The Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies has opened. The vast majority of the Soviets are represented at the Congress. A number of delegates from the Peasants' Soviets are also present. The mandate of the compromising Central Executive Committee has terminated.[100] Backed by the will of the vast majority of the workers, soldiers and peasants, backed by the victorious uprising of the workers and the garrison which has taken place in Petrograd, the Congress takes power into its own hands.

    The Provisional Government has been overthrown. The majority of the members of the Provisional Government have already been arrested.

    The Soviet government will propose an immediate democratic peace to all the nations and an immediate armistice on all fronts. It will secure the transfer of the land of the landed proprietors, the crown and the monasteries to the peasant committees without compensation; it will protect the rights of the soldiers by introducing complete democracy in the army; it will establish workers' control over production; it will ensure the convocation of the Constituent Assembly at the time appointed; it will see to it that bread is supplied to the cities and prime necessities to the villages; it will guarantee all the nations inhabiting Russia the genuine right to self-determination.

    The Congress decrees: all power in the localities shall pass to the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, which must guarantee genuine revolutionary order.

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    The Congress calls upon the soldiers in the trenches to be vigilant and firm. The Congress of Soviets is convinced that the revolutionary army will be able to defend the revolution against all attacks of imperialism until such time as the new government succeeds in concluding a democratic peace, which it will propose directly to all peoples. The new government will do everything to fully supply the revolutionary army by means of a determined policy of requisitions and taxation of the propertied classes, and also will improve the condition of soldiers' families.

    The Kornilov men -- Kerensky, Kaledin and others -- are attempting to bring troops against Petrograd. Several detachments, whom Kerensky had moved by deceiving them, have come over to the side of the insurgent people.

    Soldiers, actively resist Kerensky the Kornilovite! Be on your guard!

    Railwaymen, hold up all troop trains dispatched by Kerensky against Petrograd!

    Soldiers, workers in factory and office, the fate of the revolution and the fate of the democratic peace is in your hands!

    Long live the revolution!

The All-Russia Congress of Soviets  
of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies  
 
The Delegates from the Peasants'  
Soviets                                

Written on October 25 (November 7), 1917   Published in the newspaper Rabochy i Soldat No. 9, October 26 (November 8), 1917

Published according to the newspaper text

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    The workers' and peasants' government, created by the Revolution of October 24-25 and basing itself on the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, calls upon all the belligerent peoples and their governments to start immediate negotiations for a just, democratic peace.

    By a just or democratic peace, for which the overwhelming majority of the working class and other working people of all the belligerent countries,[101] exhausted, tormented and racked by the war, are craving -- a peace that has been most definitely and insistently demanded by the Russian workers and peasants ever since the overthrow of the tsarist monarchy -- by such a peace the government means an immediate peace without annexations (i.e., without the seizure of foreign lands, without the forcible incorporation of foreign nations) and without indemnities.

    The Government of Russia proposes that this kind of peace be immediately concluded by all the belligerent nations, and expresses its readiness to take all the resolute measures now, without the least delay, pending the final ratification of all the terms of such a peace by authoritative assemblies of the people's representatives of all countries and all nations,

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    In accordance with the sense of justice of democrats in general, and of the working classes in particular, the government conceives the annexation or seizure of foreign lands to mean every incorporation of a small or weak nation into a large or powerful state without the precisely, clearly and voluntarily expressed consent and wish of that nation, irrespective of the time when such forcible incorporation took place, irrespective also of the degree of development or backwardness of the nation forcibly annexed to the given state, or forcibly retained within its borders, and irrespective, finally, of whether this nation is in Europe or in distant, overseas countries.

    If any nation whatsoever is forcibly retained within the borders of a given state, if, in spite of its expressed desire -- no matter whether expressed in the press, at public meetings, in the decisions of parties, or in protests and uprisings against national oppression -- it is not accorded the right to decide the forms of its state existence by a free vote, taken after the complete evacuation of the troops of the incorporating or, generally, of the stronger nation and without the least pressure being brought to bear, such incorporation is annexation, i.e., seizure and violence.

    The government considers it the greatest of crimes against humanity to continue this war over the issue of how to divide among the strong and rich nations the weak nationalities they have conquered, and solemnly announces its determination immediately to sign terms of peace to stop this war on the terms indicated, which are equally just for all nationalities without exception.

    At the same time the government declares that it does not regard the above-mentioned peace terms as an ultimatum; in other words, it is prepared to consider any other peace terms, and insists only that they be advanced by any of the belligerent countries as speedily as possible, and that in the peace proposals there should be absolute clarity and the complete absence of all ambiguity and secrecy.

    The government abolishes secret diplomacy, and, for its part, announces its firm intention to conduct all negotiations quite openly in full view of the whole people. It will proceed immediately with the full publication of the secret treaties endorsed or concluded by the government of land-

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owners and capitalists from February to October 25, 1917. The government proclaims the unconditional and immediate annulment of everything contained in these secret treaties insofar as it is aimed, as is mostly the case, at securing advantages and privileges for the Russian landowners and capitalists and at the retention, or extension, of the annexations made by the Great Russians.

    Proposing to the governments and peoples of all countries immediately to begin open negotiations for peace, the government, for its part, expresses its readiness to conduct these negotiations in writing, by telegraph, and by negotiations between representatives of the various countries, or at a conference of such representatives. In order to facilitate such negotiations, the government is appointing its plenipotentiary representative to neutral countries.

    The government proposes an immediate armistice to the governments and peoples of all the belligerent countries, and, for its part, considers it desirable that this armistice should be concluded for a period of not less than three months, i.e., a period long enough to permit the completion of negotiations for peace with the participation of the representatives of all peoples or nations, without exception, involved in or compelled to take part in the war, and the summoning of authoritative assemblies of the representatives of the peoples of all countries for the final ratification of the peace terms.

    While addressing this proposal for peace to the governments and peoples of all the belligerent countries, the Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government of Russia appeals in particular also to the class-conscious workers of the three most advanced nations of mankind and the largest states participating in the present war, namely, Great Britain, France and Germany. The workers of these countries have made the greatest contributions to the cause of progress and socialism; they have furnished the great examples of the Chartist movement in England, a number of revolutions of historic importance effected by the French proletariat, and, finally, the heroic struggle against the Anti-Socialist Law in Germany[102] and the prolonged, persistent and disciplined work of creating mass proletarian organisations in Germany, a work which serves as a model to the workers of the whole world. All these examples of proletarian heroism

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and historical creative work are a pledge that the workers of the countries mentioned will understand the duty that now faces them of saving mankind from the horrors of war and its consequences, that these workers, by comprehensive, determined, and supremely vigorous action, will help us to conclude peace successfully, and at the same time emancipate the labouring and exploited masses of our population from all forms of slavery and all forms of exploitation.

    The workers' and peasants' government, created by the Revolution of October 24-25 and basing itself on the support of the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, must start immediate negotiations for peace. Our appeal must be addressed both to the governments and to the peoples. We cannot ignore the governments, for that would delay the possibility of concluding peace, and the people's government dare not do that, but we have no right not to appeal to the peoples at the same time. Everywhere there are differences between the governments and the peoples, and we must therefore help the peoples to intervene in questions of war and peace. We will, of course, insist upon the whole of our programme for a peace without annexations and indemnities. We shall not retreat from it; but we must not give our enemies an opportunity to say that their conditions are different from ours and that therefore it is useless to start negotiations with us. No, we must deprive them of that advantageous position and not present our terms in the form of an ultimatum. Therefore the point is included that we are willing to consider any peace terms and all proposals. We shall consider them, but that does not necessarily mean that we shall accept them. We shall submit them for consideration to the Constituent Assembly which will have the power to decide what concessions can and what cannot be made. We are combating the deception practised by governments which pay lip-service to peace and justice, but in fact wage annexationist and predatory wars. No government will say all it thinks. We, however, are opposed to secret diplomacy and will act openly in full view of the whole people. We do not close our eyes to difficulties and never have done. War cannot be ended by refusal, it cannot be ended by one

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side. We are proposing an armistice for three months, but shall not reject a shorter period, so that the exhausted army may breathe freely, even if only for a little while; moreover, in all the civilised countries national assemblies must be summoned for the discussion of the terms.

    In proposing an immediate armistice, we appeal to the class-conscious workers of the countries that have done so much for the development of the proletarian movement. We appeal to the workers of Britain, where there was the Chartist movement, to the workers of France, who have in repeated uprisings displayed the strength of their class consciousness, and to the workers of Germany, who waged the fight against the Anti-Socialist Law and have created powerful organisations.

    In the Manifesto of March 14,[103] we called for the over throw of the bankers, but, far from overthrowing our own bankers, we entered into an alliance with them. Now we have overthrown the government of the bankers.

    The governments and the bourgeoisie will make every effort to unite their forces and drown the workers' and peasants' revolution in blood. But the three years of war have been a good lesson to the masses -- the Soviet movement in other countries and the mutiny in the German navy, which was crushed by the officer cadets of Wilhelm the hangman[104]. Finally, we must remember that we are not living in the depths of Africa, but in Europe, where news can spread quickly.

    The workers' movement will triumph and will pave the way to peace and socialism. (Prolonged applause.)

Izvestia No. 208, October 27, 1917, and Pravda No. 171, November 10 (October 28), 1917

Report published according to the Pravda text, decree according to the Izvestia text

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    (3) All damage to confiscated property, which henceforth belongs to the whole people, is proclaimed a grave crime to be punished by the revolutionary courts. The uyezd Soviets of Peasants' Deputies shall take all necessary measures to assure the observance of the strictest order during the confiscation of the landed estates, to determine the size of estates, and the particular estates subject to confiscation, to draw up exact inventories of all property confiscated and to protect in the strictest revolutionary way all agricultural enterprises transferred to the people, with all buildings, implements, livestock, stocks of produce, etc.

    (4) The following peasant Mandate, compiled by the newspaper Izvestia Vserossiiskogo Soveta Krestyanskikh Deputatov [105] from 242 local peasant mandates and published in No. 88 of that paper (Petrograd, No. 88, August 19, 1917), shall serve everywhere to guide the implementation of the great land reforms until a final decision on the latter is taken by the Constituent Assembly.

and become the property of the whole people, and pass into the use of all those who cultivate it.
    "Persons who suffer by this property revolution shall be deemed to be entitled to public support only for the period necessary for adaptation to the new conditions of life.
    "(2) All mineral wealth -- ore, oil, coal, salt, etc., and also all forests and waters of state importance, shall pass into the exclusive use of the state. All the small streams, lakes, woods, etc., shall pass into the use of the communes, to be administered by the local self-government bodies.
    "(3) Lands on which high-level scientific farming is practised -- orchards, plantations, seed plots, nurseries, hothouses, etc. -- shall not be divided up, but shall be converted into model farms, to be turned over for exclusive use to the state or to the communes, depending on he size and importance of such lands.
    "Household land in towns and villages, with orchards and vegetable gardens, shall be reserved for the use of their present owners, the size of the holdings, and the size of tax levied for the use thereof, to be determined by law.
    "(4) Stud farms, government and private pedigree stock and poultry farms, etc., shall be confiscated and become the property of the whole people, and pass into the exclusive use of the state or a commune depending on the size and importance of such farms.
    "The question of compensation shall be examined by the Constituent Assembly.
    "(5) All livestock and farm implements of the confiscated estates shall pass into the exclusive use of the state or a commune, depending on their size and importance, and no compensation shall be paid for this.
    "The farm implements of peasants with little land shall not be subject to confiscation.
    "(6) The right to use the land shall be accorded to all citizens of the Russian state (without distinction of sex) desiring to cultivate it by their own labour, with the help of their families, or in partnership but only as long as they are able to cultivate it. The employment of hired labour is not permitted.
    "In the event of the temporary physical disability of any member of a village commune for a period of up to two years, the village commune shall be obliged to assist him for this period by collectively cultivating his land until he is again able to work.
    "Peasants who, owing to old age or ill-health, are permanently disabled and unable to cultivate the land personally, shall lose their right to the use of it but, in *turn, shall receive a pension from the state.
    "(7) Land tenure shall be on an equality basis, i.e. the land shall be distributed among the working people in conformity with a labour standard or a subsistence standard,[106] depending on local conditions.
    "There shall be absolutely no restriction on the forms of land tenure -- household, farm, communal, or co-operative, as shall be decided in each individual village and settlement.
    "(8) All land, when alienated, shall become part of the national land fund. Its distribution among the peasants shall be in charge of the

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local and central self-government bodies, from democratically organised village and city communes, in which there are no distinctions of social rank, to central regional government bodies.
    "The land fund shall be subject to periodical redistribution depending on the growth of population and the increase in the productivity and the scientific level of farming.
    "When the boundaries of allotments are altered, the original nucleus of the allotment shall be left intact.
    "The land of the members who leave the commune shall revert to the land fund, preferential right to such land shall be given to the near relatives of the members who have left, or to persons designated by the latter.
    "The cost of fertilisers and improvements put into the land, to the extent that they have not been fully used up at the time the allotment is returned to the land fund shall be compensated.
    "Should the available land fund in a particular district prove inadequate for the needs of the local population, the surplus population shall he settled elsewhere.
    "The state shall take upon itself the organisation of resettlement and shall bear the cost thereof, as well as the cost of supplying implements, etc.
    "Resettlement shall be effected in the following order: landless peasants desiring to resettle, then members of the commune who are of vicious habits, deserters, and so on, and, finally, by lot or by agreement."

    The entire contents of this Mandate, as expressing the absolute will of the vast majority of the class-conscious peasants of all Russia, is proclaimed a provisional law, which, pending the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, shall be carried into effect as far as possible immediately, and as to certain of its provisions with due gradualness, as shall be determined by the uyezd Soviets of Peasants' Deputies.

    (5) The land of ordinary peasants and ordinary Cossacks shall not be confiscated.

    Voices are being raised here that the decree itself and the Mandate were drawn up by the Socialist-Revolutionaries. What of it? Does it matter who drew them up? As a democratic government, we cannot ignore the decision of the masses of the people, even though we may disagree with it. In the fire of experience, applying the decree in practice, and carrying it out locally, the peasants will themselves realise where the truth lies. And even if the peasants continue to

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follow the Socialist-Revolutionaries, even if they give this party a majority in the Constituent Assembly, we shall still say -- what of it? Experience is the best teacher and it will show who is right. Let the peasants solve this problem from one end and we shall solve it from the other. Experience will oblige us to draw together in the general stream of revolutionary creative work, in the elaboration of new state forms. We must be guided by experience; we must allow complete freedom to the creative faculties of the masses. The old government, which was overthrown by armed uprising, wanted to settle the land problem with the help of the old, unchanged tsarist bureaucracy. But instead of solving the problem, the bureaucracy only fought the peasants. The peasants have learned something during the eight months of our revolution; they want to settle all land problems themselves. We are therefore opposed to all amendments to this draft law. We want no details in it, for we are writing a decree, not a programme of action. Russia is vast, and local conditions vary. We trust that the peasants themselves will be able to solve the problem correctly, properly, better than we could do it. Whether they do it in our spirit or in the spirit of the Socialist-Revolutionary programme is not the point. The point is that the peasants should be firmly assured that there are no more landowners in the countryside, that they themselves must decide all questions, and that they themselves must arrange their own lives. (Loud applause.)

Izvestia No. 209, October 28, 1917 and Pravda No. 171, November 10 (October 28), 1917

Report published according to the Pravda text, decree according to the Izvestia text

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  [99] Held in Petrograd on October 25 and 26 (November 7 and 8), 1917. It was also attended by delegates from a number of uyezd and gubernia Soviets of Peasants' Deputies. When the Congress opened, 649 delegates were in attendance, among them 390 Bolsheviks, 160 Socialist-Revolutionaries, 72 Mensheviks, and 14 Menshevik internationalists. More delegates arrived later.
    It opened at Smolny Institute at 10.40 p.m. on October 25, while the Red Guard detachments, sailors and revolutionary units of the Petrograd garrison were still storming the Winter Palace, where the Provisional Government had taken refuge under the protection of its shock troops and officer cadets. Lenin was directing the uprising and did not attend the first sitting. Fourteen Bolsheviks were elected to the Presidium, among them Lenin, Antonov-Ovseyenko, Krylenko and Lunacharsky; seven Socialist-Revolutionaries including Kamkov, Karelin and Spiridonova, and one member of the Ukrainian Socialist Party. The Mensheviks and the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries declined to sit on the Presidium. The leaders of the Menshevik and the Socialist-Revolutionary Right wing motioned that negotiations should be started with the Provisional Government to set up a coalition government, because, they said, the socialist revolution then under way was nothing but a plot. When they saw that the majority supported the Bolsheviks, they walked out (they were joined by Bund delegates). Shortly after 3.00 a.m., October 26 (November 8), the Congress heard a report on the capture of the Winter Palace and the arrest of the Provisional Government and adopted its appeal "To Workers, Soldiers and Peasants!" It was written by Lenin, and proclaimed the transfer of power to the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies. The sitting closed after 5.00 a.m.
    The second sitting opened at 9.00 p.m. the same day, heard Lenin's reports and adopted his historic decrees on peace and on land; it formed the workers' and peasants' government known as the Council of People's Commissars, headed by Lenin. The Left Socialist-Revolutionaries refused to enter the Soviet Government, which consisted of Bolsheviks only. A 101-man All-Russia Central Executive Committee elected by the Congress included 62 Bolsheviks and 29 Left Socialist-Revolutionaries.
    The Congress also decided that the All-Russia Central Executive Committee could be enlarged by delegates from Peasants' Soviets and army units, and groups which had walked out. The Congress closed after 5.00 a.m.    [p. 243]

  ^[100] The reference is to the Central Executive Committee elected by the First All-Russia Congress of Soviets which was held in Petrograd from June 3 to 24 (June 16 to July 7), 1917. The Right Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, who favoured support

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of the bourgeois Provisional Government, had a majority in the First Executive Committee.    [p. 247]

  ^[101] The reference is to the belligerents in the First World War: the Entente (France, Britain, Russia, Italy and the U.S.A., which joined them) and also Belgium, Serbia, Rumania, Japan and China; and the Quadruple Alliance (Germany, Austro-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria).    [p. 249]

  ^[102] The Anti-Socialist Law  was introduced in Germany in 1878 by the Bismarck Government to fight the working-class and socialist movement. It outlawed all Social-Democratic organisations, working-class associations, the working-class press, and provided for the confiscation of socialist literature. Social-Democrats were harrassed and deported. However these reprisals failed to break down the Social-Democratic Party, which adapted itself to underground activity: its central organ, Sozial-Demokrat was published abroad, and it held regular party congresses (1880, 1883 and 1887). Underground Social-Democratic organisations and groups were rapidly revived at home and operated under a Central Committee in hiding. At the same time, the Party used various legal means of strengthening its ties with the masses and its influence grew steadily: from 1878 to 1890, the number of votes it polled in the Reichstag elections more than tripled. Marx and Engels gave the German Social-Democrats a great deal of help. In 1890, the Anti-Socialist Law was lifted as a result of mass pressure and the mounting working-class movement.    [p. 251]

  ^[103] The reference is to a manifesto issued by the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies to the Peoples of the World which was carried by the newspaper Izvestia No. 15, of March 15, 1917.    [p. 253]

  ^[104] See Note 44.

    [Note 44 -- The reference is to the revolutionary action by German sailors in August 1917, who were led by a revolutionary sailors' organisation numbering 4,000 members (late July 1917). It was led by sea men Max Reichpietsch and Albin Köbis of the Friedrich der Grosse. The organisation decided to fight for a democratic peace and prepare for an uprising. Manifestations broke out in the navy in early August. Sailors of the warship Prinzeregent Luitpold, which was at Wilhelmshaven, took absence without leave to fight for the release of their comrades who had earlier been arrested for staging a strike; on August 16, the firemen of the Westphalia refused to work; at the same time the crew of the cruiser Nürnberg, which was out at sea, staged an uprising. The sailors' movement spread to the ships of several squadrons at Wilhelmshaven . These manifestations were put down with great savagery. Reichpietsch and Köbis were shot and other active participants were sentenced to long terms of hard labour.]
   [p. 253]

  ^[105] See Note 38.

    [Note 38 -- Izvestia Vserossiiskogo Soveta Krestyanskikh Deputatov (News of the All-Russia Soviet of Peasants' Deputies ) -- a daily, the official organ of the All-Russia Soviet of Peasants' Deputies, published in Petrograd from May 9 (22) to December 1917. It expressed the views of the Right wing of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. It met the October Socialist Revolution with hostility and was closed down for counter-revolutionary propaganda.]
   [p. 258]

  ^[106] A labour standard is the amount of land that could be tilled by its owner without outside help.
    A subsistence standard is the minimum amount of land necessary to feed a family.    [p. 259]