* BASIC PROVISIONS OF THE MANIFESTO
TO THE UKRAINIAN PEOPLE.
[December 16 (3), 1917, 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM]
1. The interests of unity and fraternal alliance among workers and all
toiling and exploited masses in the struggle for socialism—
and likewise, the formal resolutions of the Soviets and their Congress (I)*—obligate us, S. N. K., [unswervingly] as the socialist government of Russia, to recognize the right of self-determination of nations oppressed by tsarism and Great Russian bourgeoisie, up to and including the right to secede.
2. Therefore, we recognize the Ukrainian People’s Republic, its right to secede entirely from Russia or to enter into a treaty with the Russian Republic regarding federation and any other form of mutual relations.
3. In light of the ongoing struggle between the Rada and the Soviets in Ukraine,
we recognize, at this time, the representatives of the Ukrainian people and of the free Ukrainian Republic—the Ukrainian Soviets—as the organizations of revolutionary struggle waged by the Ukrainian toiling and exploited masses against their exploiters.
Based on all the data currently at our disposal, we perceive in the Rada, on the basis of these data,
The manuscript contains an obvious typographical error; in fact, the reference is to the Second Congress of Soviets;
the published text correctly cites the Second Congress of Soviets. Ed.

an organization pursuing a policy that is ambiguous and tends toward compromise with the bourgeoisie.
4. We have taken no steps whatsoever against the Finnish bourgeois republic—which, for the time being, remains a bourgeois republic—insofar as it concerns the restriction of national rights and the national independence of the Finnish people, nor will we take any measures that would limit the independence of any nation among those that have been, or that may yet become, part of the Russian Republic.
5. We accuse the Rada
(a) of failing to recognize Soviet power in the Soviets of Ukraine,
which amounts to supporting the bourgeoisie in Ukraine against the toiling and exploited masses; (b) of pursuing an ambiguous bourgeois policy with regard to peace: refusing to participate in negotiations for armistice and peace despite our invitation.
(c) of adopting an ambiguous bourgeois–landlord policy concerning the confiscation of landlord lands in Ukraine.
or 4?

b i s: With regard to national rights and national independence, the Soviet of People’s Commissars recognizes the right of the Ukrainian people forthwith, without limitation and unconditionally.