppressed peoples.
Thirdly, the presence of a powerful labor movement in Europe and the fact of a brewing revolutionary crisis in the West and East, created by the long imperialist war. This circumstance was of invaluable importance for the revolution in Russia, for it provided it with loyal allies outside Russia in its struggle against world imperialism.
But in addition to external circumstances, the October Revolution also had a number of internal favorable conditions that facilitated its victory.
Firstly, the October Revolution had the active support of the vast majority of the Russian working class.
Secondly, she had the undoubted support of the peasant poor and the majority of soldiers who longed for peace and land.
Thirdly, it had at its head, as a guiding force, such a proven party as the Bolshevik Party, strong not only in its experience and discipline developed over the years, but also in its enormous connections with the working masses.
Fourthly, the October Revolution faced such relatively easily overcome enemies as the more or less weak Russian bourgeoisie, the landowner class completely demoralized by peasant “revolts,” and the compromising parties (Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary parties) that were completely bankrupt during the war.
Fifthly, she had at her disposal vast spaces of the young state, where she could freely maneuver, retreat when the situation required it, take a break, gather strength, etc.
Sixth, the October Revolution could count in its fight against the counter-revolution on the availability of sufficient food, fuel and raw materials resources within the country.
The combination of these external and internal circumstances created that peculiar situation that determined the comparative ease of victory of the October Revolution.
This does not mean, of course, that the October Revolution did not have its drawbacks in terms of the external and internal situation. What is it worth, for example, such a minus as the well-known loneliness of the October Revolution, the absence of a Soviet country near it and in its neighborhood on which it could rely?
* On October 25, 1917, when the bourgeois Provisional Government was overthrown as a result of an armed uprising, V.I. Lenin wrote an Appeal “To the Citizens of Russia!” This was the first official document of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks) and the Soviet government.
The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies opened. The vast majority of the Soviets are represented there. A number of delegates from the peasant Soviets are also present at the congress. The powers of the conciliatory Central Executive Committee have ended. Relying on the will of the vast majority of workers, soldiers and peasants, relying on the victorious uprising of the workers and garrison that took place in Petrograd, the congress takes power into its own hands.
The provisional government has been overthrown. Most members of the Provisional Government have already been arrested.
The Soviet government will offer immediate democratic peace to all peoples and an immediate truce on all fronts. It will ensure the free transfer of landowners', appanage and monastic lands to the disposal of peasant committees, will defend the rights of the soldier by carrying out complete democratization of the army, will establish workers' control over production, will ensure the timely convening of the Constituent Assembly, will take care of the delivery of grain to the cities and basic necessities to the countryside, will provide for everyone the nations inhabiting Russia have a genuine right to self-determination.
The Congress decides: all local power passes to the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, which must ensure genuine revolutionary order.
The Congress calls on soldiers in the trenches to be vigilant and steadfast. The Congress of Soviets is confident that the revolutionary army will be able to defend the revolution from all encroachments of imperialism until the new government achieves the conclusion of a democratic peace, which it will directly offer to all peoples. The new government will take all measures to provide the revolutionary army with everything necessary, through a decisive policy of requisitions and taxation of the propertied classes, and will also improve the situation of soldiers' families.
The Kornilovites - Kerensky, Kaledin and others - are making attempts to lead troops to Petrograd. Several detachments, fraudulently moved by Kerensky, went over to the side of the insurgent people.
Soldiers, actively resist the Kornilovite Kerensky! Be on your guard!
Railway workers, stop all trains sent by Kerensky to Petrograd!
Soldiers, workers, office workers - the fate of the revolution and the fate of the democratic world are in your hands!
Long live the revolution!
All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies
Delegates from Peasant Councils
Published according to the text of the Complete Works of V.I. Lenin. T. 35. pp. 11-12.
DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WORKING AND EXPLOITED PEOPLE*
* "Declaration of the Rights of Working and Exploited People" On January 3 (16), 1918, it was introduced by Lenin at a meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. The text of the “Declaration”, adopted unanimously at a meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, was somewhat different from Lenin’s original text. On January 4 (17), 1918, the “Declaration” was published in the newspaper “Pravda” No. 2. On January 5 (18), the “Declaration” was proposed by the Bolshevik faction on behalf of the Soviet government for discussion at the Constituent Assembly. The Constituent Assembly refused to discuss the "Declaration", after which the Bolshevik faction left the Constituent Assembly. On January 12 (25), 1918, the “Declaration” was approved by the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets.
early January 1918
The Constituent Assembly decides:
I.1. Russia is declared a republic of Soviets of workers, soldiers and peasants' deputies. All power at the center and locally belongs to these Soviets.
2. The Soviet Russian Republic is established on the basis of a free union of free nations as a federation of Soviet national republics.
II. Setting as its main task the abolition of all exploitation of man by man, the complete elimination of the division of society into classes, the merciless suppression of the resistance of the exploiters, the establishment of a socialist organization of society and the victory of socialism in all countries, the Constituent Assembly further decides:
1. Private ownership of land is abolished. All land, with all buildings, implements and other accessories of agricultural production, is declared the property of all working people.
2. The Soviet law on workers' control and on the Supreme Council of the National Economy is reaffirmed in order to ensure the power of the working people over the exploiters, and as the first step towards the complete transfer of factories, factories, mines, railways and other means of production and transport into the ownership of the workers and peasants states.
3. The transfer of all banks to the ownership of the workers' and peasants' state is confirmed, as one of the conditions for the liberation of the working masses from the yoke of capital.
5. In the interests of ensuring full power for the working masses and eliminating any possibility of restoring the power of the exploiters, the arming of the working people, the formation of a socialist red army of workers and peasants, and the complete disarmament of the propertied classes are decreed.
III. 1. Expressing an unshakable determination to snatch humanity from the clutches of finance capital and imperialism, which have covered the earth with blood in this most criminal of all wars, the Constituent Assembly fully joins the policy pursued by the Soviet government of breaking secret treaties and organizing the broadest fraternization with the workers and peasants of the armies currently at war with each other and achieving, at all costs, by revolutionary measures, a democratic peace between peoples, without annexations and without indemnities, on the basis of the free self-determination of nations.
2. For the same purposes, the Constituent Assembly insists on a complete break with the barbaric policy of bourgeois civilization, which built the welfare of the exploiters in a few selected nations on the enslavement of hundreds of millions of the working population in Asia, in colonies in general and in small countries.
The Constituent Assembly welcomes the policy of the Council of People's Commissars, which declared the complete independence of Finland*, began the withdrawal of troops from Persia**, and declared freedom of self-determination for Armenia***.
* All-Russian Central Executive Committee on December 22, 1917 (January 4, 1918) according to the report of I.V. Stalin on the independence of Finland adopted the “Declaration of the Revolutionary Government on the Independence of Finland.”
** A proposal to the Persian government to develop a general plan for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Persia was made by the Soviet government in the second half of December 1917.
*** The decree “On Turkish Armenia”, written by I.V. Stalin, was discussed at a meeting of the Council of People’s Commissars on December 23, 1917 (January 5, 1918) and approved by the Council of People’s Commissars on December 29, 1917 (January 11, 1918). The decree was published in the newspaper "Pravda" No. 227 of January 13, 1918 (December 31, 1917).
3. As the first blow to international banking and financial capital. The Constituent Assembly is considering the Soviet law on the annulment (destruction) of loans concluded by the governments of the tsar, landowners and bourgeoisie, expressing confidence that the Soviet government will firmly follow this path until the complete victory of the international workers' uprising against the yoke of capital.
IV. Having been chosen on the basis of party lists drawn up before the October Revolution, when the people could not yet rise en masse against the exploiters, did not know the full strength of their resistance when they defended their class privileges, and had not yet practically taken up the creation of a socialist society, the Constituent Assembly would consider It is fundamentally wrong, even from a formal point of view, to oppose oneself to Soviet power.
In essence, the Constituent Assembly believes that now, at the moment of the last struggle of the people against their exploiters, there can be no place for exploiters in any of the government bodies. Power must belong entirely and exclusively to the working masses and their authorized representation - the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies.
Supporting Soviet power and the decrees of the Council of People's Commissars, the Constituent Assembly believes that its tasks are limited to establishing the fundamental foundations for the socialist reorganization of society.
At the same time, striving to create a truly free and voluntary, and therefore even closer and lasting, union of the working classes of all nations of Russia, the Constituent Assembly limits its task to establishing the fundamental principles of the federation of Soviet republics of Russia, leaving the workers and peasants of each nation to make an independent decision on their own plenipotentiary Soviet congress, whether and on what grounds they wish to participate in the federal government and in other federal Soviet institutions.
DECREE ON LAND OF THE CONGRESS OF SOVIETS OF WORKERS' AND SOLDIERS' DEPUTIES (adopted at a meeting on October 26 at 2 a.m.1) 1) Landowner ownership of land is abolished immediately without any redemption. 1 That is, in fact, already on the 27th. 2) Landowners' estates, as well as all appanage, monastic, church lands, with all their living and dead implements, manor buildings and all accessories shall be transferred to the disposal of volost land committees and district Soviets of peasant deputies, until the Constituent Assembly . 3) Any damage to confiscated property, which henceforth belongs to the entire people, is declared a serious crime punishable by a revolutionary court. The district Soviets of peasant deputies are taking all necessary measures to maintain the strictest order during the confiscation of landowners' estates, to determine the size of plots and which ones are subject to confiscation, to draw up an accurate inventory of all confiscated property and for the strictest revolutionary protection of everything transferred to to the people of the economy on the land with all the buildings, tools, livestock, food supplies, etc. 4) For guidance in the implementation of great land reforms, until their final decision by the Constituent Assembly, the following peasant mandate, compiled on the basis of 242 local peasant mandates by the editors of Izvestia of the All-Russian Council of Peasant Deputies and published in issue 88 of these Izvestia (Petrograd, no. 88, August 19, 1917). About land The question about land, in its entirety, can only be resolved by a national Constituent Assembly. The fairest resolution of the land issue should be as follows: 1) The right of private ownership of land is abolished forever; land cannot be sold, purchased, leased or pledged, or alienated in any other way. All land: state, appanage, cabinet, monastery, church, possession, primordial, privately owned, public and peasant, etc. - is alienated free of charge, converted into national property and transferred to the use of all workers on it. Those affected by the property coup are only recognized as having the right to public support for the time necessary to adapt to new conditions of existence. 2) All subsoil of the earth: ore, oil, coal, salt, etc., as well as forests and waters of national importance, become the exclusive use of the state. All small rivers, lakes, forests, etc. are transferred to the use of communities, subject to their management by local self-government bodies. 3) Land plots with highly cultural farms: gardens, plantations, nurseries, nurseries, greenhouses, etc. - are not subject to division, but are turned into demonstrative ones and transferred to the exclusive use of the state or communities, depending on their size and importance . Estate, urban and rural land, with home gardens and vegetable gardens, remains in the use of the real owners, and the size of the plots themselves and the level of tax for their use are determined by law. 4) Horse breeding farms, state-owned and private breeding cattle and poultry farms, etc. are confiscated, converted into national property and transferred either to the exclusive use of the state or the community, depending on their size and significance. The issue of redemption is subject to consideration by the Constituent Assembly. 5) All economic inventory of confiscated lands, living and dead, goes into the exclusive use of the state or community, depending on their size and significance, without redemption. Confiscation of inventory does not apply to peasants with little land. 6) The right to use land is granted to all citizens (without distinction of gender) of the Russian state who wish to cultivate it with their own labor, with the help of their family, or in partnership, and only as long as they are able to cultivate it. Hired labor is not permitted. In case of accidental powerlessness of any member of a rural society for a period of 2 years, the rural society undertakes, until his ability to work is restored, for this period to come to his aid through public cultivation of the land. Farmers who, due to old age or disability, have forever lost the opportunity to personally cultivate the land, lose the right to use it, but in return receive pension provision from the state. 7) Land use must be equal, i.e. land is distributed among workers, taking into account local conditions according to labor or consumption standards. Forms of land use should be completely free (household, farm, communal, artel), as will be decided in individual villages and towns. 8) All land upon its alienation goes to the national land fund. Its distribution among workers is managed by local and central self-governments, ranging from democratically organized non-estate rural and urban communities to central regional institutions. The land fund is subject to periodic redistribution depending on population growth and increased productivity and agricultural culture. When changing the boundaries of the plots, the original core of the plot must remain inviolable. The land of the retiring members goes back to the land fund, and the priority right to receive the land of the retiring members is given to their closest relatives and persons at the direction of the retired members. The cost of fertilizer and reclamation (radical improvements) invested in the land, since they were not used when handing over the plot back to the land fund, must be paid. If in some areas the available land fund turns out to be insufficient to satisfy the entire local population, then the excess population must be resettled. The organization of resettlement, as well as the costs of resettlement and supply of equipment, etc., should be borne by the state. Resettlement is carried out in the following order: willing landless peasants, then vicious members of the community, deserters, etc. and, finally, by lot or by agreement. Everything contained in this order, as an expression of the unconditional will of the vast majority of the conscious peasants of all Russia, is declared a temporary law, which, until the Constituent Assembly, is carried out as immediately as possible, and in certain parts with that necessary gradualism, which should be determined by the district Soviets peasant deputies. The lands of ordinary peasants and ordinary Cossacks are not confiscated. Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Vladimir Ulyanov/Lenin/SU of the RSFSR, 1917. 1, art. 3.
[Address of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets]*(1)
The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies opened. The vast majority of the Soviets are represented on it. A number of delegates from the peasant Soviets are also present at the Congress. The powers of the conciliatory Ts.I.K.*(2) ended. Relying on the will of the vast majority of workers, soldiers and peasants, relying on the victorious uprising of the workers and garrison that took place in Petrograd, the Congress takes power into its own hands.
The provisional government has been overthrown. Most members of the Provisional Government have already been arrested.
The Soviet government will offer immediate democratic peace to all peoples and an immediate truce on all fronts. It will ensure the free transfer of landowners', appanage and monastic lands to the disposal of peasant committees, defend the rights of the soldier by carrying out complete democratization of the army, establish workers' control over production, ensure the timely convening of the Constituent Assembly, take care of the delivery of grain to the cities and basic necessities to the countryside, and provide for everyone the nations inhabiting Russia have a genuine right to self-determination.
The Congress decides: all local power passes to the Councils of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, which must ensure genuine revolutionary order.
The Congress calls on soldiers in the trenches to be vigilant and steadfast. The Congress of Soviets is confident that the revolutionary army will be able to defend the revolution from all encroachments of imperialism until the new government achieves the conclusion of a democratic peace, which it will directly offer to all peoples. The new government will take all measures to provide the revolutionary army with everything it needs through a decisive policy of requisitions and taxation of the propertied classes, and will also improve the situation of soldiers' families.
The Kornilovites - Kerensky, Kaledin and others - are making attempts to lead troops to Petrograd. Several detachments, fraudulently moved by Kerensky, went over to the side of the insurgent people.
Soldiers, actively resist the Kornilovite Kerensky! Be on your guard!
Railway workers, stop all trains sent by Kerensky to Petrograd!
Soldiers, workers, office workers - the fate of the revolution and the fate of the democratic world are in your hands!
Long live the revolution!
All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies
Delegates from Peasant Councils
.
"Worker and Soldier", 9, 8 November (26 October) 1917
*(1) The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets took place in Petrograd on November 7-8 (October 25-26), 1917.
At the congress there were (according to the Bureau of Factions of the Congress) 640 delegates, of which 390 Bolsheviks, 160 Socialist Revolutionaries, 72 Mensheviks, 14 United Internationalists, 7 Ukrainian Socialist Revolutionaries, 6 Menshevik-Internationalists.
The right Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, who fought against the socialist revolution, left the very first meeting of the congress as soon as they saw that the overwhelming majority of its delegates were completely in favor of establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat.
As a result of the victory of the armed uprising of the St. Petersburg proletariat and garrison, by the time the congress opened, power in Petrograd passed to the Military Revolutionary Committee.
The appeal written by V.I. Lenin to “Workers, Soldiers and Peasants” (see V.I. Lenin. Works, vol. 26, pp. 215-216) was adopted by the congress at a meeting on November 7 (October 25).
At the meeting on November 8 (October 26), the congress adopted the following decrees and resolutions: on the full power of the Soviets, on the establishment of the Council of People's Commissars, a decree on peace and a decree on land. The congress also adopted resolutions on the abolition of the death penalty at the front, on the arrest of the ministers of the Provisional Government, and on the fight against the pogrom movement. The congress adopted appeals to the front, to the Cossacks and to all railway workers.
The congress elected the All-Russian Central Executive Committee consisting of 101 members: 62 Bolsheviks, 29 “left” Socialist-Revolutionaries, 6 United Social Democratic Internationalists, 3 Ukrainian Socialists, 1 Socialist-Revolutionary Maximalists.
*(2) The All-Russian Dental Executive Committee of the Councils of the first convocation was elected at the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which took place June 16 (3) - July 7 (June 24), 1917.
A total of 256 members were elected to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, of which 107 Mensheviks, 101 Socialist-Revolutionaries, 35 Bolsheviks, 8 Mensheviks and People's Socialists, 4 Trudoviks and People's Socialists, and 1 from the Jewish Socialist Workers' Party. The Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was the Menshevik Chkheidze. The conciliatory majority of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee supported the policy of the Provisional Government: “war to a victorious end,” preservation of private ownership of industrial enterprises and land, merciless reprisal against the revolutionary workers and peasant movement, etc.
During the period of preparation for the proletarian revolution, the conciliatory All-Russian Central Executive Committee fought against the transfer of power to the Soviets and the convening of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets. After the election of the entire All-Russian Central Executive Committee at the Second Congress of Soviets, the Menshevik-Socialist Revolutionary leadership of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the first convocation tried to retain the powers of this body and in order to fight against the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Documentation
"October 1917
APPEAL
II All-Russian Congress of Soviets
to workers, soldiers and peasants
about the victory of the revolution and its immediate tasks
TO WORKERS, SOLDIERS AND PEASANTS!
The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies opened. The vast majority of the Soviets are represented there. A number of delegates from the peasant Soviets are also present at the congress. The powers of the conciliatory Central Executive Committee have ended.
Relying on the will of the vast majority of workers, soldiers and peasants, relying on the victorious uprising of the workers and garrison that took place in Petrograd, the congress takes power into its own hands.
The provisional government has been overthrown. Most members of the Provisional Government have already been arrested. The Soviet government will offer immediate democratic peace to all peoples and an immediate truce on all fronts. It will ensure the free transfer of landowners', appanage and monastic lands to the disposal of peasant committees, will defend the rights of the soldier by carrying out complete democratization of the army, will establish workers' control over production, will ensure the timely convening of the Constituent Assembly, will take care of the delivery of grain to the cities and basic necessities to the countryside, will provide for everyone the nations inhabiting Russia have a genuine right to self-determination.
The Congress decides: all local power passes to the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, which must ensure genuine revolutionary order.
The Congress calls on soldiers in the trenches to be vigilant and steadfast. The Congress of Soviets is confident that the revolutionary army will be able to defend the revolution from all encroachments of imperialism until the new Government achieves the conclusion of a democratic peace, which it will directly offer to all peoples. The new Government will take all measures to provide the revolutionary army with everything necessary through a decisive policy of requisitions and taxation of the propertied classes, and will also improve the situation of soldiers' families.
The Kornilovites - Kerensky, Kaledin and others - are making attempts to lead troops to Petrograd. Several detachments, fraudulently moved by Kerensky, went over to the side of the rebellious people.
Soldiers, actively resist the Kornilovite Kerensky! Be on your guard!
Railway workers, stop all trains sent by Kerensky to Petrograd!
Soldiers, workers, employees, the fate of the revolution and the fate of the democratic world are in your hands!
Long live the revolution!
All-Russian Congress of Soviets
workers' and soldiers' deputies.
Delegates from peasant councils.
DECREE ON PEACE,
adopted unanimously at a meeting of the All-Russian Congress
Councils of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies
The Workers' and Peasants' Government, created by the revolution of October 24–25 and based on the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, invites all warring peoples and their governments to immediately begin negotiations on a just democratic peace.
A just, or democratic, peace, which the overwhelming majority of the exhausted, exhausted and war-torn workers and working classes of all warring countries yearn for, - a peace that the Russian workers and peasants most definitely and persistently demanded after the overthrow of the tsarist monarchy - is such a peace that the Government considers immediate a world without annexations (that is, without the seizure of foreign lands, without the forced annexation of foreign peoples) and without indemnities.
The Government of Russia proposes to conclude such a peace to all warring peoples immediately, expressing its readiness to immediately take, without the slightest delay, all decisive steps until the final approval of all the conditions of such a peace by authorized assemblies of people's representatives of all countries and all nations.
By annexation, or seizure of foreign lands, the Government understands, in accordance with the legal consciousness of democracy in general and the working classes in particular, any accession to a large or strong state of a small or weak nationality without the precise, clear and voluntarily expressed consent and desire of this nationality, regardless of whether when this forcible annexation is accomplished, also regardless of how developed or backward the nation being forcibly annexed or forcibly retained within the borders of a given state is. Finally, regardless of whether this nation lives in Europe or in distant overseas countries.
If any nation is kept within the borders of a given state by force, if, contrary to the desire expressed on its part - it does not matter whether this desire is expressed in the press, in popular assemblies, in party decisions or indignations and uprisings against national oppression - it is not is given the right, by free vote, with the complete withdrawal of the troops of the annexing or even stronger nation, to decide without the slightest coercion the question of the forms of state existence of this nation, then its annexation is annexation, i.e., seizure and violence.
The Government considers it a greatest crime against humanity to continue this war over how to divide between strong and rich nations the weak nationalities they have captured and solemnly declares its determination to immediately sign peace terms ending this war on the specified, equally fair for all nationalities without exception, conditions.
At the same time, the Government declares that it does not at all consider the above peace conditions to be ultimatum, i.e., it agrees to consider all other peace conditions, insisting only on their proposal as quickly as possible by any belligerent country and on complete clarity, on unconditional excluding any ambiguity and any mystery when proposing peace terms.
The Government abolishes secret diplomacy, for its part expressing its firm intention to conduct all negotiations completely openly before all the people, immediately proceeding to the full publication of secret agreements confirmed or concluded by the government of landowners and capitalists from February to October 25, 1917. The entire content of these secret agreements, since it is aimed, as in most cases it happened, at delivering benefits and privileges to Russian landowners and capitalists, at maintaining or increasing the annexations of the Great Russians, the Government declares it unconditionally and immediately cancelled.
Addressing the proposal to the governments and peoples of all countries to begin immediately open negotiations on concluding peace, the Government expresses for its part its readiness to conduct these negotiations both through written communications, by telegraph, and through negotiations between representatives of different countries or at a conference of such representatives. To facilitate such negotiations, the Government appoints its plenipotentiary representative to neutral countries.
The government invites all governments and peoples of all warring countries to immediately conclude a truce, and for its part considers it desirable that this truce be concluded for no less than three months, i.e. for such a period during which it is quite possible for peace negotiations to be completed with the participation of representatives of all, without exception, nationalities or nations drawn into the war or forced to participate in it, as well as the convening of authorized meetings of people's representatives of all countries for the final approval of the conditions of peace.
Addressing this peace proposal to the governments and peoples of all warring countries, the Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government of Russia also addresses in particular the class-conscious workers of the three most advanced nations of mankind and the largest states participating in the present war - England, France and Germany. The workers of these countries rendered the greatest services to the cause of progress and socialism, and the great examples of the Chartist movement in England, a series of revolutions of world-historical significance carried out by the French proletariat, and finally, in the heroic struggle against the exclusive law in Germany and long-term exemplary for the workers of the whole world, the persistent, disciplined work of creating mass proletarian organizations in Germany - all these examples of proletarian heroism and historical creativity serve as our guarantee that the workers of the named countries will understand the tasks that now lie upon them to liberate humanity from the horrors of war and its consequences, that these workers are comprehensively determined and selflessly energetic by their activities they will help us successfully complete the cause of peace and at the same time the cause of liberation of the working and exploited masses of the population from all slavery and all exploitation.
Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin.
DECREE ON LAND
Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies
(adopted at a meeting on October 26 at 2 a.m.)
1) Landownership of land is canceled immediately without any redemption.
2) Landowners' estates, as well as all appanage lands, monastic lands, church lands, with all their living and dead inventory, manor buildings and all accessories are transferred to the disposal of volost land committees and district Soviets of peasant deputies, until the Constituent Assembly.
3) Any damage to confiscated property, which henceforth belongs to the entire people, is declared a serious crime, punishable by a revolutionary court. The district Soviets of Peasant Deputies are taking all necessary measures to maintain the strictest order during the confiscation of landowners' estates, to determine the size of the plots and which ones are subject to confiscation, to draw up an accurate inventory of all confiscated property and for the strictest revolutionary protection of all land economy transferred to the people with all buildings, tools, livestock, food supplies, etc.
4) To guide the implementation of great land reforms, pending their final decision by the Constituent Assembly, the following peasant mandate, compiled on the basis of 242 local peasant mandates by the editors of the Izvestia of the All-Russian Council of Peasant Deputies and published in issue 88 of these Izvestia, should serve everywhere. Petrograd, number 88, August 19, 1917).
About the earth
The question of land, in its entirety, can only be resolved by a national Constituent Assembly.
The fairest solution to the land issue should be this:
1) The right of private ownership of land is abolished forever; land cannot be sold, purchased, leased, pledged, or alienated in any other way. All land: state, appanage, cabinet, monastery, church, possession, primordial, privately owned, public, peasant, etc. - is alienated free of charge, converted into national property and transferred to the use of all workers on it.
Those affected by the property revolution are recognized only as having the right to public support for the time necessary to adapt to new conditions of existence.
2) All subsoil of the earth: ore, oil, coal, salt, etc., as well as forests and waters of national importance, become the exclusive use of the state. All small rivers, lakes, etc. transferred to the use of communities, subject to their management by local authorities.
3) Land plots with highly cultivated farms: gardens, plantations, nurseries, nurseries, greenhouses, etc. are not subject to division, but are turned into demonstrative ones and transferred to the exclusive use of the state or communities, depending on their size and significance.
Estate, city and rural land, with home gardens and vegetable gardens, remains in the use of the real owners, and the size of the plots themselves and the level of tax for their use are determined by law.
4) Horse breeding farms, state-owned and private breeding cattle and poultry farms, etc. are confiscated, turned into national property and transferred either to the exclusive use of the state or the community, depending on their size and significance.
The issue of redemption is subject to consideration by the Constituent Assembly.
5) All economic inventory of confiscated lands, living and dead, goes into the exclusive use of the state or community, depending on their size and significance, without redemption.
Confiscation of inventory does not apply to peasants with little land.
6) The right to use land is granted to all citizens (without distinction of gender) of the Russian state who wish to cultivate it with their own labor, with the help of their family or in partnership, and only as long as they are able to cultivate it. Hired labor is not allowed.
In case of accidental powerlessness of any member of a rural society for a period of 2 years, the rural society undertakes, until his ability to work is restored, for this period to come to his aid through public cultivation of the land.
Farmers who, due to old age or disability, have forever lost the opportunity to personally cultivate the land, lose the right to use it, but in return receive pension provision from the state.
7) Land use must be equal, that is, land is distributed among workers, depending on local conditions, labor or consumption standards.
The forms of land use should be completely free: household, farm, communal, artel, as will be decided in individual villages and towns.
8) All land, upon its alienation, goes to the national land fund. Its distribution among workers is managed by local and central self-governments, ranging from democratically organized non-estate rural and urban communities to central regional institutions.
The land fund is subject to periodic redistribution depending on population growth and an increase in agricultural productivity and culture.
When changing the boundaries of the plots, the original core of the plot must remain intact.
The land of the retiring members goes back to the land fund, and the priority right to receive the plots of the retiring members is given to their immediate relatives and persons at the direction of the retired members.
The cost of fertilizer and reclamation (radical improvements) invested in the land, since they are not used when handing over the plot back to the land fund, must be paid.
If in some areas the available land fund turns out to be insufficient to satisfy the entire local population, then the excess population must be resettled.
The organization of resettlement, as well as the costs of resettlement and supply of equipment, etc., should be borne by the state.
Resettlement is carried out in the following order: willing landless peasants, then vicious members of the community, deserters, etc. and, finally, by lot or by agreement.
Everything contained in this order, as an expression of the unconditional will of the vast majority of conscious peasants throughout Russia, is declared a temporary law, which, until the Constituent Assembly, is carried out as immediately as possible, and in certain parts with that necessary gradualism, which should be determined by the district Soviets of Peasants' Deputies .
The lands of ordinary peasants and ordinary Cossacks are not confiscated.
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars
Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin.
All-Russian Congress of Soviets
Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies
decides:
To govern the country, until the convening of the Constituent Assembly, to form a temporary workers' and peasants' government, which will be called the Council of People's Commissars. The management of individual branches of state life is entrusted to commissions, the composition of which must ensure the implementation of what was proclaimed by the Congress in close unity with the mass organizations of workers, workers, sailors, soldiers, peasants and office workers. Government power belongs to the board of chairmen of these commissions, i.e., the Council of People's Commissars.
Control over the activities of the people's commissars and the right to remove them belongs to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies and its Central Executive Committee.
At the moment, the Council of People's Commissars is composed of the following persons:
Chairman of the Council - Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin);
People's Commissar for Internal Affairs - A. I. Rykov;
Agriculture - V. P. Milyutin;
Labor - A. G. Shlyapnikov;
For military and naval affairs - a committee consisting of: V. A. Ovseenko (Antonov), N. V. Krylenko and F. M. Dybenko;
For Trade and Industry Affairs - V. P. Nogin;
People's Education - A. V. Lunacharsky;
Finance - I. I. Skvortsov (Stepanov);
For foreign affairs - L. D. Bronstein (Trotsky);
Justice - G.I. Oppokov (Lomov);
For food matters - I. A. Teodorovich;
Posts and telegraphs - N. P. Avilov (Glebov);
Chairman for Nationalities Affairs - I.V. Dzhugashvili (Stalin).
The post of People's Commissar for Railway Affairs remains temporarily unfilled.
Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia
The October Revolution of workers and peasants began under the common banner of emancipation.
The peasants are liberating themselves from the power of the landowners, because there is no longer landlord ownership of land - it has been abolished. Soldiers and sailors are liberated from the power of autocratic generals, for the generals will henceforth be elected and replaceable. The workers are liberated from the whims and tyranny of the capitalists, because from now on workers' control will be established over factories. Everything living and viable is liberated from the hated shackles.
There remain only the peoples of Russia, who have suffered and continue to suffer oppression and tyranny, whose emancipation must be started immediately, whose liberation must be carried out decisively and irrevocably.
During the era of tsarism, the peoples of Russia were systematically pitted against each other. The results of such a policy are known: massacres and pogroms, on the one hand, slavery of peoples, on the other. There is no and should not be a return to this shameful policy of bullying. From now on, it must be replaced by a policy of a voluntary and honest union of the peoples of Russia.
During the period of imperialism, after the February Revolution, when power passed into the hands of the Cadet bourgeoisie, the overt policy of incitement gave way to a policy of cowardly distrust of the peoples of Russia, a policy of cavilling and provocation, hiding behind verbal statements about the “freedom” and “equality” of peoples.
The results of such a policy are known: increased national hostility, erosion of mutual trust.
This unworthy policy of lies and mistrust, cavils and provocations must end. From now on, it must be replaced by an open and honest policy leading to complete mutual trust among the peoples of Russia.
Only as a result of such trust can an honest and lasting union of the peoples of Russia emerge.
Only as a result of such a union can the workers and peasants of the peoples of Russia be united into one revolutionary force, capable of resisting any attempts on the part of the imperialist-annexationist bourgeoisie.
Based on these provisions, the First Congress of Soviets in June of this year proclaimed the right of the peoples of Russia to free self-determination.
The Second Congress of Soviets in October of this year confirmed this inalienable right of the peoples of Russia more decisively and definitely.
Carrying out the will of these congresses, the Council of People's Commissars decided to base its activities on the issue of Russian nationalities on the following principles:
1) Equality and sovereignty of the peoples of Russia.
2) The right of the peoples of Russia to free self-determination up to and including secession and the formation of an independent state.
3) Abolition of all and all national and national-religious privileges and restrictions.
4) Free development of national minorities and ethnographic groups inhabiting the territory of Russia.
The specific decrees arising from this will be developed immediately after the construction of the Commission on Nationalities.
In the name of the Russian Republic
People's Commissar for Nationalities Affairs
Joseph Dzhugashvili-Stalin.
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars
V. Ulyanov (Lenin).
Decree on printing
In the difficult, decisive hour of the coup and the days immediately following it, the Provisional Revolutionary Committee was forced to take a number of measures against the counter-revolutionary press of various shades.
Immediately, cries arose from all sides that the new socialist government had thus violated the basic principle of its program by encroaching on freedom of the press.
The Workers' and Peasants' Government draws the attention of the population to the fact that in our society, behind this liberal screen, freedom is actually hidden for the propertied classes, having seized the lion's share of the entire press into their hands, it is not forbidden to poison the minds and bring confusion into the consciousness of the masses.
Everyone knows that the bourgeois press is one of the most powerful weapons of the bourgeoisie. Especially at a critical moment, when the new power, the power of the workers and peasants, was only being strengthened, it was impossible to completely leave these weapons in the hands of the enemy at a time when they are no less dangerous at such moments than bombs and machine guns. That is why temporary and emergency measures were taken to stop the flow of dirt and slander, in which the yellow and green press would willingly drown the young victory of the people.
As soon as the new order is consolidated, all administrative influences on the press will be stopped, and complete freedom will be established for it within the limits of responsibility before the court, in accordance with the broadest and most progressive law in this regard.
Considering, however, that restriction of the press, even at critical moments, is permissible only to the extent absolutely necessary, the Council of People's Commissars decides:
General regulations on the press
1) Only press organs are subject to closure: 1) calling for open resistance or disobedience to the Workers' and Peasants' Government; 2) sowing confusion through clearly slanderous distortion of facts; 3) calling for acts of a clearly criminal, i.e., criminally punishable nature.
2) Prohibitions of press organs, temporary or permanent, are carried out only by resolution of the Council of People's Commissars.
3) This provision is temporary and will be canceled by a special decree upon the onset of normal conditions of public life.
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars
Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin.
Government Decree
on convening the Constituent Assembly
on time
In the name of the Government of the Republic, the Council of People's Commissars, elected by the All-Russian Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies with the participation of peasant deputies, decides:
2) All election commissions, local government institutions, Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies and soldiers' organizations at the front must make every effort to ensure the free and correct conduct of elections to the Constituent Assembly on the appointed date.
In the name of the Government of the Russian Republic
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars
Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin.
Decrees of the Soviet government. T.I.
M., Gospolitizdat, 1957.