V. I. Lenin

Foreword To The Pamphlet, Material On The Agrarian Question

The present pamphlet is a collection (made on the initiative of
one of the Bolsheviks and not the author's) of my most important
articles and speeches on the land question which are suitable
for popular reading. They date from the end of April to the end
of October 1917, and are supplemented by the

Resolution of the April Conference of the R.S.D.L.P.(Bolsheviks) , and the
Decree on Land, adopted by the Second All-Russia Congress of
Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies on October 26,
1917. [1] I
wrote the original texts (that is, the drafts) of both these documents.

Taken together, these documents and articles give an accurate
picture of how Bolshevik views developed over the six months of
the revolution and how these views were applied in. practice.

I also refer the reader to my article, " From a Publicist's Diary. Peasants and Workers ", in the newspaper Rabochy
(Petersburg, September 11 (August 29), 1917, No. 6).
It gives a detailed analysis of the summarised peasants' Mandate which
appeared in Izvestia Vserossiiskogo Soveta Krestyanskikh Deputatov No. 88, of August 19, and which was incorporated
in the Decree on Land of October 26, 1917. Two months before the
October 25 revolution, this article explained that it was
necessary for the workers "to change the basic line pursued by
the worker in addressing the peasant".

N. Lenin

Petersburg.
November 27, 1917.

---
Notes:
[1]

See section Decree on Land from the
Second All Congress of Soviets —Transcriber