Draft Decree on the Implementation of the Nationalisation of the Banks and on the Measures Necessary in Connection Therewith
Проект декрета о проведении в жизнь национализации банков и о необходимых в связи с этим мерах
Date: 1917
Source: PSS vol 35
Translated by: AI (Claude)

The critical state of food supply, the threat of famine created by speculation, the sabotage of capitalists and officials, as well as the general economic disruption, make extraordinary revolutionary measures necessary to combat this evil.

In order that all citizens of the state, and first of all all the toiling classes, under the leadership of their Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies, may immediately and from all sides, stopping at nothing and acting in the most revolutionary way, set about such a struggle and about establishing the proper economic life of the country, the following rules are decreed:

DRAFT DECREE

ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONALISATION OF THE BANKS AND ON THE MEASURES NECESSARY IN CONNECTION THEREWITH

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

2. Members of the boards and directors of joint-stock companies, as well as all shareholders belonging to the wealthy classes (i.e., having total property of over 5,000 rubles or an income exceeding 500 rubles per month), are obliged to continue conducting the affairs of the enterprises in proper order, carrying out the law on workers' control, presenting all shares to the State Bank, and submitting weekly reports on their activities to the local Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies.

3. State loans, external and internal, are annulled (abolished).

4. The interests of small holders of bonds, as well as of all kinds of shares, i.e., of holders belonging to the toiling classes of the population, are fully safeguarded.

5. Universal labour conscription is introduced. All citizens of both sexes, from 16 to 55 years of age, are obliged to perform the work that is assigned by the local Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies or by other organs of Soviet power.

6. As a first step towards implementing universal labour conscription, it is decreed that persons of the wealthy classes (see Section 2) are obliged to keep and properly maintain consumer-worker or budget-worker books, which must be submitted to the corresponding workers' organisations, or to the local Soviets and their bodies, for a weekly notation on the fulfilment by each person of the work assumed by him.

7. For the proper accounting and distribution of both food supplies and other necessary products, all citizens of the state are obliged to join some consumers' society. Food boards, supply committees, and other similar organisations, as well as railway and transport unions, under the leadership of the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies, are to exercise control over the fulfilment of this law. Persons of the wealthy classes are particularly obliged to carry out in the organisation and management of the affairs of consumers' societies the work that is assigned to them by the Soviets.

8. Unions of railway workers and employees are obliged urgently to work out and to begin immediately carrying out extraordinary measures for the more efficient organisation of transport, especially for the delivery of food, fuel, and other most essential goods, being guided first of all by the orders and requisitions of the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies, then of institutions possessing authority from them, and of the Supreme Council of National Economy.

Equally, on the railway unions, in cooperation with the local Soviets, is placed the obligation of the most energetic struggle against bagmen, not stopping short of revolutionary measures, and of the merciless persecution of all speculators.

9. Workers' organisations, employees' unions, and local Soviets are obliged without delay to set about converting the closing and demobilised enterprises, as well as the unemployed, to useful work and the production of necessary products, and to finding orders, raw materials, and fuel. In no case postponing this activity, as well as the commencement of the exchange of rural products for urban ones, until the receipt of special orders from above, the local unions and Soviets are obliged to strictly conform with the instructions and directives of the Supreme Council of National Economy.

10. Persons of the wealthy classes are obliged to keep in the State Bank and its branches, as well as in savings banks, all their monetary sums, receiving not more than 100-125 rubles per week (as determined by the local Soviets) for consumer needs, and for productive and commercial purposes only on the basis of written certificates from institutions of workers' control.

For supervision of the actual implementation of this law, rules will be introduced for the exchange of the currently valid bank notes for others, and those guilty of deceiving the state and the people shall be subject to the confiscation of all their property.

11. The same penalty, as well as imprisonment or dispatch to the front and to forced labour, shall be applied to all who disobey this law, saboteurs and striking officials, as well as speculators. The local Soviets and institutions attached to them are obliged to urgently work out the most revolutionary measures of struggle against these real enemies of the people.

12. Trade unions and other organisations of the toiling people, in cooperation with the local Soviets, shall organise, with the participation of the most reliable persons recommended by party and other organisations, mobile groups of inspectors for supervision of the implementation of this law, for verifying the quantity and quality of work, and for bringing to revolutionary tribunals those guilty of violating or circumventing the law.

Workers and employees of nationalised enterprises are obliged to exert all their efforts and to take extraordinary measures for improving the organisation of work, strengthening discipline, and raising labour productivity. The organs of workers' control must submit weekly reports to the Supreme Council of National Economy on what has been achieved in this regard. Those responsible for shortcomings and omissions shall answer before the revolutionary tribunal.

Written in December, not earlier than 14 (27), 1917

First published incompletely in November 1918 in the journal Narodnoe Khozyaistvo, No. 11

First published in full in 1949 in the 4th edition of V. I. Lenin's Collected Works, vol. 26

Printed from the manuscript