## 1. Draft of the Decree

1. The Council of People's Commissars notes that both the Central Committee {120} and the Central Volga [Administration] are in complete agreement concerning the necessity of nationalizing immediately and without compensation all maritime and river vessels serving commercial purposes.

2. Therefore, the Council of People's Commissars decrees that this nationalization be carried out without delay, entrusting a special commission composed of representatives of the Naval Commissariat, two representatives from the Central Committee, two from the Central Volga [Administration], and a chairman appointed by the Supreme Council of the National Economy to work out the following principles of the decree on nationalization and present them to the Council of People's Commissars within two days.

3. The nationalization of the entire fleet is hereby decreed.

4. Responsibility for maintaining order on vessels, for their preservation, and so forth is placed directly upon the ship crews, and then upon the unions of maritime workers of each basin or sea.

5. The Central Administrations of the entire nationalized fleet are, temporarily, pending the congress and pending unification, recognized to be the Central Committee and the Central Volga [Administration].

If unification is not achieved voluntarily, it shall be carried out by Soviet power by compulsion.

6. The Central Administrations act in complete subordination to the organs of local and central Soviet power.

Manuscript of V. I. Lenin of the draft decree on the nationalization of maritime and river commercial fleet. – January 18 (31), 1918.

## 2. Addition to the Draft

Add furthermore to the immediate decree on nationalization (α) arrest of all boards of directors (at home)

(β) severe liability for damage to vessels, etc.

Written January 18 (31), 1918.

First published in 1945 in Lenin Miscellany XXXV

Printed from the manuscripts