MATERIALS OF THE ALL-RUSSIA CONFERENCE OF THE RSDLP (B)
"to involve the masses".........
. . . "peace without annexations"__ (fraternization) .
What would the Soviet of W[orkers'] Deputies do?
The Soviet of Workers' Deputies and Trotskyism?
If the leftists are accepted in Europe (named Ганпе]), then I am for it.

MATERIALS
of the All-Russia April Conference of the RSDLP (b)
April 7 – 12 (24 – 29 April) 1917
18187

PRELIMINARY DRAFT OF CHANGES TO THE PARTY PROGRAM
OF THE R.S.D.L.P. *

At the end of the principled part of the program (after the words: "from the point of view of the proletariat"), insert:

World capitalism has reached at the present time – approximately from the beginning of the 20th century – the stage of imperialism. Imperialism, or the epoch of Finance Capital, is such a highly developed capitalist economy, when monopolistic associations of capitalists – syndicates, cartels, trusts – have acquired decisive importance, banking capital of enormous concentration has merged with industrial capital, the export of capital to foreign countries has developed to a very large extent, the whole world has already been divided territorially between the richest countries, and the economic division of the world has begun between [associations of] international trusts.

[Wars] Imperialist wars – i.e., wars for domination over the world, for markets for banking capital, for the strangulation of small and weak nations – are inevitable under such a state of affairs. And precisely such is [the war] the first great imperialist war of 1914-1917.

[As soyuz] And the extremely high stage of development of world capitalism in general, and the replacement of free competition by monopolistic capitalism, [and the completion of the division of the world,] {and the preparation by banks, as well as by associations of capitalists, of an apparatus for the social regulation of the process of production

* Lenin's title. Ed.

LENINIST COLLECTION
and distribution of products,)* and the horrors, calamities, ruin, (brutalization,) engendered by the imperialist war – all this makes the stage of development (of capitalism) reached (now) the era of the proletarian, socialist revolution.

This era has begun.

Only the proletarian, socialist revolution can lead humanity out of the impasse created by imperialism and imperialist wars. Whatever the difficulties of the revolution and (possible) temporary failures of it, or waves of counter-revolution – the final victory of the proletariat is inevitable.

Therefore, the order of the day of the era being experienced is, by virtue of objective conditions, the comprehensive (immediate) preparation of the proletariat for revolution and a decisive break with that bourgeois distortion of socialism that has gained the upper hand in the official Social-Democratic parties in the form of the current of social-chauvinism (i.e., socialism in words, chauvinism in deeds, or the covering up of the interests of capitalists in imperialist wars with the slogan "defense of the fatherland"), as well as in the form of the current of the "center" (i.e., unprincipled, helpless vacillations between social-chauvinism and the revolutionary-internationalist proletarian struggle)] (the conquest of political power for the [immediate] implementation of economic and political measures constituting the content of the socialist revolution.)

(The fulfillment of this task, requiring the fullest trust, the closest fraternal union and the immediate unity of revolutionary actions of the working class of all advanced countries, is impossible without an immediate and principled break with that bourgeois distortion of socialism that [has gained the upper hand!] has prevailed at the top of the vast majority of official Social-Democratic parties. Such a distortion is, on the one hand, the current of social-chauvinism, socialism in words, chauvinism in deeds, the covering up of the predatory interests of "one's own" national bourgeoisie with the slogan "defense of the fatherland," and on the other hand, the equally broad and international [na[iravlenne^

* That typed between blunt brackets ( ) is a later insertion by Lenin.

Further, in the "Draft of Changes" (see note 1, on p. io–46), Lenin inserted a new point: "and the growth of dearness and the oppression of syndicates over the working class, which stands in connection with the growth of capitalist monopoly, [is] a gigantic difficulty in its economic and political struggle;". Ed.

the current of the so-] called] "center," which stands for unity with the social-chauvinists, for the preservation or correction of the bankrupt II International, fluctuating * between social-chauvinism and the revolutionary-internationalist struggle of the proletariat for the implementation of the socialist system.)

[The experience of the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917, which created the Soviets of Workers' Deputies and a number of similar organizations, thereby confirmed the experience of the Paris Commune, which consists in the fact that the proletariat needs a state for the transitional period to socialism, but this state must not be a state of the usual type, but an immediate mass and universally-general organization of armed workers, replacing the former instruments of government: the standing army, the police, and the bureaucracy. Clarifying for the proletariat the tasks of such a state – capable of both securing the conquests of the revolution in general, and of ensuring the most peaceful and planned transition to socialism – should constitute one of the main tasks of the proletarian party, along with the struggle against those representatives of the bankrupt 2nd 1889–1914 International who have distorted Marxism and betrayed socialism on the question of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Monopolistic capitalism, which during the war is especially rapidly growing into state-monopolistic capitalism in a number of advanced countries, means a gigantic socialization of production and, consequently, the complete preparation of objective conditions for the creation of a socialist society.]

In the minimum program, throw out the entire beginning (from the words: "On the path" and up to § 1 and replace it with the following:

At the moment being experienced by Russia, before the party], when the Provisional Government, belonging* to the class of landlords and capitalists *** and enjoying the trust – necessarily unstable – of broad masses of the petty-bourgeois population, has undertaken to convene a Constituent Assembly – the immediate task of the party of the proletariat is to fight for a state system that best ensures both economic development and the rights of the people in general, and the possibility

* In the "Draft of Changes": – "the current, fluctuating". Ed.
** The first part of this paragraph up to the words: "must not be a state of the usual type" – is crossed out. The end of the paragraph accidentally remained uncrossed; it was written on a separate page, at the end of which there is a note made by an unidentified hand: "Add: the preparedness of the apparatus for regulating production in the form of trusts and the concentration of banks" (see Lenin's insertion in the "Draft of Changes" on p. 40, in the footnote). Ed.
*** In the "Draft of Changes": – "to the class of capitalists". Ed.
MATERIALS OF THE ALL-RUSSIA CONFERENCE OF THE RSDLP (b)
\\

the most [easy] (painless) transition to socialism in particular.
The party struggles and helps the popular masses to immediately struggle for a democratic republic, [realizing it] (starting the realization of freedoms) through the spontaneous organization of the masses (from below) and thereby achieving the creation not of a bourgeois-parliamentary republic, in which [the old organs of oppression of the masses remain: the police, the standing army, the bureaucracy] (the dominance of the capitalists is specially ensured, [and enforced by violence] as well as the possibility of using violence against the masses [by] through the preservation of the old organs of oppression of the masses: the police, the standing army, the bureaucracy),—but a more democratic proletarian-peasant republic, in which the preservation of these organs of oppression is impossible, inadmissible, and state power belongs directly to the armed—to a man—workers and peasants.
§ 1**. All supreme power in the state must belong to the representatives of the people, elected and recallable at any time by the people, and constituting one people's assembly, one chamber.
§ 2 — add:
proportional representation in all elections; recallability of all delegates and elected officials without exception at any time by decision of the majority of their voters.
S 3 — add:
the absence of any supervision or control from above over the decisions and actions of regional and local self-governments***.
*
Instead of this paragraph, the "Improving version" is inserted in the "Draft Amendments" (see p. 45 of the Collection) and the following new paragraph: "The constitution of the Russian democratic republic must ensure:". Ed.
** In the "Draft Amendments" after § 1 is inserted: "Autocracy of the people". Ed.
*** In the "Draft Amendments"
The formulation of the third paragraph is replaced with a new one: "Abolition of all local and regional authorities appointed by the state" with the following footnote by Lenin: "See 68 of Pravda, from May 28, 1917, the arguments of Fr. Engels on the question of the point of view of Marxism and consistent democracy in general—on the appointment or approval of authorities elected by the local population. N. Lenin".
After the third paragraph, he inserted a new one: aIn § 8, the last sentence should be stated as follows: "Introduction of the native language in all local public and state institutions; abolition of the mandatory state language". Ed.

% [~] 9 change to:
L
J
the right to free secession and to the formation of their own state for all nations belonging to the state.
The republic of the Russian people must attract other peoples or nationalities to itself not by violence, but exclusively by voluntary agreement to create a common state. The unity and fraternal alliance of the workers of all countries cannot tolerate either direct or indirect violence against other nationalities.
$ 11— change to:
the election of judges and all * officials, both in the civil service and in the army, by the people; the recallability of all of them at any time by decision of the majority of their voters; the salary of all state officials not to exceed the salary of a good worker. 300–500 rubles, depending on the number of family members and their earnings; unconditional prohibition for officials
to combine salaries with income from other sources *\
^ 12— [add] change to:
replacement of the police and the standing army with the universal arming of the people: [all] workers and employees must receive payment
from capitalists for the time devoted to public service in
the all-people's militia.
*
S
14political! part, $ 5 and other economic parts must be, like the entire economic part, reviewed
separately by commissions from workers of the trade union movement and
pedagogues [.entering]
MATERIALS OF THE ALL-RUSSIAN CONFERENCE OF THE RSDLP(B
After the Financial point of the program (after the words: "on
income and inheritances")) insert:
The high level of development of capitalism, already achieved
in the calico business and in trusted industries, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the devastation created by the imperialist war and everywhere causing the demand for
state and public control over production

* The word "all" is missing in the "Draft Amendments". Ed.
In the "Draft Amendments" the end of § 11 from the words "salary to all" is missing. Ed.
*** In the "Draft Amendments" this paragraph is missing. Ed.

and the distribution of the most important products, prompts the party to demand "[immediate] nationalization of banks, syndicates (trusts)
etc.
The agrarian program should be replaced with an agrarian resolution
(see the text of it separately * or redone in accordance
with it.
The end*** of the program (the last two paragraphs, from the words: "Striving to achieve")) **** should be thrown out completely.

* See below, p. 48 of the Collection. Ed.
*' In the "Draft Amendments" this paragraph is replaced by a voluminous paragraph:
"Formulate the agrarian program as follows:
Leave the beginning old (from the words: "In order to eliminate the remnants" to
the words: "the party demands"), and replace the continuation as follows:
1) fights with all its might for the immediate and complete confiscation
of all landlord lands in Russia, as well as appanage, church, cabinet, etc. etc.);
2) advocates the immediate transfer of all lands to the hands of the peasantry, organized in Soviets of Peasants' Deputies or in other,
truly fully democratically elected and fully independent
from landlords and officials bodies of local self-government;
3) demands the nationalization of all lands in the state; meaning the transfer of the right of ownership of all lands to the hands of the state, nationalization
transfers the right to dispose of land to local democratic
institutions;
4) supports the initiative of those peasant committees, which in a number
of localities of Russia transfer landlord livestock and implements to
the hands of the peasantry organized in these committees for socially
regulated use in the cultivation of all lands;
5) advises the proletarians and semi-proletarians of the countryside to
achieve the formation from each landlord estate of a sufficiently large
exemplary farm, which would be conducted at public expense
by the Soviets of Deputies from agricultural workers under the leadership
of agronomists and with the use of the best technical means.
The party in all cases and under any circumstances, etc., until the end
of the paragraph ^"exploitation").
Finally, the end of the agrarian program, from the words: "the party in all
cases and under any circumstances of democratic agrarian transformations" and to the words: "any exploitation", leave as before". Ed.
In the "Draft Amendments": "The entire end". Ed.
There, here is inserted: "and to the end". Ed.

To the program. Improving variant 1
The party of the proletariat cannot be limited (limit!,
of its aspirations) ** to a bourgeois-parliamentary democratic
republic, which everywhere in the world preserves and seeks to
perpetuate the monarchical instruments of oppression of the masses, namely: the police, a standing army, a privileged bureaucracy.
The party fights for a more democratic proletarian-peasant republic, in which the police and the standing army are completely eliminated and replaced by the universal arming of the people, universal militia; all officials, without any exception***, become not only elected, but also removable at any time at the demand of the majority of their electors; the salary of everyone, without exception, is determined at a rate
not exceeding [well] the average salary of a good worker
[officials are absolutely forbidden to combine their salary with income from other sources]; parliamentary-representative institutions are gradually replaced by soviets of people's representatives
(from different classes and professions or from different places), at the same time legislating and implementing
their laws.
1 At the April conference, a program section was formed, in which two points of view emerged on the revision of the general theoretical part
of the program: Lenin's, who advocated adding to the old characterization
of the development of capitalism (in the 1903 program) - a characterization of imperialism
as the highest stage of capitalism, as the beginning of the "era of proletarian socialist revolution", and the rest of the program section - A.
Lomov, G. Sokolnikov, M. Bogolepov, who advocated a complete revision
of the general theoretical part of the program, for removing from it the history of the development of commodity production and capitalism and replacing it with a characterization
of imperialism and the immediate transition to the era of social revolution (see Lenin's criticism of this point of view in Works, vol. XX, pp. 297-298, and also Lenin's article "On Revising the Party Program," Works, vol. XXI.
v. 295: Lenin's report and speeches at the VII Party Congress on program issues, Works, vol. XXII, pp. 347-305 and report and concluding remarks at the VIII Congress, Works, vol. XXIV, pp. 131-156).
On behalf of the All-Russian April Conference, Lenin released the brochure "Materials for Revising the Party Program" in June 1917, Pg. 1917 (see Works, vol. XX, p. 287). In this brochure, Lenin
published a "Draft Amendments to the Theoretical, Political and Some Other Parts of the Program," slightly different from the "Preliminary
Draft Amendments to the Program of the RSDLP," printed here.
Discrepancies between the text of the "Preliminary Draft" and the text of the "Draft Amendments" are placed in footnotes.
For further stages of Lenin's development of the party program project, see Works, vol. XXII, pp. 368-374 - "Rough Draft of the Program Project"; vol. XXIV, pp. 85-108 - "Draft Program of the RCP (b)".
2081&
RECORD OF REPORTS FROM THE FIELD".
[May 8 (April 25), 1917.
Actual] reports:
1) Moscow................
2) Gelendzhik -
3) [Railway] Depot...
Bel Factory
4) [Nizhny]-Novgorod___
(immediate] truce)...
5) Morshansk
|
35,000 inhabitants
!
28,000 soldiery
57 = Soviet W[orkers'] Deputies
!
10,000 soldiery
6) Don [ets] region
i
132 Soviet W[orkers'] Deputies [ jointly
48 Soviet S[oldiers'] Deputies /
~ 1 0 0 ~ ~
I
| up to 50,000 | Bolsheviks
5 — 6
5,000
Mensheviks for flour
The record was made by Lenin in pencil on notebook sheets with a note on a separate sheet: "To the archive (interesting)". At the top, in an unknown hand, an inscription is made in pencil: "Lenin's Note". Ed.

MATERIALS OF THE ALL-RUSSIAN CONFERENCE OF THE RSDLP(b)
4 7
7) Voronezh:
Soviet W[orkers'] and S[oldiers'] Deputies (S.D. -
Bolsheviks and Mensheviks - S.W.)
and food issue and MILITIA and 8 hour working day introduced (with great difficulty)
| troops revolted against the 8 hour working day '
I
2 shifts of 8 hours extra eliminated
Insist on unification. I am only for unification with internationalists, not Potresovites.
I am not against it in principle, but will it be realized? Communists instead of SocialDemocrats
I
"I will not agree to follow the Soviet W[orkers'] Deputies in Petersburg"...
Militia with pay from the factory
32 S.D. Mensheviks and Bolsheviks equally before the revolution 200
8) Vologda Artillery Factory
2,500 workers factory
9-hour working day and will be 8[hr] working day.
Wages: women 1 r .— 2.Г)0 men 1 — 2 — 4 — 4.50
Production has not decreased
\
Overtime work only in exceptional :
\ cases]
;
The Party intelligentsia did not support us.
28 members of the Soviet W[orkers'] and S[oldiers'] Deputies
(Sukhosky)

»
Executive Committee
!
1 S.R. - 1nternationalist
I
1 Bolshevik j
1 S.D. of unpredefined "too left-wing hue" -
|
Peasants reckon more with our factory than with the j committees.

Arkhangelsk: S.-D. = Chauvinists.
S.D. group 10 m. (Bolsheviks) before the revolution
9 — — after "backwoodsmen of blue-blouse origin" ...

Nizhny-Novgorod Saveliev

Tomsk:
Soviet
S[oldiers'] Deputies okhranka] soldier in
S.-D. work ifliTi
DRAFT RESOLUTION ON THE AGRARIAN QUESTION*1.
The existence of landlord landownership in Russia is a material bulwark of the power of serf-owning landlords and a guarantee
of the possible restoration of the monarchy. This landownership inevitably condemns the overwhelming mass of the population of Russia, the peasantry, to poverty, bondage and backwardness, and the entire country to backwardness in all areas of life.
Peasant landownership in Russia, both allotment (communal and household) and private (leased and purchased land), is entangled from top to bottom, along and across, with old, semi-feudal ties and relations, the division of peasants into categories inherited from the times of serfdom, strip-farming, etc., etc. The need to break all these obsolete and harmful barriers, the need to "clear" the land, to rebuild all the relations of landownership and agriculture anew in relation to the new conditions of all-Russian and world economy constitutes the material basis of the aspirations of the peasantry for the nationalization of all lands in the state.
Whatever petty-bourgeois utopias all the Narodnik parties and groups dress the struggle of the peasant masses against feudal landlord landownership and against all the feudal fetters of all landownership and land use in Russia in general, - this struggle itself expresses a completely bourgeois-democratic, [but] absolutely progressive and economically necessary aspiration for a decisive break of all these fetters.
Land nationalization, being a bourgeois measure, signifies the greatest possible and conceivable in a capitalist

1 Lenin's title. Ed.

MATERIALS OF THE ALL-RUSSIAN CONFERENCE OF THE RSDLP(b)

in society freedom of class struggle and freedom of land use from all non-bourgeois appendages. Moreover, the nationalization of land, as the abolition of private property in land, would mean in practice such a powerful blow to private property in all the means of production in general, that the party of the proletariat should render all assistance to such a transformation.

On the other hand, the prosperous peasantry of Russia has long created elements of the peasant bourgeoisie, and the Stolypin agrarian reform has undoubtedly strengthened, multiplied, and consolidated these elements. At the other pole of the countryside, agricultural wage laborers, proletarians, and a mass of semi-proletarian peasantry close to them have equally increased and multiplied.

The more decisive and consistent the demolition and elimination of landlord landownership, the more decisive and consistent the bourgeois-democratic transformation of * Russia in general, the greater the force and speed with which the class struggle of the agricultural proletariat against the prosperous peasantry (peasant bourgeoisie) will develop.

Depending on whether the urban proletariat succeeds in leading the rural proletariat and attaching to it the mass of semi-proletarians of the countryside, or whether this mass follows the peasant bourgeoisie, gravitating towards an alliance with Guchkov, Miliukov, capitalists, and landlords, and towards counter-revolution in general—the fate and outcome of the Russian revolution will be determined, insofar as the nascent proletarian revolution in Europe does not exert its direct, powerful influence on our country.

Based on such a class position and alignment of forces, the conference resolves:

1) The party of the proletariat [supports] fights with all its might for the immediate and complete confiscation of all landlord lands in Russia (as well as appanage, church, cabinet, etc. etc.).

[3]
2) The party decisively advocates the immediate transfer of all lands to the peasantry, organized in Soviets of Peasants' Deputies or in other bodies of local self-government that are truly fully democratically elected and completely independent of landlords and officials.

* In "Soldatskaya Pravda" No. 13: — "agrarian transformation." Ed.

5 0
[2] 3) The party of the proletariat demands the nationalization of all lands in the state; meaning the transfer of the right of ownership to all lands to the state, nationalization [should] transfers the right to dispose of the land to local democratic institutions.

4) The party must decisively fight both against the Provisional Government, which, through the mouths of Shingarev and its collective pronouncements, imposes on the peasants a "voluntary agreement with the landlords," i.e., in fact, a landlord character of the reform and threatens the peasants with punishments for "arbitrariness," i.e., a transition to violence on the part of the minority of the population (landlords and capitalists) against the majority,—and against the petty-bourgeois wavering of the majority of the Narodniks and Menshevik Social Democrats, who advise the peasants not to take all the land before the Constituent Assembly.

5) The party advises the peasants to take the land in an organized manner, absolutely not allowing any damage to property and taking care to increase production.

6) All agrarian transformations in general can be successful and lasting only with the full democratization of the entire state, i.e., on the one hand, with the abolition of the police, the standing army, and the factually privileged bureaucracy, and on the other hand, with the broadest, completely free from supervision and tutelage from above, local self-government.

7) It is necessary to immediately and everywhere begin the separate and independent organization of the agricultural proletariat, both in the form of Soviets [of Batrak] Deputies from agricultural workers (as well as special Soviets of Deputies from the semi-proletarian peasantry), and in the form of the organization of proletarian groups or factions in the general Soviets of Peasants' Deputies, in all bodies of local and city-wide government, etc., etc.

8) The party must support the initiative of those peasant committees, which in a number of localities in Russia transfer the landlord's, live and dead, inventory into the hands of the peasantry organized in these committees for [public other] socially-regulated use in the cultivation of all lands.

[8] 9) The party of the proletariat must advise the proletarians and semi-proletarians of the countryside to strive to form

from each landlord estate a sufficiently large model farm, which would be run at public expense by the Soviets [of Batrak!] Deputies from agricultural workers under the guidance of agronomists and using the best technical means.

On May 11 (April 28), Lenin spoke at the All-Russian Conference* as a rapporteur on the agrarian question. The draft resolution, drawn up by Lenin, was distributed to the conference delegates "in the form of proofs" (see Lenin, Works, Vol. XX, p. 268). The draft was discussed by the agrarian section of the conference, which "agreed on the proposed draft resolution without fundamental amendments" (ibid.).

The draft resolution on the agrarian question is printed from proof sheets with handwritten corrections by Lenin (see bold type; what Lenin crossed out is in small print in square brackets). Above the title of the document, Lenin wrote: "with 1 abstention." On the reverse side, an unknown hand made the note: "Appendix No. 2 to protocol No. 14."
1012
DRAFT RESOLUTION ON THE NATIONAL QUESTION.
(ADOPTED BY THE RESOLUTION COMMISSION) *!.
The policy of national oppression, being a legacy of autocracy and monarchy, is supported by landlords, capitalists, and the petty bourgeoisie in [order to strengthen] (the interests of protecting) their class privileges and disunite the workers of different nationalities. Modern imperialism, усиливая стремления к подчинению слабых народов, является новым Фактором обострения national oppression.

Insofar as the elimination of national oppression is achievable in capitalist society, it is possible only with a consistently democratic republican structure (and administration) of the state, ensuring the complete equality of all nations and languages [abolition of compulsory state language].

All nations that are part of [the state] (Russia) must be recognized the right to free secession and to the formation of an independent state. The denial of such a right and the failure to take measures guaranteeing its practical implementation is tantamount to supporting a policy of seizures or annexations. Only [such a policy of the proletariat recognition] (recognition

MATERIALS OF THE ALL-RUSSIAN CONFERENCE OF THE RSDLP(b)
5 1
The title and subtitle were written by I. V. Stalin;,/m. Ed.

of the nation to secede ensures the complete solidarity of workers of different nations and promotes a truly democratic convergence of nations.
The [Contemporary] Conflict that has arisen at the present time between Finland and the Russian Provisional Government particularly clearly shows that the denial of the right to free secession [leads] (leads) to [a return to the methods of Tsarism] a direct continuation of the policy of Tsarism.
The question of the right of a nation to free secession must not be confused with the question of the expediency of the secession of one nation or another at one time or another. This latter question the party of the proletariat must decide in each individual case completely independently, from the point of view of the interests of all social development and the interests of the class struggle of the proletariat for socialism.
The party demands broad regional autonomy, the abolition of supervision from above, the abolition of compulsory state language, and the determination of the boundaries of self-governing and autonomous regions based on consideration by the local population itself of economic and everyday conditions, the national composition of the population, etc.
The party of the proletariat decisively rejects the so-called "cultural-national autonomy," i.e., the removal of school affairs, etc., from the jurisdiction of the state and its transfer into the hands of a kind of national Sejms. This plan artificially separates workers living in the same locality and even working in the same enterprises according to their belonging to one "national culture" or another, i.e., strengthens the connection of (workers) with the bourgeois culture of individual nations, [instead of strengthening] whereas the task of [the proletariat] (social democracy) is to strengthen the international culture of the world proletariat.
The party demands the inclusion in the constitution of a fundamental law declaring invalid any privileges of one nation, any violations of the rights of national minorities.
The interests of the working class require the merging of workers of all nationalities of Russia into unified proletarian organizations,
*
By the hand of I.V. Stalin, the words "this plan" are replaced by the words: "cultural-national autonomy"; this edit was included in the resolution adopted by the conference. Ed.

MATERIALS OF THE ALL-RUSSIAN CONFERENCE OF THE RSDLP(b)
5 3 political, professional, cooperative-educational, etc. Only such a merger into unified organizations of workers of different nationalities gives the proletariat the opportunity to wage a victorious struggle against international capital and bourgeois nationalism.

On May 12 (April 29), 1917, at the All-Russian Conference, I.V. Stalin as the rapporteur and G.L. Pyatakov as the co-rapporteur spoke on the national question. I.V. Stalin defended the "Draft Resolution on the National Question" written by Lenin and adopted by the resolution commission, and then by the conference. G.L. Pyatakov announced a draft resolution written in the spirit of "left communism" (denial of the right of nations to self-determination) and adopted by the "special section" on the national question.
As a result of the work of the resolution commission, Lenin introduced several editorial amendments into the resolution (see enclosed in angle brackets ()). The title and one amendment in the text (see footnotes) were written by I.V. Stalin.
At the top of the manuscript of the resolution, an unknown person made a note: "Resolution of comrade Stalin. Appendix 3 to Protocol No. 17".
-20818
DRAFT RESOLUTION ON THE CURRENT MOMENT A.
But it would be the greatest mistake, and in practice even a complete transition to the side of the bourgeoisie, to deduce from this the necessity of supporting [the government of capitalists, or the admissibility of reducing one's activity to the level of the petty bourgeoisie] the bourgeoisie by the working class, or the necessity of limiting one's activity to the framework acceptable to the petty bourgeoisie, or the rejection of the leading role of the proletariat in explaining to the people the urgency of a number of practically ripe steps towards socialism.
Such steps are, firstly, the nationalization of land. [Both the objective position of land ownership in Russia and the rapid growth of the consciousness of the peasants, who everywhere are coming to the conviction of the necessity of such a transformation, serve as a guarantee of its essence.] Such a measure, not directly going beyond the framework of the bourgeois system, would at the same time be a strong blow to private property in the means of production and [inevitably] would thereby strengthen the influence of the socialist proletariat on the semi-proletarians of the countryside [and on certain strata of the petty bourgeoisie].
Such measures are, secondly, the merging of all banks into one general state bank, then the transfer into the hands of the state of all insurance business and all the largest syndicates of capitalists, syndicates that were already partly (for example, the syndicate of sugar manufacturers) under the control of the landlord and capitalist state.]
Such measures are further the establishment of state control over all banks, with their unification into a single [general state] central bank, as well as over insurance institutions and the largest syndicates of capitalists (e.g., the syndicate of sugar manufacturers, Produgol, Prodamet, etc.), with a gradual transition to a fairer, [income] progressive taxation of incomes [according to norms capable] and property. Such measures are economically fully ripe [practically...] technically unconditionally feasible immediately, politically may meet with the support of the overwhelming majority of peasants, [benefiting] benefiting from these transformations in all respects.
The Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' [and], Peasants' and other Deputies, now covering Russia with an increasingly dense network, could also ** along with the indicated measures, proceed to the implementation of universal labor conscription, for the nature of these institutions guarantees, on the one hand, the transition to all these new transformations only as the practical necessity of them is consciously and firmly assimilated by the overwhelming majority of the people, and on the other hand, the nature of these institutions guarantees not the police-bureaucratic implementation of transformations, but the voluntary participation of the organized and armed masses of the proletariat and peasantry in the regulation of their own economy.
All the indicated and similar measures can and should be not only discussed and prepared for [the implementation of] their implementation on a nationwide scale on the condition that all power is transferred to the proletarians and semi-proletarians, but also implemented by local revolutionary bodies of popular power when the opportunity presents itself.
In the implementation of the aforementioned measures, extreme prudence and caution are necessary, the winning over of a solid majority of the population and its conscious conviction in the practical [feasibility] preparedness of one measure or another, but it is in this direction that the attention and

One crossed-out word is not deciphered. Ed.
** In "Soldiers' Truth" No. 13 there is no "also". Ed.

efforts of the conscious vanguard of the working masses must be directed, obliged to help the peasant masses find a way out of the resulting devastation.

May 7 (April 24), Lenin spoke at the All-Russian Conference with a report on the current moment. Noting the broad scope of the topic, Lenin divides the latter into three major questions: 1) assessment of the political situation in Russia; 2) attitude towards the war, and 3) the international situation. "I have to present to you a draft resolution on all these issues, but with the reservation that due to the extreme lack of manpower, and also in view of the political crisis that has arisen here in Petrograd, we could not only discuss the resolution, but also communicate it to the localities in a timely manner. Thus, I repeat that these are only preliminary drafts, facilitating the work in the commission and allowing it to focus on some of the most essential issues" (Works, Vol. XX, p. 240).
The part of the resolution on the current moment, printed here, is part of the first of those three "preliminary drafts" of resolutions, which Lenin speaks about.
The document is a copy printed on a typewriter. Only the end of the copy has survived, starting from the 3rd page. In this copy, Lenin made a number of amendments by hand, in ink, chemical and pencil. Obviously, these amendments were made as a result of the work of the resolution commission, elected at the same session of the conference consisting of 7 people: Lenin, Stalin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bubnov, Baturin, Nogin.
Lenin's handwritten amendments are printed in **bold type**, what he crossed out is printed in *small type*. Discrepancies with the resolution adopted by the conference and printed in JSis 13 of "Soldiers' Pravda" are noted in the footnote.
20818
PROCEDURE FOR PUBLISHING RESOLUTIONS OF THE ALL-RUSSIAN APRIL CONFERENCE1.
[May 13 (April 30) or 1) May 14, 1917]
1) On the War
—
2) On the Provisional Government
(amendments)*
MATERIALS OF THE ALL-RUSSIAN CONFERENCE OF THE RSDLP(b)
5 5
3) Agrarian
4) On Borgbjerg
5) On the Coalition] M[inistry
* printed in
"Pravda".
+
I
+
* In the manuscript, an unknown hand made an entry against this item: "take from the secretariat"; further added: "Amendments made in L® 42. G. Lokii". Ed.