Plan of a Speech on the Agrarian Question at the Extraordinary All-Russian Congress of Peasant Deputies November 14 (27), 1917.[49]

Plan

** Literally: "for one's own house"; in defense of one's cause. Ed.

(3) Confiscation – the Socialist-Revolutionaries altered it.

(4) A second revolution was needed, "power in the hands of the bourgeoisie" (said the rapporteur) and the compromisers.

(5) Workers', socialist revolution.

(6) "Coalition" with the peasantry.

(7) Law = 242 mandates from below.

(8) Below and above, masses and officials, the toiling and the habituated{163}.

(9) Socialism in the law of 242 mandates:

10.

11. Break with compromisism…

12. – – – – elections to the Constituent Assembly. Lists.

Published for the first time, from the manuscript

Theses on the Tasks of the Party + The Current Moment (α) Recognition of the revolution of October 25 as a socialist revolution.

(β) Rejection of all limitations of this thesis in the spirit of a return to bourgeois-democratic revolution (gradualism of transition; a "stage" of bloc with the petty bourgeoisie, etc.).

(γ) Dictatorship of the proletariat, its distinguishing features from "general," formal (bourgeois) democratism, its tactics.

(δ) Soviet power and the power of the begs.[*] (ε) Agreement with the petty bourgeoisie not in the sense of a bloc for a bourgeois-democratic revolution, not in the sense of limiting the tasks of the socialist revolution, but in the sense exclusively of forms of transition to socialism for particular strata of the petty bourgeoisie.

(ι) Bourgeois freedoms versus suppression of the exploiters.

(κ) Saboteurs and capitalists; capitalists and the "public opinion" of the bourgeoisie.

(ξ) The Constituent Assembly and its subordination to Soviet power, to the interests and conditions of civil war.

(η) Top-level organizations (Vikzhel, Central Executive Committee of the peasants, etc.) and the struggle against them.

(θ) Struggle against reformism in its contemporary formulation:

(1) tying the hands of the proletariat by fellow-travelers from the petty bourgeoisie (2) limiting the scope of revolutionary struggle of the "masses from below" (3) rejection of terror.

Written in November 1917.

First published in 1957 in the journal "Questions of the History of the CPSU" No. 1

Published from the manuscript

Plan of Theses on the Constituent Assembly[51]

Theses on the Constituent Assembly:

1. The Constituent Assembly and the October 25 revolution: the people on November 12 could not yet know.

2. The Constituent Assembly and the struggle for peace: the people on November 12 could not yet judge it, could not even know.

3. The Constituent Assembly and partiality (proportional elections).

4. Split in the peasant congress of December 6, 1917.

5. Split in the Socialist-Revolutionary party (end of November 1917).

6. Struggle within Vikzhel and the railway congress (December 10 and 15).

7. Struggle within the army (masses and army committees).

(ad 4–7[52]). The workers' wave and the soviet (by October 25, 1917): in all, the lists were ready just 18 days before November 12.

The army goes over (army congresses of November 1917).

The peasantry goes over (II All-Russian Peasant Congress of December 7, 1917).

8. The Constituent Assembly and Soviet power. The vanguard of the masses and the entire mass.

9. The Constituent Assembly and civil war (Cadet-Kaledin armed insurrection).

10. ΣΣ[53] = man is not made for the Sabbath.

11. Waves of upsurge (revolutions) did not coincide with the moment of elections to the Constituent Assembly.

12. Right of re-election.

Elections and democratism. Right of recall.

13. Elections blind: when the people do not know the true subject of struggle (ad 12).

14. The Constituent Assembly and the program of the party.

Program versus October–December 1917:

A Republic with a Constituent Assembly is higher than a republic with a pre-parliament.

A Republic of Soviets is higher than a republic with a Constituent Assembly.

A Republic of full socialism is higher than a Republic of Soviets.

Communist society is higher than a socialist republic.

Written on December 11 or 12 (December 24 or 25), 1917.

First published in 1957 in the journal "Questions of the History of the CPSU" No. 3

Published from the manuscript

On the Draft Decree on the Implementation of the Nationalization of Banks and on the Measures Necessary in Connection Therewith[55]

1. Sketch of the Draft Decree[56]

5. Detailed rules regarding the payment of money by banks and concerning banking operations upon the consolidation of private accounts, credit transactions, and the like shall be issued separately.

Payment for products shall be collected at 50% of the usual price on the condition of sale to consumers' societies and payment through current accounts in banks[57].

7. All money of private persons, except for 100–200 rubles per week for personal consumption, must be kept in a current account at the State Bank and its branches. Concealment is punishable by confiscation.

8. Persons of the wealthy classes are obligated to maintain consumers'-workers' (budget) books and to submit extracts from them weekly to the State Bank.

9. The wealthy classes include owners of immovable property valued at more than 25,000 rubles or with income exceeding 500 rubles per month, or monetary reserves in excess of 1,000 rubles.

10. The Supreme Council of the National Economy shall create mobile groups of controllers (auditors, accountants, bookkeepers, and so forth), and these groups, with a mandate from the Supreme Council of the National Economy, have the right of the fullest and most absolute audit of any enterprise and any private household.

11. Foreign trade is declared a monopoly of the state.

2. Theses of the Draft Decree

1. All joint-stock enterprises are declared the property of the state.

2. Members of boards, directors, and shareholders possessing in total property valued at 5,000 rubles are liable with their property and freedom for the conduct of affairs in order ("enemies of the people").

(8) 3. The population is organized compulsorily into consumers' societies.

(9) 4. Assistance to the poor (especially the peasantry) in this regard.

Persecution of speculators and those evading [duties]: "enemies of the people."

(7) 5. Keeping of money in the bank, all sums exceeding 500 rubles, under threat of confiscation and arrest (thereafter stamping, exchange for other notes, and other measures). The consumption norm is not more than 125 rubles per week.

(4) 8. Railways shall transport, speedily and out of turn, foodstuffs and necessary cargo, guided primarily by orders from the Supreme Council of the National Economy and the Soviets of workers', soldiers', and peasants' deputies. Struggle against "bagmen," a general hunt for speculators.

(5) 9. Transition to the production of useful products and the beginning of proper commodity exchange of grain for products: work from below and from above, the procurement of orders, raw materials, and so forth, to be taken up from all directions. (6) 10. Government loans are annulled. Protection and preservation of the interests of small depositors.

(10) 11. Mobile groups of controllers (Supreme Council of the National Economy and Soviets) with the participation of persons recommended by party organizations.

(11) 12. Courts composed of workers (and peasants) for the accounting of the quantity and quality of labor.

Written in December, no earlier than December 14 (27), 1917.

First published in 1957 in the book "Decrees of Soviet Power," Volume I

Published from the manuscripts

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[*] The original text reads "советская власть и власть беков" (Soviet power and the power of the begs), referring to Central Asian rulers or local elites. The term "бег" (beg) is left untranslated as it is a historical/regional title.