VLADIMIR BONCH-BRUYEVICH

Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich (1873-1955) was one of the oldest members of the Communist Party who took an active part in the February and October revolutions. He was closely acquainted with Lenin and worked with him for many years. From the first days of the October Revolution until 1920 he was the Executive Secretary of the Council- of People’s Commissars. He later became the chief editor of the Zhizn i Znaniye (Life and Knowledge) State Publishing House and the organiser and director of the State Literary Museum. He was the author of many essays on the revolutionary movement in Russia, and of a number of literary studies and articles on ethnography.

p Once the Bolshevik revolutionary forces had captured the Winter Palace, Lenin, who had been greatly disturbed at our military leaders’ slowness in taking action, was at last able to breathe freely; he removed his simple disguise and, accompanied by political friends of long standing, made his way to where the session of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies was awaiting the consummation of the revolutionary events.

p “Thunderous applause" does not describe what happened when Lenin mounted the rostrum—it was much more than that, it was a truly colossal whirlwind of human feelings that swept through the hall. The meeting opened. Again shouts of greeting, slogans, jubilation. . .. And so that remarkable, historic meeting continued, stormy and enthusiastic to the end.

p When, at last, the business for the evening had been done, we went to my apartment to spend the night. We supped off what we could find and after supper I did my best to ensure Vladimir Ilyich a good night’s rest; although he was excited he was obviously greatly overtired. With difficulty I persuaded him to take my bed in a separate room where there was a desk, paper, ink and a library at his disposal.

p I lay down on a sofa in the adjoining room, determined to stay awake until I was quite sure that Vladimir Ilyich was sleeping. For greater security I fastened all the locks, bolts and bars on the street door, loaded my revolvers, thinking there might be ’an attempt to break in and arrest or kill Vladimir Ilyich, for this was only our first night in power and anything was to be expected.

p In case of emergency I made a list on a separate sheet of paper of the telephone numbers of all the comrades I knew, of Smolny, and of workers’ and trade union committees, so that I should not forget them in a moment of urgency.

p Vladimir Ilyich had by that time switched off the light in his room. I listened but did not hear a sound. I was just dozing off, and in another moment I should have been asleep, when the light suddenly Hashed on in his room. I heard him leave his bed almost soundlessly, quietly open the door to satisfy himself that I was “asleep” (which, of course, I was not) and then go on tiptoe to the desk so as not to waken anyone; he sat down at the desk, opened the inkpot, spread out some papers and got down to work.

p He wrote, crossed out, read, made notes, started writing again and then, at last, appeared to be rewriting the whole thing in a fair copy. It had begun to grow light, and the Petrograd late autumn dawn was tinging the sky with grey when Vladimir Ilyich at last put the light out and went to bed.

p When it was time to get up next morning I asked everybody in the house to keep quiet, telling them that Vladimir Ilyich had been working all night and was no doubt tired out. Suddenly, long before anyone expected to see him, the door opened and he came out of ’his room fully dressed, energetic, fresh, happy and full of life and good humour.

p “I congratulate you on the first day of the socialist revolution,” he said in greeting to us all; not a trace of weariness could be seen on his face, he seemed to have had a good night’s rest although actually he could not ’have slept for more than two or three hours after a hectic twenty-hour day. When we sat down to breakfast Nadezhda Krupskaya, who had also spent the night at our house, came out of her room and Vladimir Ilyich pulled his famous Decree on Land out of his pocket.

p “The thing now is to announce this, to publish it and ensure its distribution. Then let them try to take it back! Not likely—why, there is no power on earth that could take that decree away from the peasants and return the land to its former owners. This is one of the most important gains of our revolution. The agrarian revolution will be carried out and consolidated this very day.”

p When somebody told him that in the provinces there would still be much confusion and conflict over the land, he immediately retorted that that was not important, that things would settle themselves once this programme had been understood and its significance grasped. Then he began to tell us in detail that the decree would be particularly welcomed by the peasants because it was based on the demands of all peasant conferences as expressed by their delegations to the Congress of Soviets.

p “Yes, but these were the demands put forward by the Socialist-Revolutionaries and they’ll say that we borrowed them from them,” someone remarked.

p Vladimir Ilyich smiled.

p “Let them say it. The peasants will understand clearly that we shall always support their just demands. We must get properly in touch with the peasants, with their way of life and their aspirations. And if there are fools that laugh at us, let them laugh. We never did intend to give the Socialist-Revolutionaries a monopoly of the peasantry. We are the chief government party and after the dictatorship of the proletariat the peasant question comes next in importance.”

p The Decree on Land had to be announced at the Congress on the .evening of that same day. It was decided to have it typed out immediately and sent to press so that it would be published in the newspapers the next day. It was then that Vladimir Ilyich got the idea of giving the Decree wide publicity, of 27 making the publication of all government communications obligatory for all newspapers.

p It was decided to print the Decree on Land immediately as a separate booklet in an edition of no less than 50,000 copies and to distribute it primarily among soldiers returning to the rural areas so that it would become known, through them, to the greatest number of people. That was carried out splendidly within the next few days.

p Soon we started out for Smolny on foot and then got on a tram; Vladimir Ilyich beamed when he saw the perfect order maintained in the streets. He waited impatiently for the evening. After the Second All-Russia Congress had adopted the Decree on Peace he read out the Decree on Land in a very clear voice and it was adopted unanimously with great enthusiasm.

p As soon as the Decree had been adopted I sent it out by messenger to all Petrograd newspaper offices and to the post office for it to be telegraphed to other towns. Our newspapers had made it up beforehand and in the morning it was read by hundreds of thousands, even millions of people; the working population greeted it enthusiastically. The bourgeoisie howled and raved in all their newspapers. But who paid any attention to them at that time? Vladimir Ilyich was triumphant.

p “That alone,” he said, “will leave a mark on our history for many long years.”

p A period rich in creative revolutionary activity had begun very successfully. Vladimir Ilyich’s interest in the Decree lasted a long time and he always wanted to know how many copies of it had been distributed among soldiers and peasants in addition to the newspaper publications of it. It was printed and reprinted many times as a booklet and many copies were sent gratis to even the smallest district centres in Russia.

p The Decree on Land really did become universally known; probably no other law has ever been published as widely as that Law on the Land, one of the really fundamental laws of our new, socialist legislation. It was a law to which Vladimir Ilyich devoted much strength and effort and which he regarded as being of tremendous significance.

Translated by George H. Hanna