V. I. Lenin

Meeting of the Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P.(B.)

October 16 (29), 1917

Comrade Lenin considers that Kamenev’s policy must be checked at once. There is now no point in negotiating with the
Vikzhel. [1]
Troops must be dispatched to Moscow. He proposes a resolution on
the Vikzhel. The Vikzhel is not represented on the Soviet, and
must not be admitted to it; the Soviets are voluntary organisations, and the Vikzhel has no support among the people.

Comrade Lenin considers that the negotiations were to serve as
diplomatic cover for military operations. The only correct
solution would be to put an end to the wavering of the waverers and to become firm ourselves. Assistance must be
given to the Muscovites, and our victory will be assured.

Comrade Lenin considers the question a fundamental one, and
thinks it is time to put an end to wavering. It is obvious
that the Vikzhel sides with the Kaledins and Kornilovs. There
must be no vacillation. We are backed by the majority of the
workers and peasants and of the army. Nobody here has proved
that the rank and file are against us. Either with the agents
of Kaledin, or with the rank and file. We must rely on the
people, we must send propagandists into the countryside. The
Vikzhel was called upon to transport troops to Moscow; it
refused, we must appeal to the people, and they will overthrow
it.

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Notes:
[1] The
reference is to the Bolsheviks’ participation in a conference called by the Vikzhel for talks on the composition of
the government.

Vikzhel, the All-Russia Central Committee of the Railwaymen’s Trade Union which was dominated by the
Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries, was one of the
bulwarks of the counter-revolution after the victory of the
October insurrection in Petrograd. On October 29 (November 11),
1917 it adopted a resolution calling for a so-called “uniform socialist government”, consisting of
representatives of all parties, from the Bolsheviks to the
Popular Socialists. The Conference on the composition of the
government opened on the same day and was attended by Menshevik
defencists, Menshevik internationalists, Right
Socialist-Revolutionaries, Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, and
members of the Postal Union, the Petrograd Duma, the Executive
Committee of the Soviet of Peasants’ Deputies, etc. The
Bolshevik Central Committee decided to attend stating that any
talks on the enlargement of the government and the All-Russia
Central Executive Committee could take place only on the basis
of the programme for Soviet power adopted by the Second Congress
of Soviets. Kamenev and Sokolnikov were authorised by the
Central Committee to attend. The All-Russia Central Executive
Committee also sent its representatives to the Conference, among
whom was Ryazanov.

The Mensheviks and the Socialist-Revolutionaries expected to
play the leading part in any coalition government and to use it
to fight the dictatorship of the proletariat. In the
Co-ordinating Committee set up by the Conference, they demanded
that resistance to Kerensky’s troops be stopped and insisted that the All Russia Central Executive Committee should
be replaced by a People’s Council which would have a majority of members representing the Executive Committee of the
All-Russia Soviet of Peasants’ Deputies City councils and
other organisations which they had under control They proposed
the establishment of a new government headed by Chernov or
Avksentyev. The Bolshevik delegates who attended took a
conciliatory attitude and did not object to discussing the
proposals tabled by the Mensheviks and the
Socialist-Revolutionaries.

The Bolshevik Central Committee discussed the question of
negotiations with the Vikzhel and the behaviour of the Bolshevik
delegates on November 1 (14). The majority censured the policy
of conciliation and proposed that the talks should either be
broken off or formulated as an ultimatum. Kamenev, Milyutin,
Rykov and Ryazanov insisted on a continuation of the talks. A
C.C. resolution said the parties of conciliation were negotiating to subvert Soviet power, and the C.C. therefore
authorised Bolshevik representatives to attend the talks with
the sole aim of exposing the futile attempts to set up a
coalition government, and terminating the talks. The All-Russia
Executive Committee discussed the progress of the talks on the
night of November 1 (14) and adopted a Bolshevik resolution
drawn up in the spirit of the C.C. decision of November 1
(14). However, the opposition group of Kamenev, Zinoviev, Rykov,
Milyutin, Larin, Ryazanov and others, who took a Right-wing
opportunist stand, opposed their line to that of the Central
Committee and fought against the C.C. decision. On November 2
(15), the C.C. adopted a resolution on the opposition within the
C.C. (see pp. 277-79) At the All-Russia Central Executive
Committee meeting on the night of November 2 (15), following the
speeches of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries who demanded a
review of the Committee’s decision on the terms of an agreement, Kamenev and Zinoviev pushed through a resolution
which clashed with that of the Central Committee adopted
earlier. Their resolution provided for a change in the composition of the government and gave the Bolsheviks only half
the government posts. The opposition voted for this resolution. Following the ultimatum which the majority of the
Central Committee presented to the opposition minority (see
pp. 280-82 on November 3 (16), Kamenev, Zinoviev, Rykov,
Milyutin and Nogin withdrew from the Central Committee, while
the last three and Teodorovich resigned from their posts of
People’s Commissars. They were joined by Ryazanov, Larin
and several others. On November 5 or 6 (18 or 19), the Central
Committee once again demanded in the form of an ultimatum that
Kamenev, Zinoviev, Ryazanov and Larin should stop their
disrupting tactics (they had come out against the C.C. decisions
in non-Party organisations) (see p. 301 On November 7 (20), the
Central Committee published in Pravda an appeal to all members of the Party and all working classes of Russia, branding
the opposition as deserters of the revolution who had abandoned
the principles of Bolshevism (see pp. 303-07)