Socialist-Revolutionary Peasant Order on Land (242). Civil War: "Whites"

The question of land, in all its scope, can be resolved only by a popular Constituent Assembly. The most just solution of the land question should be as follows:

1) The right of private ownership of land is abolished forever; land may not be sold, bought, leased or pledged, or alienated in any other way. All land ... is alienated free of charge, turned into the property of the whole people and transferred to the use of all those who work on it ...

6) The right to use land is received by all citizens (without distinction of gender) Russian state who wish to work it with their own labor ... Wage labor is not allowed ...

7) Land use must be egalitarian, i.e., the land is distributed among the working people, depending on local conditions, according to labor or consumption standards ...

8) All land, after its alienation, goes to the nationwide land fund. Local and central self-government bodies are in charge of distributing it among the working people...

The land fund is subject to periodic redistribution, depending on population growth and raising the productivity and culture of agriculture.

ON THE EXTRAORDINARY POWERS OF THE PEOPLE'S COMMISSIONER FOR FOOD. From the Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of May 13, 1918

2) To call on all working people and poor peasants to immediately unite for a merciless struggle against the kulaks.

4) If someone finds an excess of bread ... bread is taken from him free of charge, and the value of the undeclared surplus due at fixed prices is paid in half to the person who indicates the hidden surplus ...

QUESTIONS AND TASKS:

1. Describe the content of the first decrees of the Soviet government, was the need for such a radical solution to the issues of peace and land caused? 2. Why, in your opinion, has the position of the Bolsheviks changed in relation to the Constituent Assembly? 3. Give the arguments of supporters and opponents of the conclusion of a separate peace with Germany. Which of the positions was more in line with the goal of maintaining power in the hands of the Bolsheviks? 4. Describe the economic policy of the Soviet government in October 1917 - July 1918. Were the hopes of Lenin and his associates to quickly overcome the "economic catastrophe" justified? 5. What was new in the agrarian policy of the Bolsheviks in the spring of 1918 compared to the measures proclaimed by the Decree on Land?

Expanding lexicon:

SEPARATE PEACE - a peace concluded with the enemy by one of the states that are part of a coalition of countries waging war, without the knowledge or consent of their allies.

Civil War: white

Causes and main stages of the civil war. After the liquidation of the monarchy, the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries were most afraid of a civil war, so they agreed with the Cadets. The Bolsheviks viewed the civil war as a "natural" continuation of the revolution. Many contemporaries considered the beginning of the civil war in Russia to be the armed seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in October 1917.

The chronological framework of the Civil War covers the period from October 1917 to October 1922, i.e. from the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in Petrograd until the end of the armed struggle in Far East. There are two main stages in the course of the Civil War itself.

From October 1917 to the spring of 1918, hostilities were mostly local in nature. The main anti-Bolshevik forces were either engaged in political struggle (moderate socialists) or were in the stage of organizational formation (white movement). The people, attracted by the first decrees of Soviet power, supported the Bolsheviks en masse.

However, from the spring - summer of 1918, a fierce political struggle began to develop into the form of an open military confrontation between the Bolsheviks and their opponents: moderate socialists, some foreign formations, the White Army, the Cossacks. The second - "front" stage of the Civil War begins, in which, in turn, several periods can be distinguished.

Summer - autumn 1918 - period escalation war. It was caused by a change in the agrarian policy of the Bolsheviks: the introduction of a food dictatorship, the organization of committees and the incitement of class struggle in the countryside. This led to the discontent of the middle peasants and wealthy peasants and the creation of a mass base for the anti-Bolshevik movement, which, in turn, contributed to the consolidation of two currents: the Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik "democratic counter-revolution" and the White movement. The period ends with the rupture of these forces.

December 1918 - June 1919 - the period of confrontation between the regular red and white armies. In the armed struggle against the Soviet power, the white movement achieves the greatest success. Part of the revolutionary democracy goes to cooperate with the Soviet government. Many supporters of the democratic alternative are fighting on two fronts: with the White regime and the Bolshevik dictatorship. This is a period of fierce front-line war, red and white terror.

The second half of 1919 - autumn 1920 - the period of the military defeat of the White armies. The Bolsheviks somewhat softened their position in relation to the middle peasantry, declaring at the VIII Congress of the RCP (b) about "the need for a more attentive attitude to its needs - the elimination of arbitrariness on the part of local authorities and the desire for an agreement with it." The vacillating peasantry is leaning towards the side of the Soviet government. The stage ends with an acute crisis in relations between the Bolsheviks and the middle and prosperous peasantry, who did not want to continue the policy of "war communism" after the defeat of the main forces of the white armies.

The end of 1920 - 1922 - the period of the "small civil war". Deployment of mass peasant uprisings against the policy of "war communism". Growing dissatisfaction with the workers and the performance of the Kronstadt sailors. At this time, the influence of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks again increased. The Bolsheviks were forced to retreat, to introduce a new, more liberal economic policy.

Such actions contributed to the gradual fading of the civil war.

The first outbreaks of the Civil War. Formation of the White Movement. On the night of October 26, a group of Mensheviks and Right SRs who left the II Congress of Soviets formed the All-Russian Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution in the City Duma. Relying on the help of the junkers of the Petrograd schools, on October 29 the committee attempted to carry out a counter-coup. But the very next day this performance was suppressed by Red Guard detachments.

A.F. Kerensky led the campaign of the corps of General P.N. Krasnov against Petrograd. On October 27 and 28, the Cossacks captured Gatchina and Tsarskoe Selo, creating a direct threat to Petrograd, but on October 30, Krasnov's detachments were defeated. Kerensky fled. P. N. Krasnov was arrested by his own Cossacks, but then released under honestly that he will not fight against the new government.

With great complications, Soviet power was established in Moscow. Here, on October 26, the City Duma created the Committee of Public Security, which had 10,000 well-armed fighters at its disposal. Bloody battles unfolded in the city. Only on November 3, after the storming of the Kremlin by revolutionary forces, did Moscow come under the control of the Soviets.

With the help of weapons, a new government was established in the Cossack regions of the Don, Kuban, and the South Urals.

At the head of the anti-Bolshevik movement on the Don stood Ataman A. M. Kaledin. He declared the insubordination of the Don Cossacks to the Soviet government. Everyone dissatisfied with the new regime began to flock to the Don.

However, most of the Cossacks adopted a policy of benevolent neutrality in relation to the new government. And although the Decree on Land gave little to the Cossacks, they had land, but they were very impressed by the Decree on Peace.

At the end of November 1917, General M. V. Alekseev began the formation of the Volunteer Army to fight the Soviet regime. This army marked the beginning of the white movement, so named in contrast to the red - revolutionary. The white color seemed to symbolize law and order. And the participants white movement considered themselves to be the spokesmen for the idea of restoring the former power and might of the Russian state, the "Russian state principle" and the merciless struggle against those forces that, in their opinion, plunged Russia into chaos - the Bolsheviks, as well as representatives of other socialist parties.

The Soviet government managed to form an army of 10,000, which in mid-January 1918 entered the territory of the Don. Part of the population fought on the side of the Reds. Considering his cause lost, Ataman A. M. Kaledin shot himself. The volunteer army, burdened with carts with children, women, politicians, journalists, professors, went to the steppes, hoping to continue their work in the Kuban. On April 17, 1918, the commander of the Volunteer Army, General L. G. Kornilov, was killed near Ekaterinodar. General A.I. Denikin took command.

Simultaneously with the anti-Soviet speeches on the Don, the movement of the Cossacks in the South Urals began. A. I. Dutov, the ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army, stood at its head. In Transbaikalia, the fight against the new government was led by ataman G. M. Semenov.

These uprisings against the Soviet regime, although fierce, were spontaneous and scattered, did not enjoy the mass support of the population and took place against the backdrop of a relatively quick and peaceful establishment of the power of the Soviets almost everywhere (“the triumphal march of Soviet power,” as the Bolsheviks declared). The rebel chieftains were defeated fairly quickly. At the same time, these speeches clearly indicated the formation of two main centers of resistance. In Siberia, the face of resistance was determined by the farms of wealthy peasant proprietors, often united in cooperatives with the predominant influence of the Socialist-Revolutionaries. Resistance in the south was provided by the Cossacks, known for their love of freedom and commitment to a special way of economic and social life.

Intervention. The civil war that began in Russia was complicated from the very beginning by the intervention of foreign states in it.

December 1917 Romania, taking advantage of the weakness of the new government, occupied Bessarabia. In Ukraine, the Austro-German troops were in charge. In April 1918 Turkish troops crossed the state border and moved into the depths of Transcaucasia. In May, a German corps also landed in Georgia.

From the end 1917 English, American and Japanese warships began to arrive in Russian ports in the North and the Far East, ostensibly to protect them from possible German aggression. At first, the Soviet government took this calmly, and the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) agreed to accept assistance from the Entente countries in the form of food and weapons. But after the conclusion of the Brest Peace, the military presence of the Entente began to be seen as a direct threat to Soviet power. However, it was already too late. March, 6 1918 in the port of Murmansk, the first landing force landed from the English cruiser Glory. Following the British came the French and Americans.

In March, at a meeting of the heads of government and foreign ministers of the Entente countries, it was decided not to recognize the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and the need to interfere in Russia's internal affairs.

In April 1918 Japanese paratroopers landed in Vladivostok. Then they were joined by British, American, French and other troops. And although the governments of these countries did not declare war Soviet Russia Moreover, they hid behind the idea of fulfilling "allied duty", foreign soldiers behaved like conquerors.

After the surrender of Germany (November 1918 d) and the end of the First World War intervention countries of the Entente has acquired a wider scope. In January 1919 In the 18th century, amphibious assaults were landed in Odessa, the Crimea, Baku, Batumi, and the military contingent was slightly increased in the ports of the North and the Far East.

However, this caused a sharply negative reaction from the personnel of the expeditionary forces, for whom the end of the war was delayed for an indefinite period. Therefore, the Black Sea and Caspian landing forces were evacuated in the spring 1919 the British left Arkhangelsk and Murmansk in autumn 1919 G.

In 1920, British and American units were forced to evacuate from the Far East. Only Japanese troops remained there until October 1922.

Czechoslovak revolt. Eastern Front. Since May 1918, the Civil War entered the phase of a front-line war. The turning point that determined the new stage of the Civil War and the formation of its Eastern Front was the performance of the Czechoslovak Corps.

The corps consisted of prisoners of war Czechs and Slovaks of the former Austro-Hungarian army, who expressed a desire to participate in hostilities on the side of the Entente as early as the end of 1916. In January 1918, the corps leadership proclaimed itself part of the Czechoslovak army, which was under the command of the commander-in-chief of the French troops. An agreement was concluded between Russia and France on the transfer of the Czechoslovak corps to the Western Front.

The echelons with the Czechoslovaks were supposed to proceed along the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok, there they boarded ships and sailed to Europe.

By the end of May 1918, trains with corps units (more than 45 thousand people) were stretched along railway from Rtishchevo station near Penza to Vladivostok. A rumor spread through the echelons that the local Soviets had been ordered to disarm the corps and extradite the Czechoslovaks as prisoners of war to Austria-Hungary and Germany.

At a meeting of commanders, it was decided not to surrender weapons and, if necessary, fight their way to Vladivostok. On May 25, the commander of the Czechoslovak units concentrated in the Novonikolaevsk area, R. Gaida, in response to the intercepted order of L. Trotsky confirming the disarmament of the corps, ordered his echelons to seize the stations at which they were currently located and, if possible, advance on Irkutsk.

In comparatively short term with the help of the Czechoslovak corps, Soviet power was overthrown in the Volga region, the Urals, Siberia and the Far East. Czechoslovak bayonets paved the way for new governments, which, in accordance with the sympathies of the Czechoslovaks, were dominated by the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks.

The disgraced leaders of the dispersed Constituent Assembly were drawn to the East.

In September 1918, a meeting of representatives of all anti-Bolshevik governments was held in Ufa, which formed a single "All-Russian" government - the Ufa directory, in which leading role played by the leaders of the AKP.

The offensive of the Red Army forced the Ufa directory to move to a safer place - Omsk. There, Admiral A. V. Kolchak was invited to the post of Minister of War.

Kolchak Alexander Vasilievich(1874 - 1920) was born in the family of a naval artillery officer. During his first voyage to pacific ocean Kolchak, on his own initiative, began to engage in oceanography and hydrology. In 1899 he was invited to the Russian Polar Expedition led by Baron E. V. Toll.

During the Russo-Japanese War he fought in Port Arthur. In early September 1915, he was appointed commander of a mine division. For the development and implementation of the landing operation on the Riga coast, behind German lines, he received the highest military award - the St. George Cross. In July 1916, Kolchak was appointed commander of the Black Sea Fleet with promotion to vice admiral.

The February Revolution came as a complete surprise to him, but Kolchak, without much hesitation, swore allegiance to the Provisional Government, hoping that the revolution would stir up the patriotic enthusiasm of the masses and make it possible to end the war victoriously. In the first weeks of the revolution, he managed to establish some interaction and contact with the Sevastopol Soviet of Workers' Deputies and the Sailors' Committee. However, at the beginning of June 1917, revolutionary unrest captured and Black Sea Fleet. The sailors' committees decided to disarm the officers. Kolchak took this demand as a personal insult and resigned as commander of the fleet.

At the end of July 1917, at the invitation of the American military mission, Kolchak left for the United States to transfer experience in organizing minecraft and combating submarines. The October Revolution caught him on the way: he was returning to his homeland.

The Social Revolutionary leaders of the Directory hoped that the popularity enjoyed by A. V. Kolchak in the Russian army and navy would allow him to unite disparate military formations and create their own armed forces for the Directory. However, the Russian officers did not want to make an unacceptable, in their opinion, compromise with the "socialists".

On the night of November 17-18, 1918, a group of conspirators from the officers of the Cossack units arrested the socialist leaders of the Directory in Omsk and handed full power to Admiral A. V. Kolchak. At the insistence of the allies, A. V. Kolchak was declared the "supreme ruler of Russia."

The command of the Czechoslovak corps took this news without much enthusiasm, but under the pressure of the allies did not resist. And when the news of the surrender of Germany reached the corps, no forces could force the Czechoslovaks to continue the war. The baton of the armed struggle against the Soviet regime on Eastern Front captured by Kolchak's army. Only from that moment (from November 1918) did the front-line Civil War enter the stage of confrontation between the Reds and the Whites, and until the end of 1919 it was characterized by the stubborn desire of the White generals to overthrow the Soviet government through military operations.

However, the admiral's break with the Social Revolutionaries was a gross political miscalculation. The Social Revolutionaries went underground and began active underground work against the Kolchak regime, while becoming de facto allies of the Bolsheviks.

On November 28, 1918, Admiral Kolchak met with representatives of the press to clarify his political line. He stated that his immediate goal was to create a strong and efficient army for a "merciless and inexorable struggle against the Bolsheviks". This is possible with a "sole form of power." In the future, a National Assembly should be convened in Russia "for the reign of law and order in the country." All economic and social reforms must also be postponed until the end of the fight against the Bolsheviks. From the first steps of its existence, the Kolchak government embarked on the path of exceptional laws. Martial law, the death penalty were introduced, and punitive expeditions were organized. All these measures caused mass discontent among the population. Peasant uprisings engulfed all of Siberia. Acquired a huge scope partisan movement. Under the blows of the Red Army, the Kolchak government was forced to move to Irkutsk. On December 24, 1919, an anti-Kolchak uprising was raised in Irkutsk. Allied troops and the remaining Czechoslovak detachments declared their neutrality.

In early January 1920, the Czechs handed over A. V. Kolchak to the leaders of the uprising. After a short investigation, the "supreme ruler of Russia" was shot in February 1920.

Southern front. The south of Russia became the second center of resistance to Soviet power. In the spring of 1918, the Don was filled with rumors about the upcoming equalizing redistribution of all lands. The Cossacks murmured. Following that, an order arrived in time for the surrender of weapons and the requisition of bread. An uprising broke out. It coincided with the arrival of the Germans on the Don. The Cossack leaders, forgetting about past patriotism, entered into negotiations with a recent enemy. On April 21, the Provisional Don Government was created, which began the formation of the Don Army. On May 16, the Cossack circle - the “Circle of Don Salvation” - elected General P. N. Krasnov as ataman of the Don Cossacks, endowing him with almost dictatorial powers. Relying on German support, P. N. Krasnov declared the state independence of the region of the Great Don Army.

Using cruel methods, II. II Krasnov carried out mass mobilizations, bringing the size of the Don Army to 45 thousand people by mid-July 1918. Weapons were supplied in excess by Germany. By mid-August, units of P. N. Krasnov occupied the entire Don region and, together with the German troops, launched military operations against the Red Army.

Breaking into the territories of the "red" provinces, the Cossack units hanged, shot, raped, robbed and flogged the local population. These atrocities gave rise to fear and hatred, the desire to take revenge, using the same methods. A wave of anger and hatred swept over the country.

At the same time, the Volunteer Army of A.I. Denikin began its second campaign against the Kuban. The "volunteers" adhered to the Entente orientation and tried not to interact with the pro-German detachments of P. N. Krasnov.

Meanwhile, the foreign policy situation has changed dramatically due to the defeat of Germany and its allies. Under pressure and with the active assistance of the Entente countries, at the end of 1918, all the anti-Bolshevik armed forces of southern Russia were united under the unified command of A. I. Denikin.

The White Guard power in the south of Russia from the very beginning had a military-dictatorial character. The main ideas of the movement were the restoration of a single, indivisible Russia and a merciless struggle against the Bolsheviks until their complete destruction. In March 1919, the Denikin government published a draft land reform. It spoke about the preservation of the owners of their rights to land, the establishment of certain land norms for each individual locality, and the transfer of the rest of the land to small land "by voluntary agreements or by compulsory alienation, but also necessarily for a fee." However, the final solution of the land question was postponed until the complete victory over Bolshevism and was assigned to the future Legislative Assembly. In the meantime, the government of southern Russia has demanded that a third of the entire crop be provided to the owners of the occupied lands. Some representatives of the Denikin administration returned the exiled landowners to their estates. Drunkenness, flogging, pogroms, looting became commonplace in the Volunteer Army. Hatred for the Bolsheviks and all those who supported them drowned out other feelings, removed all moral prohibitions. Therefore, soon the rear of the Volunteer Army also began to shake from peasant uprisings.

White Crimea. At the same time, last step existence of the Volunteer Army, an attempt was made to rethink the ideology and politics of the white movement. This attempt is associated with the name of General P. N. Wrangel. In early April 1920, after the defeat of Denikin's army, Wrangel was elected commander in chief and evacuated the troops to the Crimea. In his fight against the Bolsheviks, he relied on the help of the entire Russian population. To this end, Wrangel tried to recreate the democratic order interrupted by October in the Crimea. Wrangel hoped that in the future the "Crimean experiment" could be extended to the whole of Russia.

On May 25, 1920, Wrangel published the "Law on Land", the author of which was the closest associate of P. A. Stolypin, A. V. Krivoshein, who headed the government of southern Russia in 1920. According to this law, part of the landowners' lands p. Wrangell. passed into the ownership of the peasants for a small ransom. In addition, the “Law on Volost Zemstvos and Rural Communities” was issued, which were supposed to become peasant self-government bodies instead of rural Soviets. In an effort to win over the Cossacks, Wrangel approved a new regulation on the order of regional autonomy for the Cossack lands. The workers were promised new factory legislation that really protected their rights.

However, time has been lost. The Reds took decisive measures to eliminate the last "seed of counter-revolution" as soon as possible. In mid-November 1920, Wrangel's troops were finished.

White North. The government of the north of Russia was formed after the landing of the Entente powers in Arkhangelsk in August 1918. It was headed by popular socialist N. V. Tchaikovsky.

At the very beginning of 1919, the government came into contact with Admiral Kolchak. The "Supreme Ruler of Russia" ordered the organization of a military governor-general in the north of Russia, headed by General E. K. Miller. This meant the establishment of a military dictatorship here.

On August 10, 1919, at the insistence of the British command, the government of the North-Western region was created. Revel became his residence. In fact, all power was concentrated in the hands of the generals and atamans of the North-Western Army. At the head of the army was General N. N. Yudenich.

The white rulers of the north issued a decree according to which the entire sown crop, all sown lands, estates and inventory were returned to the landowners. The arable land remained with the peasants until the decision of the land issue by the Constituent Assembly. But in the conditions of the north, mowing lands were the most valuable, so the peasants again fell into bondage to the landowners.

Reasons for the defeat of the white movement. Why, despite temporary successes and significant material and military assistance from abroad, did the white movement fail? It should be borne in mind that its leaders failed to offer the people an attractive program. Laws were restored in the territories they controlled Russian Empire the property was returned to the previous owners. And although none of the white governments openly put forward the idea of restoring the monarchical order, the popular consciousness perceived them as champions for the old government, for the return of the tsar and the landowners. The national policy of the white generals, their adherence to the slogan "one and indivisible Russia" was also suicidal.

The White movement could not become the core consolidating all the anti-Bolshevik forces. Moreover, by refusing to cooperate with socialist parties, the white generals themselves split the anti-Bolshevik front, turning the Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, anarchists in your opponents. And in the white camp itself there was no unity and interaction either in the political or in the military field. There was a hostile personal relationship between the leaders. Each of them aspired to superiority. The recognition of Admiral A. V. Kolchak as the "supreme ruler of Russia" was purely formal. The White movement did not have a leader whose authority would be recognized by all.

And finally, one of the reasons for the defeat was the moral decay of the army, the application to the population of measures that did not fit into the white code of honor: robberies, pogroms, punitive expeditions, violence. The white movement was started by “almost saints”, and ended by “almost bandits” - such a verdict was passed by one of the ideologists of the white movement, the former leader of Russian nationalists V. V. Shulgin.

Thus, the political confrontation in society after the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks took the form of a civil war, on the opposite poles of which were white and red.

The leaders of the white movement made gross political miscalculations, which led them to defeat.

PEASANTS AND WORKERS

In No. 88 of Izvestia of the All-Russian Soviet of Peasant Deputies, 57 of August 19, an extremely interesting article is published, which should become one of the main documents in the hands of every Party propagandist and agitator who deals with the peasantry, in the hands of every class-conscious worker heading to the countryside or in contact with her.

This article is "An exemplary order drawn up on the basis of 242 orders delivered by local deputies to the 1st All-Russian Congress of Peasants' Deputies in Petrograd in 1917."

It would be highly desirable that the Soviet of Peasants' Deputies publish as detailed as possible details of all these orders (if it is already absolutely impossible to print all of them in full, which would, of course, be the best thing). For example, it is especially necessary full list provinces, counties, volosts, indicating how many orders were delivered from each locality, the time of preparation or delivery of orders, an analysis of the main requirements, though, so that you can see if there are noticeable differences in the regions regarding certain points. For example, the area of homestead and communal land ownership, Great Russian and other national areas, areas of the center and areas of the outskirts, areas that did not know serfdom, etc. - do they differ in raising the question of the abolition of ownership of all peasant land, on periodic redistribution of land

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whether, on the prevention of hired labor, on the confiscation of equipment and livestock from the landowners, and so on. and so on. A scientific study of the extraordinarily valuable material of peasant mandates is impossible without such detailed data. And we Marxists must strive with all our might for a scientific study of the facts underlying our policy.

For lack of the best material summary of orders(as we will call "exemplary order"), until any factual infidelity is proved in it, remains the only material of its kind, which, we repeat, must necessarily be in the hands of every member of our party.

The first part of the summary of orders is devoted to general political provisions, the requirements of political democracy; the second is the question of land. (Let us hope that the All-Russian Soviet of Peasants' Deputies, or someone else, will produce a summary of the peasant orders and resolutions on the question of the war.) We will not now dwell on the first part in detail and note only two points. § 6 requires the election of all officials; in § 11 the abolition, at the end of the war, of the standing army. These points make the political program of the peasants closest standing for the program of the Bolshevik Party. Based on these points, in all our propaganda and agitation we must point out and prove that the Menshevik and Socialist-Revolutionary leaders are traitors not only to socialism, but also to democracy, for they defended, for example, in Kronstadt, against the will of the population, against the principles of democracy, in to please the capitalists, the position of commissar, approved government, that is, not purely elective. The Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik leaders in the district dumas of St. Petersburg and in other institutions of local self-government, contrary to the principles of democracy, are fighting against the Bolshevik demand to immediately begin the introduction of a workers' militia, and then a transition to an all-people's militia.

The land demands of the peasantry, according to the summary of orders, consist primarily in the gratuitous abolition of private

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ownership of land of all kinds, up to peasant; in the transfer to the state or communities of land plots with highly cultivated farms; in the confiscation of all living and dead inventory of confiscated lands (excluding small-land peasants), with its transfer to the state or communities; in the prevention of hired labor; in the egalitarian distribution of land among the working people, with periodic redistribution, etc. As measures of transition, until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, the peasants demand immediate the issuance of laws on the prohibition of the purchase and sale of land, the abolition of laws on separation from the community, cuts, etc., on the protection of forests, fish and other industries, etc., on the abolition of long-term and revision of short-term leases, etc. etc.

A little reflection on these requirements is enough to see the complete impossibility of realizing them. in union with the capitalists, without a complete break with them, without the most resolute and merciless struggle against the capitalist class, without overthrowing its rule.

This is precisely the self-deception of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and their deception of the peasantry, that they allow and spread the idea that such transformations, that similar transformations are possible without the overthrow of the rule of the capitalists, without the transfer of all state power to the proletariat, without the support of the poorest peasantry for the most resolute, revolutionary measures of the proletarian state power against the capitalists. This is precisely the significance of the emerging left wing of the "Socialist-Revolutionaries", that it proves the growth of consciousness of this deceit within this party itself.

Indeed, the confiscation of all privately owned land means the confiscation of hundreds of millions of capital of the banks in which these lands are for the most part mortgaged. Is such a measure conceivable without the revolutionary class using revolutionary measures to break the resistance of the capitalists? At the same time, we are talking about the most centralized, banking capital, which is nice

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connected by liards of threads with all the most important centers of the capitalist economy of a vast country and which can only be defeated by the no less centralized force of the urban proletariat.

Further. Transfer of highly cultivated farms to the state. Isn't it obvious that a "state" capable of taking them and running the economy really for the benefit of the working people, and not for the benefit of officials and the same capitalists, must be a proletarian revolutionary state.

The confiscation of horse factories, etc., and then of all living and dead stock, is not only yet another gigantic blow to private ownership of the means of production. These are steps towards socialism, for the transition inventory"for the exclusive use of the state or community" signifies the need for large-scale, socialist agriculture, or at least socialist control over the united small farms, socialist regulation of their economy.

What about the “prevention” of hired labor? This is an empty phrase, the helpless, unconsciously naive wish of the downtrodden small proprietors, who do not see that the entire capitalist industry will stand up in the absence of a reserve army of wage labor in the countryside, that it is impossible to “prevent” wage labor in the countryside by allowing it in the city, that, Finally, the "prevention" of hired labor means nothing but a step towards socialism.

And here we come to the fundamental question of the attitude of the workers towards the peasants.

For more than 20 years there has been a mass social-democratic working-class movement in Russia (counting from the big strikes of 1896). During this long period of time, after two great revolutions, the question runs like a red thread through the entire political history of Russia: whether the working class should lead the peasants forward, towards socialism, or whether the liberal bourgeois should drag them back, towards reconciliation with capitalism.

The opportunist wing of the Social-Democrats always argues according to the following wise formula:

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because socialist-revolutionaries are petty bourgeois, therefore "we" reject their petty-bourgeois-utopian view of socialism in the name of bourgeois rejection of socialism. Marxism is successfully replaced by Struvism, and Menshevism is reduced to the role of a Cadet lackey, "reconciling" the peasants to the rule of the bourgeoisie. Tsereteli and Skobelev, hand in hand with Chernov and Avksentiev, busy signing, in the name of "revolutionary democracy", the reactionary decrees of the landowners of the Cadets - such is the last and most graphic expression of this role.

The revolutionary Social Democracy, which has never refrained from criticizing the petty-bourgeois illusions of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, never blocked with them otherwise against cadets, all the time fighting for pulling out peasants from under the influence of the Cadets and opposes the petty-bourgeois-utopian view of socialism not liberal reconciliation with capitalism, but the revolutionary proletarian path to socialism.

Now that the war has extraordinarily accelerated development, sharpened the crisis of capitalism to an incredible degree, confronted the peoples with an immediate choice: death or immediate decisive steps towards socialism, now the whole abyss of divergence between semi-liberal Menshevism and revolutionary proletarian Bolshevism stands out clearly, practically, as a matter of action by tens of millions of people. peasants.

Put up with the dominance of capital, for“we” are not yet ripe for socialism—this is what the Mensheviks say to the peasants, by the way, replacing the abstract question of “socialism” in general with the concrete question whether it is possible to heal the wounds inflicted by the war without taking decisive steps towards socialism.

Put up with capitalism for The Socialist-Revolutionaries are petty-bourgeois utopians—this is what the Mensheviks say to the peasants and go along with the Socialist-Revolutionaries to support the Cadet government...

And the Socialist-Revolutionaries, beating their breasts, assure the peasants that they are against any kind of peace with the capitalists, that they have never considered the Russian revolution to be bourgeois, and By-

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this go to the block exactly with the opportunist Social Democrats, they go to support precisely the bourgeois government ... The Socialist-Revolutionaries sign any program of the peasantry, the most revolutionary programs of the peasantry - in order not to fulfill them, in order to shelve them, in order to deceive the peasants with the most empty promises, while in fact engaged in months of "agreement" with the Cadets in the coalition ministry.

This flagrant, practical, direct, palpable betrayal of the Socialist-Revolutionaries to the interests of the peasantry changes the situation tremendously. This change must be taken into account. It is only impossible to agitate against the Socialist-Revolutionaries in the old fashioned way, only as we did in 1902-03 and 1905-1907. We must not confine ourselves to theoretical exposure of the petty-bourgeois illusions of "socialization of the land", "equalized land tenure", "prevention of hired labour", etc.

Then there was the eve of the bourgeois revolution or the incomplete bourgeois revolution, and the whole task was to bring it to the overthrow of the monarchy, first of all.

Now the monarchy has been overthrown. The bourgeois revolution is completed insofar as Russia has turned out to be a democratic republic with a government of Cadets, Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries. And in three years the war dragged us forward thirty years, created universal labor service and forced syndication of enterprises in Europe, brought the most advanced countries to starvation and unprecedented ruin, forcing us to take steps towards socialism.

Only the proletariat and the peasantry can overthrow the monarchy - such was the basic definition of our class policy at that time. And this definition was correct. February and March 1917 once again confirmed this.

Only the proletariat leading the poorest peasantry (semi-proletarians, as our program says) can end the war with a democratic

114 V. I. LENIN

peace, to heal her wounds, to begin the unconditionally necessary and urgent steps towards socialism-such is the definition of our class policy today.

Hence the conclusion: the center of gravity in propaganda and agitation against the Socialist-Revolutionaries must be shifted to what they have betrayed the peasants. They represent not a mass of poor peasants, but a minority of wealthy proprietors. They lead the peasantry not to an alliance with the workers, but to an alliance with the capitalists, that is, to subjugation to them. They sold the interests of the working and exploited masses for ministerial positions, for a bloc with the Mensheviks and the Cadets.

History, hastened by the war, has advanced so far that the old formulas have been filled with new content. "Prevention of hired labor", it used to mean only: an empty phrase of a petty-bourgeois intellectual. This means something else in life now: millions of poor peasants, in 242 orders, say that they want to move towards the abolition of wage labor, but do not know how to do it. We know how to do it. We know that this can only be done in alliance with the workers, under their leadership, against the capitalists, and not by "compromising" with the capitalists.

This is how the main line of our propaganda and agitation against the Socialist-Revolutionaries, the main line of our speeches to the peasantry, must now change.

The Socialist-Revolutionary Party has betrayed you, comrade peasants. She betrayed the huts and took the side of the palaces, if not the palaces of the monarch, then those palaces where the Cadets, the worst enemies of the revolution and especially the peasant revolution, sit in the same government with the Chernovs, Peshekhonovs, Avksentievs.

Only the revolutionary proletariat, only the vanguard uniting it, the Bolshevik Party, can in practice fulfill the program of the peasant poor, which is set out in the 242th orders. For the revolutionary proletariat really is moving towards the abolition of wage labor in the only sure way, by the overthrow of capital, and not by prohibiting the hiring of a worker, not by “preventing” this. The revolutionary proletariat

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visibly moves towards the confiscation of land, implements, technical agricultural enterprises, towards what the peasants want, and what the Socialist-Revolutionaries want to give them can not.

This is how the main line of speeches of the worker to the peasant must now change. We workers can and will give you what the poor peasants want and are looking for, not always knowing where and how to look. We, the workers, against the capitalists we defend our own interests and at the same time the interests of the gigantic majority of the peasants, while the Socialist-Revolutionaries, entering into an alliance with the capitalists, betray these interests.

Let us remind the reader what Engels said shortly before his death about the peasant question. Engels emphasized that the socialists had no intention of expropriating the small peasants, that only by example he will find out the advantages of machine socialist agriculture.

The war has now practically confronted Russia with a question of precisely this kind. Little inventory. Confiscate it and "not divide" highly cultured farms.

The peasants began to understand this. Need made me understand. The war forced, because there is nowhere to take inventory. We must protect him. A large-scale farm means saving labor on inventory, as well as on many other things.

The peasants want to keep their small farms, to ration them on an equal footing, to periodically equalize them again... So be it. Because of this, not a single sensible socialist will part ways with the peasant poor. If the lands are confiscated, Means the dominance of the banks is undermined if the inventory is confiscated, Means the dominance of capital is undermined, then under the rule of the proletariat in the center, upon the transfer of political power to the proletariat, the rest will follow by itself will appear as a result of the "power of example", it will be prompted by practice itself.

The transfer of political power to the proletariat—that is the point. And then everything essential, basic, root

116 V. I. LENIN

in the program of 242 orders becomes feasible. And life will show with what modifications this will be realized. This is the ninth case. We are not doctrinaires. Our teaching is not a dogma, but a guide to action.

We do not pretend that Marx or the Marxists know the path to socialism in all its concreteness. This is nonsense. We know the direction of this path, we know what class forces are leading along it, and concretely, practically, this will only show experience of millions when they get down to business.

Trust the workers, comrade peasants, break the alliance with the capitalists! Only in close alliance with the workers will you you can to start implementing in practice the program of the 242 orders. In alliance with the capitalists, under the leadership of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, you will never no one decisive, irrevocable step in the spirit of this program.

And when, in alliance with the urban workers, in a merciless struggle against capital, you start implement the program of the 242 orders, then the whole world will come to the aid of you and us, then the success of this program - not in its current formulation, but in its essence - will be ensured. Then there will be an end to the domination of capital and wage slavery. Then the kingdom of socialism will begin, the kingdom of peace, the kingdom of the working people.

Signature: Η. Lenin

Published according to the text of the newspaper "Worker"

II Congress of Soviets. The first decrees of Soviet power. On the evening of October 25, the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies opened. Of the 739 delegates, 338 were Bolsheviks, 127 mandates belonged to the left wing of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, which supported the Bolshevik idea of an armed uprising. The Mensheviks and Right Socialist-Revolutionaries sharply condemned the actions of the Bolsheviks and demanded that the congress begin negotiations with the Provisional Government on the formation of a new Cabinet of Ministers based on all sectors of society. Not having received the approval of the congress, the Menshevik and Right Social Revolutionary factions left the meeting. Thus, they deprived themselves of the opportunity to take part in the formation of new authorities, and hence the opportunity to correct the actions of the Bolsheviks "from within". The Left SRs initially also did not accept the proposal of the Bolsheviks to enter the government. They were afraid of a final break with their party, hoping that in the future a coalition government would nevertheless be formed from representatives of all socialist parties.

Taking into account the sad experience of the Provisional Government, which lost its credibility due to its unwillingness to solve the main problems of the revolution, Lenin immediately proposed that the Second Congress of Soviets adopt decrees on peace, land and power.

The Decree on Peace proclaimed Russia's withdrawal from the war. The congress turned to all the belligerent governments and peoples with a proposal for a general peace without annexations and indemnities.

The Decree on Land was based on 242 local peasant orders to the First Congress of Soviets, which set out the peasants' ideas about agrarian reform. The peasants demanded the abolition of private ownership of land, the establishment of egalitarian land use with periodic redistribution of land. These demands were never put forward by the Bolsheviks, they were an integral part of the Socialist-Revolutionary program. But Lenin was well aware that without the support of the peasantry, it would hardly be possible to retain power in the country, so he intercepted their agrarian program from the Socialist-Revolutionaries. And the peasants followed the Bolsheviks.

The Decree on Power proclaimed the universal transfer of power to the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies. The congress elected a new composition of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK). It included 62 Bolsheviks and 29 Left Social Revolutionaries. A certain number of seats were also left to other socialist parties. Executive power was transferred to the interim government - the Council of People's Commissars (SNK) - headed by V. I. Lenin. During the discussion and adoption of each decree, it was emphasized that they were of a temporary nature - until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, which would have to legislate the principles of the state system.

On November 2, 1917, the Soviet government adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia. It formulated the most important provisions that determined the national policy of the Soviet government: the equality and sovereignty of the peoples of Russia, the right of the peoples of Russia to free self-determination, up to secession and the formation of an independent state, the abolition of all and any national and national-religious privileges and restrictions, the free development of national minorities.

On November 20, 1917, the Soviet government issued an appeal "To all the working Muslims of Russia and the East", in which it announced beliefs and customs, national and cultural institutions working Muslims free and inviolable.

On December 18, the civil rights of men and women were equalized. On January 23, 1918, a decree was issued on the separation of the church from the state and the school from the church. October 29, 1918 i. The All-Russian Congress of Unions of Workers' and Peasants' Youth announced the creation of the Russian Communist Youth Union (RKSM).

In December 1917, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK) was created under the Council of People's Commissars to "combat counter-revolution, sabotage and profiteering" - the first punitive body of Soviet power. It was headed by F. E. Dzerzhinsky. The decrees of the new government were met with satisfaction by many sections of the population. They were supported by the All-Russian Congresses of Soviets of Peasants' Deputies, which took place in November and early December 1917. The congresses decided to merge the Central Executive Committee of Soviets of Peasants' Deputies with the Central Executive Committee of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. The support of the peasantry for the Bolshevik Decree on Land brought the right SRs to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and the left to the government. In November - December 1917, seven representatives of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries entered the Council of People's Commissars.

The fate of the Constituent Assembly. Standing in opposition to the Bolshevik government, the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries for the time being did not attempt to overthrow it by force, since initially this path was unpromising due to the obvious popularity of the Bolshevik slogans among the masses. The bet was made on an attempt to seize power by legal means - with the help of the Constituent Assembly.

The demand for the convocation of the Constituent Assembly appeared in the course of the first Russian revolution. It was included in the programs of almost all political parties. The Bolsheviks waged their campaign against the Provisional Government, among other things, under the slogan of defending the Constituent Assembly, accusing the government of delaying elections to it.

Having come to power, the Bolsheviks changed their attitude towards the Constituent Assembly, declaring that the Soviets were a more acceptable form of democracy. But since the idea of the Constituent Assembly was very popular among the people, and besides, all parties had already put up their lists for elections, the Bolsheviks did not dare to cancel them.

The results of the elections deeply disappointed the Bolshevik leaders. 23.9% of voters voted for them, 40% voted for the Socialist-Revolutionaries, and the right-wing Socialist-Revolutionaries prevailed in the lists. The Mensheviks received 2.3% and the Cadets 4.7% of the vote. The leaders of all major Russian and national parties, the entire liberal and democratic elite were elected members of the Constituent Assembly.

On January 3, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People written by V. I. Lenin. The Declaration recorded all the changes that had taken place since October 25, which were regarded as the basis for the subsequent socialist reorganization of society. It was decided to submit this document as the main one for adoption by the Constituent Assembly.

On January 5, the opening day of the Constituent Assembly, a demonstration was held in Petrograd in its defense, organized by the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks. By order of the authorities, she was shot.

The Constituent Assembly opened and proceeded in a tense atmosphere of confrontation. The meeting room was filled with armed sailors, supporters of the Bolsheviks. Their behavior went beyond the norms of parliamentary ethics. Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Ya. M. Sverdlov read out the Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People and proposed to adopt it, thereby legitimizing the existence of Soviet power and its first decrees. But the Constituent Assembly refused to approve this document. A discussion began on the draft laws on peace and land proposed by the Social Revolutionaries. On January 6, early in the morning, the Bolsheviks announced their resignation from the Constituent Assembly. Following them, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries also left the meeting. The discussion, which continued after the departure of the ruling parties, was interrupted late at night by the head of the guard, sailor A. Zheleznyakov, saying that "the guard was tired." He urged the delegates to leave the premises.

On the night of January 6-7, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a decree dissolving the Constituent Assembly. The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly made a stunning impression on the parties of revolutionary democracy. Hope was lost for a peaceful way to remove the Bolsheviks from power. Now many considered it necessary to carry out an armed struggle against the Bolsheviks.

The formation of Soviet statehood. On January 10, 1918, the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies opened. Delegates joined him three days later. III All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Peasants' Deputies. Thus, the unification of the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies into a single state system was completed. The United Congress adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People.

In July 1918, the Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets met. The main result of his work was the adoption of the Constitution, which legislated the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat in the form of Soviet power. It was emphasized that the dictatorship of the proletariat aims to suppress the bourgeoisie, abolish exploitation and build socialism. The Constitution fixed the federal structure of the country and its name - the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (RSFSR). The All-Russian Congress of Soviets was recognized as the supreme body of power, and in the intervals - the All-Russian Central Executive Committee elected by it. Executive power belonged to the Council of People's Commissars.

The Constitution defined the fundamental rights and obligations of citizens. Everyone was obliged to work (“Let not the worker not eat”), to protect the gains of the socialist revolution, to defend the socialist Fatherland. Some categories of the population were restricted in their rights. Thus, people who used hired labor for profit or lived on unearned income, former employees of the tsarist police, and priests were deprived of their voting rights. The workers were assigned electoral advantages in comparison with the peasants: 5 votes of the peasants were equated to one vote of the worker.

The 5th Congress also approved the State flag and coat of arms of the RSFSR.

Separate peace or revolutionary war? One of the most difficult questions of Russian reality was the question of the war. The Bolsheviks promised the people its speedy completion. However, in the party itself there was no unity on this issue, since it was most closely connected with one of the fundamental provisions of the Bolshevik doctrine - with the idea of world revolution. The essence of this idea was that the victory of the socialist revolution in backward Russia could be ensured only if similar revolutions took place in the developed capitalist countries and the European proletariat assisted the Russian in eliminating backwardness and building a socialist society. Another idea flowed from the doctrine of the world revolution - the idea of a revolutionary war, with the help of which the victorious Russian proletariat would support the proletariat of other countries in fomenting war with their own bourgeoisie. At the same time, the main stake was placed on the German proletariat. Therefore, it was originally planned that the Bolsheviks would offer all powers to conclude a democratic peace, and in case of refusal, they would start a revolutionary war with world capital.

On November 7, 1917, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs L. D. Trotsky addressed the governments of all the warring powers with a proposal to conclude a general democratic peace. A few days later, the Soviet government again repeated its offer, but only Germany agreed to start negotiations.

According to the logic of Bolshevik principles, it was time to start a revolutionary war. However, after becoming head of state, V. I. Lenin dramatically changed his attitude to this issue. He urgently demanded the immediate conclusion of a separate peace with Germany, since in the conditions of the collapse of the army and the crisis of the economy, the German offensive threatened an imminent catastrophe for the country, and therefore for the Soviet government. At least a short respite was needed for economic stabilization and the creation of an army.

The proposal of Lenin and his few supporters was opposed by a group of prominent Bolsheviks, later called "Left Communists". Its leader was N. I. Bukharin. This group categorically insisted on the continuation of the revolutionary war, which was supposed to ignite the fire of the world revolution. Unlike Lenin, Bukharin saw the threat to Soviet power not in the offensive of the German army, but in the fact that hatred of the Bolsheviks would inevitably unite the warring Western powers for a joint campaign against Soviet power. And only the international revolutionary front will be able to resist the united imperialist front. The conclusion of peace with Germany will undoubtedly weaken the chances of a revolutionary action in her, and hence the chances of a world revolution. Bukharin's position was supported by the Left SRs.

Compromise, but not devoid of logic, was the position of L. D. Trotsky, expressed by the formula: "We do not stop the war, we demobilize the army, but we do not sign peace." This approach was based on the belief that Germany was not capable of major offensive operations and the Bolsheviks have no need to discredit themselves with negotiations. Trotsky did not rule out the possibility of signing peace, but only if the German offensive began. At the same time, it will become clear to the international labor movement that peace is necessary measure, and not the result of the Soviet-German collusion.

Most of the party organizations were against the signing of peace. However, V. I. Lenin defended his position with incredible persistence.

L. D. Trotsky, who headed the Russian delegation, dragged out negotiations with the Germans in every possible way, believing that they had put forward territorial claims unacceptable to Russia. On the evening of January 28 (February 10), 1918, he announced the break in negotiations.

On February 18 (according to the new style introduced in Russia on February 14, 1918), the Germans launched an offensive and, without encountering serious resistance, began to quickly move inland.

On February 23, the Soviet government received a German ultimatum. The terms of the peace proposed in it were much harder than before. With incredible difficulty, only with the help of the threat of his resignation, V. I. Lenin managed to persuade the insignificant majority of the Central Committee of the party, and then the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, to adopt a resolution on signing the treaty on German terms.

On March 3, 1918, a separate peace treaty between Russia and Germany was signed in Brest-Litovsk.

Under the terms of the Brest Peace, Poland, Lithuania, part of Latvia, Belarus and Transcaucasia were torn away from Russia. The Soviet government was to withdraw its troops from Latvia and Estonia, as well as from Finland, which gained independence according to the decree of the SPK of December 18 (31), 1917. The army was also to leave Ukraine, where, at the invitation of its government, Austro-German troops were introduced.

The economic policy of the new government. Economic relations between town and country in the first half of Soviet power were built according to the scheme inherited by the Bolsheviks from the Provisional Government. While maintaining the grain monopoly and fixed prices, the Soviet government received grain through barter. The People's Commissar for Food had at his disposal items of industrial production and, under certain conditions, sent them to the village, stimulating the delivery of grain.

However, in conditions of all-encompassing instability, the lack of necessary industrial goods, the peasants were in no hurry to give bread to the government. In addition, in the spring of 1918, the grain regions of Ukraine, the Kuban, the Volga region, and Siberia were cut off from the center. The threat of famine loomed over Soviet territory. In the end of April 1918 The daily norm of bread rations in Petrograd was reduced to 50 g. In Moscow, workers received an average of 100 g per day. Food riots began in the country.

On May 13, 1918, the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars "On granting the People's Commissariat of Food emergency powers to combat the rural bourgeoisie, hiding grain stocks and speculating with them" was published. Consumption norms for peasants were established - 12 poods of grain per person, 1 pood of cereals, etc. Everything else was called "surplus" and was subject to seizure. To accomplish this task, armed working detachments were created throughout the country - food detachments, endowed with emergency powers.

But the Bolsheviks feared that the "crusade" announced by the city to the countryside might cause a backlash - the unification of the entire peasantry for an organized grain blockade. Therefore, stakes were placed on splitting the countryside, on opposing the rural poor to all other peasants.

On June 11, 1918, despite the violent objections of the Left SRs, a decree was issued on the formation of committees of the rural poor. Kombeds were entrusted with the function of assisting local food authorities in detecting and seizing grain surpluses from "kulaks and the rich." For their services, the “committees” received remuneration in the form of a certain share of the grain seized by them. The duties of the commanders also included the distribution of bread, basic necessities and agricultural implements among the peasants.

This decree played the role of an exploding bomb in the countryside. He destroyed the centuries-old foundations, traditions and moral guidelines of the peasantry, sowed enmity and hatred among fellow villagers.

Having come to power, the Bolsheviks were able to implement the ideas put forward earlier. It was about introducing workers' control over the production and distribution of products. It was also necessary to nationalize all the country's banks and create a single nationwide bank.

On November 14, 1917, a decree and the Regulations on Workers' Control were adopted. The nationalization of private banks in Petrograd began, banking was declared a state monopoly. A single people's bank of the Russian Republic was created.

On November 17, 1917, the factory of the Likinskaya Manufactory Association (near Orekhovo-Zuev) was nationalized by decree of the Council of People's Commissars. In December 1917, several enterprises in the Urals and the Putilov plant in Petrograd were nationalized.

Initially, nationalization was only a response to hostile steps on the part of entrepreneurs. Moreover, it was carried out exclusively in relation to individual enterprises, and not to the industry, especially to industry as a whole, that is, it was dictated not by economic expediency, but by political motives.

The first results of the economic policy of the new government were deplorable. The idea of workers' control discredited itself, plunging industry into unimaginable chaos and anarchy. This also affected agriculture: there are no necessary industrial goods - the peasants hide the grain. Hence the famine in the cities, the threat to the existence of the new government.

At the beginning of April 1918, V.I. Lenin announced his decision to change the internal political course. His plan called for an end to nationalization and expropriation and the preservation of private capital. According to V. I. Lenin, in order to stabilize Soviet power, it was necessary to begin technical cooperation with the big bourgeoisie, restore the authority of the administration at enterprises, and introduce strict labor discipline based on material incentives. Lenin suggested that bourgeois specialists be widely involved in cooperation and was ready to abandon the Marxist principle of equal pay for worker and official. The mixed economic order he conceived was called state capitalism.

However, this new course has not received practical development. The introduction of emergency measures in the agricultural sector required appropriate decisions in other sectors of the economy. The Congress of Soviets, which met in May 1918 in Moscow National economy rejected both state capitalism and workers' control, proclaiming a course towards the nationalization of the most important branches of industry. This course was enshrined in a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of June 28, 1918. The functions of managing nationalized enterprises were transferred to the Supreme Council of the National Economy (VSNKh), which was created in December 1917 to coordinate and unify the activities of all economic bodies and institutions, both central and local.

Thus, the policy of the Bolsheviks in the first post-revolutionary period was characterized by a desire to establish a one-party dictatorship. IN economic sphere it went from the "socialization of the land" and "workers' control" to food dictatorship, committees, broad nationalization and strict centralization.

DOCUMENT

FROM THE PEASANT MANDALE ABOUT THE LAND (MANDACH 242)

The question of land, in all its scope, can be resolved only by a popular Constituent Assembly. The most just solution of the land question should be as follows:

6) The right to use land is given to all citizens (without distinction of sex) of the Russian state who wish to work it with their own labor ... Wage labor is not allowed ...