Communism -- Soviet Union; Soviet Union -- History -- Revolution, 1917-1921
“… The ex-Supreme Commander, General Dukhonin, for having opposed
resistance to the execution of orders, for criminal action susceptible
of provoking a new civil war, is declared enemy of the People. All
persons who support Dukhonin will be arrested, without respect to their
social or political position or their past. Persons equipped with
special authority will operate these arrests. I charge General
Manikhovsky with the execution of the above-mentioned dispositions….”
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XII
1.
INSTRUCTION TO PEASANTS
In answer to the numerous enquiries coming from peasants, it is hereby
explained that the whole power in the country is from now on held by
the Soviets of the Workers’, Soldiers’, and Peasants’ Deputies. The
Workers’ Revolution, after having conquered in Petrograd and in Moscow,
is now conquering in all other centres of Russia. The Workers’ and
Peasants’ Government safeguards the interests of the masses of
peasantry, the poorest of them; it is with the majority of peasants and
workers against the landowners, and against the capitalists.
Hence the Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies, and before all the District
Soviets, and subsequently those of the Provinces, are from now on and
until the Constituent Assembly meets, full-powered bodies of State
authority in their localities. All landlords’ titles to the land are
cancelled by the second All-Russian Congress of Soviets. A decree
regarding the land has already been issued by the present Provisional
Workers’ and Peasants’ Government. On the basis of the above decree all
lands hitherto belonging to landlords now pass entirely and wholly into
the hands of the Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies. The _Volost_ (a group
of several villages forms a _Volost_) Land Committees are immediately
to take over all land from the landlords, and to keep a strict account
over it, watching that order be maintained, and that the whole estate
be well guarded, seeing that from now on all private estates become
public property and must therefore be protected by the people
themselves.
All orders given by the _Volost_ Land Committees, adopted with the
assent of the District Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies, in fulfilment of
the decrees issued by the revolutionary power, are absolutely legal and
are to be forthwith and irrefutably brought into execution.
The Workers’ and Peasants’ Government appointed by the second
All-Russian Congress of Soviets has received the name of the Council of
People’s Commissars.
The Council of People’s Commissars summons the Peasants to take the
whole power into their hands in every locality.
The workers will in every way absolutely and entirely support the
peasants, arrange for them all that is required in connection with
machines and tools, and in return they request the peasants to help
with the transport of grain.
_President of the Council of People’s Commissars,_ V. ULIANOV (LENIN).
Petrograd, November 18th, 1917.
2.
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