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p On the night of October 25-26,  [7•1  long before the break of dawn, workers, soldiers and sailors led by the Bolshevik Party stormed and occupied the former residence of the emperors of Russia in Petrograd  [7•2 : the Winter Palace, and placed under arrest the members of the Provisional Government, who, in a body, had taken refuge in one of its suites.

p Three hours later the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies proclaimed Russia a Soviet Socialist Republic. State power had been taken over by the people; and the proletariat, destitute and exploited more than any other class, and the most revolutionary and best organised of all, now stood at the helm of government.

The Socialist Revolution had won in Russia. It was destined to achieve a noble historic aim, that of building a new society, in which there would be no exploiters and no exploited, no oppressors and no oppressed; a social system, in brief, which is called communism.

The Socialist Revolution:
Its Objective Necessity

p The Russian Socialist Revolution came as a logical sequel of the foregoing development of the human race; and it was in line with the basic interests of all peoples, even though this was not 8 everywhere realised or understood at the time. That the revolution first came to pass in Russia, of all countries, was not a matter of accident. Russia, early in the 20th century, was a land of profound and acute social, political, national and other contradictions. The process of concentration of capitalist production had gone farther than in any other bourgeois country, resulting in the formation of powerful monopolist associations. Yet it had remained an agrarian country, possessing one-fourth of the modern machinery plant of Great Britain, one-fifth that of Germany, and one-tenth that of the United States. And it was particularly backward in agriculture. "The most backward system of landownership and the most ignorant peasantry on the one hand, and the most advanced industrial and finance capitalism on the other!”, Lenin commented on the country’s economy.  [8•1 

p Russia’s workers were subjected to brutal exploitation by the capitalists, many of whom were foreigners, owners of enterprises in the country. Her peasantry, oppressed, humiliated, and deprived of all rights, eked out, as a general rule, an existence on the brink of starvation. The labouring masses of Russia lived under the heavy tsarist yoke, which tolerated no manifestation of a longing for freedom. The numerous non-Russian peoples suffered particular hardships, for they were an object of degrading national oppression, besides being deprived of their rights. For them tsarist Russia was a veritable gaol.

p All these contradictions had grown increasingly acute during the First World War, a war that had brought disaster to the country and the people. And the people had finally lost their patience. In February 1917, in Petrograd, the workers and soldiers, supported by the working people throughout the country, had overthrown the tsarist monarchy. In the days that followed the revolution the workers and soldiers set up revolutionary government bodies known as Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, after the pattern established during the revolution of 1905- 07. These Soviets were heartily supported by workers, soldiers and peasants alike. "We recognise the Soviet of Soldiers’ Deputies and no one else, not even God,” said one soldier-deputy at the March 1, 1917 meeting of the Petrograd Soviet.

p Thus backed by a majority of the workers and soldiers, the Soviets could have seized the power and formed a government. But the petty-bourgeois Menshevik and Socialist-Revolutionary parties, who formed a majority in the Soviets, failed to do this. They failed to prevent the Constitutional-Democratic and the Union of October Seventeen parties from forming a self-styled 9 Provisional Government headed by Prince G. Lvov, a wealthy landowner, which they invested with state power, though authorising the Soviets to “control” the Provisional Government’s activities. A diarchy thus came into being in Russia, creating a situation in which, to quote G. Lvov, the Provisional Government "was a government shorn of power, while the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies was a power but did not govern".

p Intoxicated by the early victories of the revolution, the masses innocently trusted the bourgeois government in the hope that it would accomplish the urgent tasks which had been the object of the revolution, i.e., that it would end the imperialist war; allot land to the peasants; introduce an eight-hour working day; banish national oppression; and take up the fight against the famine and the economic chaos.

p The Provisional Government, however, did nothing to fulfil these hopes. There was more freedom in the air, no doubt, after the overthrow of the tsarist regime. But the new government’s policies were aligned with the interests of the bourgeoisie and the landed gentry. It carried on the imperialist war and renewed its pledge to observe the military pacts concluded by the tsarist government. To force the army and the people to continue fighting the Provisional Government declared that the war was being fought in “defence” of the revolution, and this false slogan was supported by the Mensheviks and the Socialist- Revolutionaries.

p Landlord ownership of land remained intact and under the special protection of the Provisional Government. As a matter of fact, the capitalists and bankers were keenly interested in protecting landed estates, for 60 per cent of these were mortgaged and, besides, many capitalists owned estates in their own right. Nor was an eight-hour working day legalised. Moreover, the government took no action to combat high prices and speculation, which were a source of great distress to the population. National oppression continued, though in a somewhat milder form. To cap it all, the Provisional Government had retained practically intact the old machinery of state.

p Such a policy ran counter to the interests of the people and the vital interests of the country as a whole. The only way out of the quandary lay in continuing the revolution and turning over state power to the workers and peasants, that is to say, in effecting a socialist revolution. As Lenin pointed out in the spring of 1917, humanity’s only salvation lay in socialism.

p Only a people’s government could end the war, confiscate landed estates and distribute them among the peasants, invest ownership of industrial enterprises in the people as a whole, thus ending the chaotic condition of the national economy, raise the 10 country’s economy to a higher level, end national oppression, establish equality of rights for all nationalities and foster cordial relations among them.

p The necessity of such a policy was realised by only one of the various parties existing in Russia at the time. This was the party of the Communists (or Bolsheviks, as they were then called). The Communist Party, which had been driven underground by the tsarist government, was legalised after the February 1917 Revolution. Early in April Lenin returned to Russia, after several years’ residence abroad as a political emigre. The party membership had begun to grow at a rapid rate, so that by April it numbered 80,000 members, or nearly double its membership of a month ago. This was the pick of the working class, the cream of the Russian intelligentsia. The wisdom, the honour, the conscience of our times: that is how Lenin aptly and deservedly described the Communist Party.

p The April 1917 All-Russia Conference of the Communist Party drew up a programme for the transition from a bourgeois- democratic to a socialist revolution. Its basic principle was "All Power to the Soviets!”, a slogan proposed by Lenin. This principle envisaged the transfer of state power on a nation-wide scale by peaceful means to the working people as represented by democratically elected Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies. Once at the helm of government, the Soviets were to take immediate action as follows: propose a peace on democratic principles to the warring countries; implement urgent revolutionary reforms in the economic sphere; establish, on a nation-wide scale, control over production and distribution, taking over to that end the banks, inasmuch as these were essential to modern economic activities; nationalise the most important branches of industry; confiscate landed estates belonging to the gentry and distribute these among the peasants; introduce an eight-hour working day; annul immediately all restrictions and privileges based on nationality; etc.

The Russian working masses did not at once side with the Bolsheviks, it must be said. For a few months after the February Revolution the workers were under the strong influence of the petty-bourgeois party of the Mensheviks, who pretended to be socialists and, as such, champions of the workers. The peasantry were strongly influenced by the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, which claimed to stand for the distribution of all lands, including private estates, on an equitable basis. On quite a few occasions in the weeks that followed the February Revolution the crowds attending meetings refused to listen to Bolshevik speakers who exposed the Provisional Government and the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries who backed it. However, the policies 11 pursued by the Provisional Government and the bourgeois and petty-bourgeois parties soon showed them up for what they were. Developing events gradually dispelled the illusions of the masses, who increasingly listened to the Bolsheviks, rallied to their support and intensified their struggle against the bourgeois government.

Three Crises
of the Bourgeois Government

p The first important mass demonstration against the government’s policy on the crucial question of the continuing war occurred as early as April 1917. On April 19, newspapers carried the text of a Note sent the day before to Russia’s Allies by Foreign Minister P. N. Milyukov, leader of the Constitutional-Democratic Party. The Note emphasised Russia’s determination to fight on to victory and admitted in a veiled form the necessity of annexions, that is, seizure of foreign territory, and contributions.

p The Note revealed to the people the real aims behind the intention to continue the war, and this caused a sense of betrayal and a consequent wave of indignation. On April 20 and 21 more than 100,000 workers and soldiers demonstrated in the streets of Petrograd, carrying such slogans as "All Power to the Soviets!”, "Down with the War!" and "Down with the Policy of Annexations!" There were impressive demonstrations in various other cities; and it became clear that the Provisional Government had largely lost the confidence of the people. The Soviets could have taken over state power without resorting to force.

p But the Menshevik and Socialist-Revolutionary leaders ignored the wishes of the people and came to the rescue of the tottering bourgeois government by securing the representation therein. On May 5, 1917, a new coalition government was formed, including ten ministers representing the bourgeois parties and six representing petty-bourgeois parties which claimed to be socialist. Prince Lvov remained head of the government.

p The government’s policies remained unchanged. Not a single square inch of land belonging to the gentry was confiscated, even though a Socialist-Revolutionary leader, V. Chernov, now headed the Ministry of Agriculture. Instead, the government increased its efforts to stop the seizure of landed estates by the peasants. The Ministry of Labour was placed under a Menshevik leader, M. Skobelev, but that did not bring legalisation of the eight-hour working day, and the government sided with the entrepreneurs in any conflicts between them and the workers. Nor were any efforts made to combat high prices and profiteering.

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p A. F. Kerensky, member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party and newly appointed Minister of War, did what his predecessor, Guchkov, of the Union of October Seventeen, had hesitated doing: on June 18, 1917, the “socialist” minister ordered the army to launch an offensive. And Tereshchenko, a leading figure in the sugar industry, now foreign minister, continued the policies of Milyukov.

p The people, needless to say, could not support a government pursuing such policies, and another huge anti-government demonstration took place in Petrograd on June 18. This time over half a million workers and soldiers took part, bearing such slogans as "All Power to the Soviets!”, "Down with the Ten Capitalist Ministers!”, "No More Offensives at the Front!”, "Workers’ Control Over Production and Distribution!”, and others.

p Taking advantage of the offensive at the front the Provisional Government proceeded to restrict democratic freedoms and to carry out measures of repression. Several revolutionary regiments were disbanded and many soldiers arrested. Stiffer measures were taken to check the growing peasant movement. If compelled initially to reckon with the Soviets, the bourgeois statesmen now decided that the time had come to dismiss them, establish a dictatorship, crush the revolutionary forces, and ensure that the war would be carried on to a victorious end.

p In line with this plan the bourgeois ministers seized upon a slight pretext on July 2, 1917, and submitted their resignation, in the expectation that this would frighten the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries and force upon them the choice of either carrying on without the bourgeois ministers or agreeing to establish autocratic rule, dismiss the Soviets, and crush all revolutionary organisations.

p This insidious manoeuvre failed to fool the population of Petrograd and became in fact the last straw: on July 3, soldiers and workers came out en masse, intent on overthrowing the government. Elsewhere throughout the country, however, people were not yet ready to support this action, for the majority of peasants and soldiers, and indeed many workers, had not yet come to realise the necessity of throwing out the Provisional Government. The Bolshevik Party was hard put to it to forestall a premature armed uprising in the capital and steer the spontaneous action of the workers and soldiers into the channel of a peaceful and organised demonstration under the slogan of "All Power to the Soviets!" On July 4, the city’s proletariat and garrison poured out into the streets in strength.

p The Provisional Government retaliated by ordering the marching columns fired upon, killing and wounding some 400. This dastardly crime was perpetrated with the full approval of the 13 Menshevik and Socialist-Revolutionary leaders. On July 8, Prince Lvov was replaced by A. F. Kerensky of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. His government arrested many of the revolutionary workers and soldiers; re-introduced capital punishment at the front; set up courts-martial; established preliminary military censorship; and dispatched punitive forces to several cities. All of which meant that the Kerensky government had openly resorted to armed force to crush the revolutionary forces. This policy was found very acceptable by the leaders of the Constitutional-Democratic Party, largest among the bourgeois parties, and they decided once more to take part in the government. On July 24, a new coalition government was formed with the participation of bourgeois and petty-bourgeois elements under the chairmanship of A. F. Kerensky.

p The revolution continued to gather momentum, however. The bourgeoisie watched the rising revolutionary tide with a troubled eye, doubting the ability of the Provisional Government to crush it. "There will be no law and order in Russia until we have a dictator invested with the fullest power to act,” said Purishkevich, representative of the extreme reactionary elements. Russia’s wartime Allies also wanted a military dictatorship set up in the country. Late in August General Kornilov, Supreme Commander- inChief, made an attempt to oust the Provisional Government, dispatching important military force against Petrograd. In an effort to aid Kornilov the Constitutional-Democratic ministers resigned in a body, thereby precipitating a government crisis.

p The plotters had miscalculated, however; they had underestimated the revolutionary fervour of the people. The workers, the soldiers of Petrograd and other towns, and the sailors of the Baltic Fleet rallied against Kornilov at the call of the Bolshevik Party. Propaganda, meanwhile, had done its work among the Kornilov troops, who refused to move against the capital. And the counter-revolutionary gamble risked by the tsarist generals fell through.

p The Kornilov revolt made millions aware of the true situation in the country. It became clear that the counter-revolutionaries were using the parties of the petty bourgeoisie as a weapon in their struggle against the revolution and that the Communist Party was the only one that expressed the true interests of the people; the realisation of this latter fact greatly enhanced the Party’s influence, so that before the autumn of 1917 was over a majority of the working class, destitute peasantry, soldiers of the most important sectors of the front, and the Baltic Fleet sailors had given their allegiance to the Communist Party. Moreover, the Party had won a majority in the country’s important Soviets, including those of Petrograd and Moscow. And scores of millions throughout Russia 14 had taken up the Communist Party’s slogan—"All Power to the Soviets!”

Nonetheless, the Menshevik and Socialist-Revolutionary leaders, who were still at the helm in the Central Executive Committee (CEC) and the Provisional Government, stubbornly ignored the people’s demands and came back into the government again to form a coalition cabinet with the Constitutional-Democratic Party even though the latter had been shown to have organised the counter-revolution and backed Kornilov. This last coalition government headed by Kerensky was formed on September 25. Its main efforts were directed towards fighting the growing revolutionary movement of the workers and peasants.

Economic Disaster Threatens Nation

p Economically, meanwhile, the country was rapidly going from bad to worse. In 1917 industrial production came to less than two-thirds of the preceding year’s. Many entrepreneurs deliberately halted production and laid off personnel in order to starve them into submission. Ryabushinsky, a leading industrialist, urged seizing the workers by the throat with "famine’s bony hand”, and the capitalists were all for carrying out his recommendation: over 800 factories were shut down and some 170,000 workers discharged between March and November. 1917. Real wages were nearly halved as compared with 1913. Profiteering in consumer goods assumed tremendous proportions. The value of the ruble dropped to less than ten pre-war kopeks. In the autumn of 1917 workers’ families faced starvation, while the approaching winter threatened even greater hardships.

p The Provisional Government increased repressions, fearful of its own people, which was waging with growing determination a struggle against the criminal policies of the propertied classes. Moreover, the Provisional Government was planning to lay down arms and let the Germans occupy Petrograd and other important towns. Riga was surrendered to the Germans in August. "If we fail to find the strength and the means to establish order in the country, that order will be established by German bayonets,” candidly declared Minister of War A. Verkhovsky.

p The American journalist John Reed, who was in Russia at the time, painted a true picture of the situation as he saw it in the autumn of 1917, in his Ten Days That Shook the World. "Winter was coming on....” he wrote. "On the freezing front miserable armies continued to starve and die, without enthusiasm. The railways were breaking down, food lessening, factories closing. The desperate masses cried out that the bourgeoisie was sabotaging the 15 life of the people, causing defeat on the front. Riga had been surrendered just after General Kornilov said publicly, ’Must we pay with Riga the price of bringing the country to a sense of its duty?’

p “To Americans it is incredible that the class war should develop to such a pitch. But I have personally met officers on the Northern Front who frankly preferred military disaster to co-operation with the Soldiers’ Committees. The secretary of the Petrograd branch of the Cadet party told me that the break-down of the country’s economic life was part of a campaign to discredit the Revolution. ... I know of certain coal-mines near Kharkov, which were fired and flooded by their owners, of textile factories at Moscow whose engineers put the machinery out of order when they left, of railroad officials caught by the workers in the act of crippling locomotives... .”

p The criminal policy pursued by the bourgeois-landlord government threatened the existence of Russia as a nation. The working people of Russia saw this threat and broke with the parties that were responsible for this situation as well as with those which refused to take the radical steps that could ward off the impending disaster. It is hardly necessary to explain, therefore, why it was that the workers, the peasants, the soldiers, all honest men and women, in fact, rallied round the Communist Party headed by Lenin, which showed the people the only way of saving the country and fought to save Russia from the threat to her national existence.

p In the autumn of 1917, a powerful revolutionary upsurge, led by the working class, swept across Russia.

p As the strike movement turned into an open revolutionary struggle, workers began to seize industrial plants, removing the old management and arresting those who resisted, and often taking charge of production. Workers’ meetings increasingly called for a transfer of state power to the Soviets. Its influence continuously growing, the Bolshevik Party now numbered around 400,000 members. The Menshevik and Socialist-Revolutionary parties, on the contrary, were torn by dissent and disintegration.

p Peasant action against the landed proprietors often took the form of uprisings. Socialist-Revolutionary influence among the peasantry steadily receded, while that of the Bolsheviks grew day by day. The country’s oppressed peoples fought with increasing vigour for national independence and equal rights.

Among the soldiers the mood had radically changed: sick of the war, they had no heart to fight for the interests of the capitalists and landlords. Desertions increased. Soldiers’ meetings usually ended with a vote of no confidence in the Provisional Government and a demand for the transfer of state power to the Soviets. A preponderant majority of soldiers and sailors now backed the 16 Bolsheviks, whose prestige was particularly high on the Northern and Western, that is to say, the most important sectors of the front, as well as among the sailors of the Baltic Fleet. In short, the revolutionary movement throughout the country had reached its apex.

Revolution Wins,
Russia Proclaimed a Soviet Republic

p When all efforts to achieve a peaceful transfer of state power to the Soviets had failed and it became known that the Provisional Government was about to surrender Petrograd to the German troops and, with their help, defeat the people and crush the Revolution, the Communist Party summoned the workers and soldiers to overthrow the Provisional Government by force and establish a Soviet power.

p For the peoples of Russia October 25 (November 7), 1917, was a fateful day, as, indeed, it was for the whole of mankind; for that day saw, in Petrograd, the victory of a people’s uprising, gained with a minimum of bloodshed; the overthrow of the bourgeois Provisional Government; and the opening meeting of the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets attended by delegates elected by democratic procedures to represent more than 20 million voters, which proclaimed the transfer of state power in the capital and throughout the land to the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies and elected a Soviet Government—the Council of People’s Commissars—headed by V. I. Lenin.

p The Soviet Government lost no time in proceeding to carry out the basic demands of the masses. On October 26 (November 8, Gregorian calendar  [16•1 ) the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets adopted the historic Decree on Peace. The Soviet Government laid before the warring nations and their governments a proposal to open immediate negotiations for a just and democratic peace, a peace excluding any annexation of territories or payment of war indemnities. These conditions were not in the nature of an ultimatum, for the Soviet Government declared its readiness to negotiate on any other conditions that might be proposed by the belligerents. The Decree on Peace provided for a renunciation of secret diplomacy, and for the publication of secret imperialist treaties (which was shortly done by the Soviet Government) and their unconditional abrogation. The Decree served notice that the 17 Soviet Government stood ready to end the war and live in peace with all countries.

p That same day the Congress adopted a Decree on Land, which proclaimed the confiscation without compensation of land belonging to landlords, monasteries and churches, together with all property and livestock pertaining thereto. In line with the demands of the peasantry private ownership of land was abolished and all land henceforth became the property of the people, of the state. The Decree included the Peasant Mandate on the Land which had been compiled on the basis of local peasant mandates and which determined the method of land distribution and land tenure, etc. The Decree realised the age-long dreams of the peasants, granting them, free of charge, 150,000,000 hectares of land. The peasants were thus no longer obliged to buy or rent land from the landlords, which previously cost them annually around 700,000,000 rubles. Peasant indebtedness, aggregating upward of 3,000 million rubles, was cancelled at the same time.

p Three days later the Soviet Government decreed an 8-hour working day, and followed this up by introducing free government unemployment and health insurance for workers and employees. On November 15, the Soviet Government issued a Declaration of Rights of the Peoples of Russia, putting an end to the national oppression and proclaiming equality of rights, sovereignty and the right to self-determination, up to secession and formation of an independent state, for all peoples, and annulling all privileges, restrictions, etc., in respect of nations and national religious faiths.

p In December 1917, acting in accordance with the Declaration of Rights, the Soviet Government recognised the independence of Finland, hitherto a part of Russia; the independence of the Ukraine; the right of the Armenians to free self-determination, etc. This piece of revolutionary legislation, so drastically reshaping society in the interests of the people, was a momentous new departure in the history of mankind.

p Those were trying times for Soviet Russia. Counter- revolutionary forces everywhere were on the march against the fledgling Republic. Kerensky, who had fled from Petrograd in an Americanowned motor-car, was marching on the capital at the head of General Krasnov’s Cossack corps. Inside the capital, the Constitutional-Democrats, Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks were busy organising a counter-revolutionary revolt. In the valley of the Don, in the Ukraine and the Urals, and elsewhere, anti-Soviet fronts were formed by the capitalists and landlords ousted by the Revolution, the reactionary generals and officers of the tsarist army, the Cossack elite, a privileged estate under the monarchy, and other elements. All of these received support from abroad.

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Workers, peasants, poor Cossacks, Red Guard detachments of workers—the people, in short—led by the Communist Party, smashed all these hotbeds of counter-revolution in a triumphant march from one end of the vast land to the other, winning once and for all the allegiance of the toiling and exploited masses of Russia.

Soviet State in Construction

p Thus it came about that the dictatorship of the proletariat was established in Russia: the working class was now the dominant class, standing at the helm of state government. More specifically, state power throughout the country was now exercised by government bodies created by the revolutionary working class, namely, the Soviets of Workers’, Peasants’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, in the first place; and, in the second place, the leading, guiding role in the Soviet state belonged to the party of the working class, i.e., the Communist Party. The Soviet Government elected by the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets was composed of representatives of the Communist Party. In November 1917, following negotiations between the Communist Party and the Left SocialistRevolutionary Party which backed the Soviets at the time, an agreement embodied in a socialist programme was reached, and several Left Socialist-Revolutionaries were made members of the Council of People’s Commissars. A majority in the government and leadership therein were retained by the Communist Party, however. In March 1918, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries withdrew from the Council of People’s Commissars in protest against the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty with Germany.

p The bourgeois parties, which refused to recognise the authority of the Soviets and started a vigorous campaign against them, were soon prohibited. The petty-bourgeois Menshevik and SocialistRevolutionary parties began by participating in the elections to all^ Soviet government bodies and were represented therein. Gradually,’ however, their leadership found itself in opposition to the measures proposed by the Soviet Government, and when the foreign military intervention started in the summer of 1918 it openly challenged the Soviet state. This cost the Mensheviks and SocialistRevolutionaries the gradual loss of support among the masses, and their membership in the Soviets dwindled with each successive election. Politically, the two parties lost all weight during the Civil War period (1918-20), and in the early 1920s their existence came to an end.

p The influence and prestige of the Communist Party among the masses, on the contrary, grew stronger year by year, until it was the sole party in the land backed by all of its working people.

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p Faced with the momentous task of building socialism in the country, the proletariat could not use the old machinery of government which had served the interests of the bourgeoisie and the landed gentry. It was therefore discarded and a new apparatus of government created in its stead. The highest authority was vested in the All-Russia Congress of Soviets and delegated in the periods between its sessions to the All-Russia Central Executive Committee, elected by the Congress. The functions of a central executive and administrative body were exercised by the Council of People’s Commissars. The abolished ministries were replaced by People’s Commissariats (of the Interior, Foreign Affairs, Labour, Education, Finance, etc.). Another government body was the Committee for Nationalities Affairs, charged with implementing the policy of equal rights and friendship among the peoples of Soviet Russia, as promulgated by the Soviet Government. Still another was the All-Russia Extraordinary Commission specially set up to deal with counter-revolutionary activities. The old judicial system was replaced by local courts and revolutionary tribunals elected by the Soviets. And the old army, now demobilised, was replaced by a new, Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army—a nation armed and organised into an army.

p Any resistance put up by the foes of the Revolution was mercilessly crushed by the proletarian dictatorship. This proletarian dictatorship represented a new and advanced type of democracy, a democracy for the good of the greatest number, a democracy for the people.

p The builders of the new state found themselves compelled at the same time to engage in a bitter struggle against the classes that had lost their domination. The bulk of the civil service officials bent their efforts to sabotaging the Revolution. The bourgeoisie, the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries were certain that the working class would never succeed in managing the affairs of the state, because it lacked qualified cadres and because the bourgeois officialdom would refuse to serve a workers’ state. In its issue of November 8, 1917, the Robochaya Gazeta, mouth-piece of the Menshevik Central Committee, commented with open malice on the early results of the campaign of sabotage as follows: "Just twenty-four hours have gone by since the Bolsheviks won their victory, and the Nemesis of history has already begun to deal out harsh vengeance upon them... . They are simply unable to take over state power. It keeps eluding them, because they find themselves in a vacuum of their own making, because they are alone, because officials and technicians, in a body, refuse to serve them.” As it turned out, however, these “prophets” merely made a laughing-stock of themselves. The Communist Party issued a call for the working people, men and women, to take over the job of 20 running the country. On November 18, in an appeal to the people Lenin wrote: "Remember that now you yourselves are at the helm of state. No one will help you if you yourselves do not unite and take into your hands all affairs of the state. Your Soviets are from now on the organs of state authority, legislative bodies with full powers. Rally round your Soviets. Strengthen them. Get on with the job yourselves; begin right at the bottom, do not wait for anyone."  [20•1 

p And the proletariat of Russia did just that. All over the country the Soviets took over the business of administration, eliminating the old government bodies. Deputies to the Soviets who failed to justify the expectations of the people were recalled by their electorate and replaced by deputies better able to handle the work. Workers at factories and trade unions selected their ablest members for work in government establishments. The nucleus of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs staff, for instance, was provided from among the workers of the Siemens-Schuckert factory in Petrograd (now renamed Electrosila) and sailors of the Baltic Fleet. A sailor named Markin was made business-manager of this Commissariat. With the help of a group of university students he published a series of secret predatory treaties concluded by the tsarist government, which had been found in the safes of the Foreign Ministry.

p Drastic measures meanwhile had put an end to sabotage by the old civil service officials, and most of them had gone back to their jobs. Thus had the old bourgeois apparatus of government, which had served to oppress the people, now been smashed and a new government, a government of and by the people set up in its place.

p The counter-revolutionary elements next tried to play off the Constituent Assembly against the Soviet Government. That body, elected in November 1917, comprised a Socialist-Revolutionary majority, and assumed a hostile attitude towards any and all revolutionary reforms implemented by the Soviet Government. Thus it refused to approve the Declaration of the Rights of the Toiling and Exploited People, which set forth a series of highly important Soviet Government decrees. In view of the openly counterrevolutionary attitude of the Constituent Assembly the All-Russia Central Executive Committee ordered its dissolution by the decree of January 19, 1918. News of this action was received with satisfaction by the masses.

From the very first, the Soviet Government spared no effort to induce the belligerent powers to conclude a general democratic 21 peace that would end the criminal imperialist war, but the Entente powers turned a deaf ear to all talk of peace. In the circumstances, the Soviet Government realised that if the workers’ and peasants’ state was not to perish and the future of Russia was to be assured, it had no choice but to conclude a peace with Germany and her allies, A peace treaty was accordingly signed at Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918. Extremely harsh terms were imposed by the Germans, including the occupation of extensive territory by German forces, payment of contribution and so on. But for the Soviet Government it was a question of surviving, and the treaty was signed.

Peaceful Construction

p Fired with revolutionary zeal, the Soviet people now set about the work of peaceful economic and cultural development, intent on building a new life. The Soviet Government lost no time in taking action to prevent an economic collapse and to develop the nation’s productive forces. To begin with, it took over the State Bank and nationalised all other banks. A system of workers’ control was established at all enterprises employing hired labour. This measure ran into violent opposition on the part of some entrepreneurs, and there were efforts to sabotage production. The Soviet Government countered by nationalising the enterprises of such entrepreneurs, and this brought it into possession of hundreds of firms, including some which had been foreign-owned. Railways and shipping were nationalised, and so were all major grain-storage facilities. State monopoly of foreign trade was established, and all foreign and domestic loans contracted by preceding governments were annulled. A Supreme Economic Council was set up to ensure the management of the nationalised enterprises and planned development of the national economy.

p With the country no longer at war, the Soviet Government concentrated its efforts on the job of peaceful construction. In the spring of 1918 Lenin drafted a concrete programme of economic development with the accent on raising the productivity of social labour, which was to be achieved, in his opinion, by unremittingly perfecting technological processes, raising the workers’ cultural and technological level, making wide use of experts and specialists to assure proper organisation of production, using a system of incentive remuneration of labour, introducing socialist emulation, etc. Socialist victory over capitalism in the economic field would be won, according to Lenin, by raising the productivity of social labour and producing a greater volume of material and cultural goods and services for the people.

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p In accordance with a decision of the Soviet Government planning was initiated for the country’s electrification, as well as for production on a regional basis and for specific branches of industry- Industrial facilities were shifting to non-military production. Construction of new industrial plants got under way, as well as of new power stations, such as the Volkhov, Svir and Shatura projects.

p Steps were taken to strengthen labour discipline in industrial enterprises, achieve better organisation of production and raise productivity. Workers in nationalised plants came increasingly to realise that they were now working for themselves instead of for the benefit of capitalists; and this realisation prompted them to set, of their own accord, codes of behaviour on the job, which were models of self-imposed proletarian discipline. A case in point was the Bryansk Locomotive Works whose personnel worked out Provisional Regulations for their works.

The government made it a practice to appoint the ablest from among the working class to management, and knew how to induce experts and specialists from among the old cadres to go back to work. Continuous improvements were made in the work of the leading economic bodies, i.e., the Supreme Economic Council and the local economic councils. The Soviet Government thus found itself in a position to proceed with the nationalisation of entire branches of industry: May 1918 saw the nationalisation of the sugar industry; and the petroleum industry, the railways and important plants in other branches of industry were taken over in June. Thus the socialist sector expanded and grew considerably stronger.

First Soviet Constitution

p In July 1918, the Fifth All-Russia Congress of Soviets adopted the first Soviet Constitution, which had been worked out undej: the direct supervision of V. I. Lenin and Y. M. Sverdlov, Chairman of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee. This Constitution legalised the history-making achievements of the first eight months of the Socialist Revolution, namely, the establishment of the Soviet state; the adoption of a federative state system; the granting of democratic freedoms, i.e., freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of union, and the creation of conditions making it possible to practise these freedoms. The Constitution declared labour to be the duty of all the citizens of the Republic, in accordance with the principle "He who does not work, neither shall he eat”. The Constitution further provided for universal military service in the interests of national 23 defence, with the proviso, however, that arms were to be supplied only to the working people. The right to elect and be elected to the Soviets was granted to all adult working men and women regardless of national or racial origin, sex, education or religious belief, if any. Exploitative and hostile elements were deprived of the franchise. The electorate was free at any time to recall deputies who failed to justify its expectations and to elect new deputies.

Speaking of the first Soviet Constitution Lenin said that "all constitutions that had existed till now safeguarded the interests of the ruling classes. The Soviet Constitution was the only one that served and would constantly serve the working people and was a powerful weapon in the fight for socialism."  [23•1