V. I. Lenin

Meeting Of The All-Russia
Central Executive Committee

December 1(14), 1917

1.

Speech On The Constituent Assembly

Considered apart from the circumstances of the class war, which
has developed into civil war, we so far do not know of a more
perfect institution for determining the will of the people than
the Constituent Assembly. But we must not indulge in fancies. The Constituent Assembly will have to function under
civil war conditions; the Kaledinite bourgeois elements have
started a civil war.

After attempting to drag out the insurrection in Moscow, after
the unsuccessful attempt on the part of Kerensky to bring troops
against Petrograd, after the fruitless attempt to organise the
counter-revolutionary high-ranking officers of the army, these
elements are now endeavouring to organise an uprising on the
Don. The attempt is hopeless, since the working Cossacks are
opposed to the Kaledinites.

Replying to the charge of persecuting the Cadet Party, Comrade
Lenin said: “The class struggle must not be regarded separately from one’s political opponents. When it is sald
that the Cadet Party is not a strong group, it is not true. The
Cadet Central Committee is the political general staff of the
bourgeois class. The Cadets have absorbed all propertied
classes; they have been joined by elements that stood to the
right of the Cadets. They all support the Cadet
Party.

“We are being called upon to convene the Constituent
Assembly in the form in which it was first planned. Under no
circumstances. It was planned against the interests of the
people. We made the revolution so as to have guarantees that the
Constituent Assembly would not be used against the people, and
in order that the guarantees would be in the hands of the government. Our decree states clearly and
unambiguously when the Constituent Assembly will be convened.ise
It contains an exact answer to that question. Do not try any
thought-reading—we are concealing nothing. We said that we shall
convene the Constituent Assembly as soon as four hundred
deputies have arrived. We are not to blame that the elections
took place later than appointed. In certain localities the
Soviets themselves appointed later election dates. Since the
elections were held on various dates, it was necessary to
determine how many deputies are required in order to open the
Constituent Assembly. An attempt to convene it irrespective of
the number of deputies present has been made, taking advantage
of the fact that the number is not indicated in the law. What
would be the position of a government that permitted such a
thing? The Soviet government did the right thing in decreeing
the number of deputies necessary for the Constituent Assembly to
be deemed properly constituted. That is what the Soviet
government did. Those who are not in agreement should criticise
the decree. But if we hear insinuations and guesses instead of
criticism, we brush them aside.

“When a revolutionary class is fighting the propertied classes that offer resistance, the resistance must be
crushed. And we shall crush the resistance of the propertied
classes, using the same means as they used to crush the
proletariat—no other means have been invented.

“You said the bourgeoisie must be isolated. But the Cadets
are actually starting civil war under cover of a formally
democratic demand, the demand for a Constituent Assembly. They
say they want, to sit in the Constituent Assembly and organise
civil war at the same time. And you reply to that by talk about
isolation.

“We are not merely persecuting non-observers of formalities, we are levelling direct political accusations
against a political party. The French revolutionaries acted in
this way. This is our reply to those peasants who elected
without realising whom they were electing. Let the people know
that the Constituent Assembly is being summoned in a way
somewhat different from what Kerensky intended. We have
introduced the right of recall, and the Constituent Assembly
will not be quite the thing the bourgeoisie planned. Although
only a few days remain before the Constituent Assembly is
summoned, the bourgeoisie are organising civil war, intensifying
sabotage and undermining the armistice. We shall not let
ourselves be deceived by formal slogans. The bourgeoisie would
like to sit in the Constituent Assembly and at the same time
organise civil war. Let them examine the substance of our
accusation against the Cadet Party; let them prove that the
Cadet Party is not the general staff of the civil war, an
obviously hopeless war that is drenching the country in
blood. Comrade Steinberg has not attempted to prove that. He has
forgotten all that has been revealed about the contacts between
the Cadets and Kornilov; it was not we, but Chernov, our
political opponent, who revealed those contacts. It is proposed
that we catch the little men, but we shall not hunt for
particular individuals in order to hide our political accusation
against the general staff of a whole class.”

Comrade Lenin then dealt with the remark that the Bolsheviks had
also been proclaimed enemies of the people.

“They threatened to proclaim us enemies of the people,” he said, “but they did not do so. They did
not dare. We said to them at that time, ÔWell, try it, if you
can; try to tell the people that the Bolshevik Party, as a
party, as a trend, is the enemy of the people’. They did
not dare; they hunted down individuals, they resorted to
slander. We said, ‘You cannot proclaim us enemies of the
people; you have not a single objection in principle to bring
against the Bolsheviks; all you can do is to spread calumnies.’ Our accusation against the Cadet Party puts an
end to petty manoeuvrcs in the political struggle. We shall tell
the people the truth. We shall tell the people that their
interests are superior to the interests of a democratic
institution. We must not return to the old prejudices, which
subordinate the inter~ ests of the people to formal democracy. The Cadets cry, All Power to the Constituent
Assembly. But what they mean in fact is, All Power to
Kaledin. The people must be told that, and the people will
approve our action.”

Resolution On The Decree
Concerning The Cadet Party

Having heard the explanations by spokesmen of the Council of
People’s Commissars concerning the Decree declaring the
Cadets a party of enemies of the people and ordering the arrest
of the members of that Party’s governing bodies, and surveillance by the Soviets over the party as a whole, the
Central Executive Committee reaffirms the need to press forward
the most vigorous struggle against bourgeois counter-revolution,
which is led by the Cadet Party, and which has started a fierce
civil war against the very foundations of the workers’ and
peasants’ revolution.

The Central Executive Committee assures the Council of
People’s Commissars of its continued support in this matter
and rejects the protests of political groups whose vacillation
has been undermining the dictatorship of the proletariat and the
poor peasants.