V. I. Lenin

Comrades—workers, soldiers, peasants and all working people!

The workers’ and peasants’ revolution has definitely triumphed in Petrograd, having dispersed or arrested the last
remnants of the small number of Cossacks deceived by Kerensky. The
revolution has triumphed in Moscow too. Even before the arrival of
a number of troop trains dispatched from Petrograd, the officer
cadets and other Kornilovites in Moscow signed peace terms—the disarming of the cadets and the dissolution of the
Committee of Salvation. [1]

Daily and hourly reports are coming in from the front and from
the villages announcing the support of the overwhelming majority
of the soldiers in the trenches and the peasants in the uyezds
for the new government and its decrees on peace and the
immediate transfer of the land to the peasants. The victory of
the workers’ and peasants’ revolution is assured because the majority of the people have already sided with it.

It is perfectly understandable that the landowners and capitalists, and the top groups of office employees and
civil servants closely linked with the bourgeoisie, in a word,
all the wealthy and those supporting them, react to the new
revolution with hostility, resist its victory, threaten to close
the banks, disrupt or bring to a standstill the work of the
different establishments, and hamper the revolution in every
way, openly or covertly. Every politically-conscious worker was
well aware that we would inevitably encounter resistance of this
kind. The entire Party press of the Bolsheviks has written about
this on numerous occasions. Not for a single minute will the
working classes be intimidated by this resistance; they will not
falter in any way before the threats and strikes of the
supporters of the bourgeoisie.

The majority of the people are with us. The majority of the
working and oppressed people all over the world are with
us. Ours is the cause of justice. Our victory is assured.

The resistance of the capitalists and the high-ranking employees
will be smashed. Not a single person will be deprived of his
property except under the special state law proclaiming
nationalisation of the banks and syndicates. This law is being drafted. Not one of
the working people will suffer the loss of a kopek; on the
contrary, he will be helped. Apart from the strictest accounting
and control, apart from levying the set taxes in full the
government has no intention of introducing any other measure.

In support of these just demands the vast majority of the people
have rallied round the Provisional Workers’ and
Peasants’ Government.

Comrades, working people! Remember that now you yourselves are
at the helm of state. No one will help you if you yourselves do
not unite and take into your hands all aflairs of the state. Your Soviets are from now on the organs
of state authority, legislative bodies with full powers.

Rally around your Soviets. Strengthen them. Get on with the job
yourselves; begin right at the bottom, do not wait for anyone. Establish the strictest revolutionary law and order,
mercilessly suppress any attempts to create anarchy by drunkards, hooligans, counter-revolutionary officer cadets,
Kornilovites and their like.

Ensure the strictest control over production and accounting of
products. Arrest and hand over to the revolutionary courts all
who dare to injure the people’s cause, irrespective of whether the injury is manifested in sabotaging production
(damage, delay and subversion), or in hoarding grain and
products or holding up shipments of grain, disorganising the
railways and the postal, telegraph and telephone services, or
any resistance whatever to the great cause of peace, the cause
of transferring the land to the peasants, of ensuring workers’ control over the production and distribution of
products.

Comrades, workers, soldiers, peasants and all working people!
Take all power into the hands of your Soviets. Be watchful and
guard like the apple of your eye your land, grain, factories,
equipment, products, transport—all that from now onwards
will be entirely your property, public property. Gradually, with
the consent and approval of the majority of the peasants, in
keeping with their practical experience and that of the
workers, we shall go forward firmly and unswervingly to the
victory of socialism—a victory that will be sealed by the
advanced workers of the most civilised countries, bring the
peoples lasting peace and liberate them from all oppression and
exploitation.

V. Ulyanov (Lenin),
Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars

November 5, 1917, Petrograd.

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Notes:
[1]
Committee of Salvation (Committee of Public Safety) was
set up on October 25 (November 7), 1917, by the Moscow City
Council to fight the Soviets in Moscow, and led the counter-revolutionary revolt of officer cadets which broke out on
October 28 (November 10). The revolt was crushed on November 2
(15), and the Committee capitulated to the Moscow Revolutionary
Military Committee.