V. I.

Lenin

The Seventh (April) All-Russia Conference of the R.S.D.L.P.(B.)

APRIL 24–29, 1917

7

Draft Theses to the Resolution on the Soviets

In a number of local, especially working-class, centres the role
of the Soviets has proved to be a particularly important one. They hold
undivided power. The bourgeoisie has been disarmed and reduced
to complete submission; wages have been raised, and the hours of
work reduced without lowering production; food supplies are
ensured; control over production and distribution has been
initiated; all the old authorities have been displaced; the
revolutionary initiative of the peasants is encouraged both on
the question of power (the dismissal of the old and setting up
of new authorities) and on the question of the land.

In the capital and certain large centres a reverse tendency is
to be observed. The Soviets are less proletarian in their
make-up, the influence of the petty-bourgeois elements in the
executive committees is incomparably wider, and there is—especially in the commissions—“co-operation with
the bourgeoisie”, who curbs the revolutionary initiative of the
masses, bureaucratises the revolutionary movement of the masses and their revolutionary aims, and blocks all
revolutionary measures that are liable to affect the capitalists.

It is quite natural and inevitable that after the fullest
development of revolutionary energy in the capital, where the
people and especially the workers had borne the greatest
sacrifices in overthrowing tsarism—in the capital, where
the central state power had been overthrown and the most
centralised power of capital had given maximum power to the
capitalists—the power of the Soviets (and the power of the
proletariat) proved to be weak, the problem of developing the
revolution very difficult, the transition to a new stage of the
revolution extremely hard, and the resistance of the bourgeoisie
stronger than anywhere else.

Hence: so long as the main effort in the capital cities and the
large centres still has to be directed towards building up forces for completing the second stage of the
revolution, in the local areas the revolution can and should be
advanced by direct action, by the exercise of undivided
power by the Soviets of Workers’ Deputies, by developing the
revolutionary energy of the worker and peasant mass, by
establishing control over the production and distribution of
products, and so on.

The following trend of the revolution can be traced:

(1) removal of the old government in the centre; (2) seizure
of power by the bourgeoisie in view of the proletariat’s
unpreparedness for tackling colossal tasks of nation-wide importance;
(3) development of the revolution locally; (4) in local areas and particularly
in the proletarian centres—communes and development of revolutionary energy of the masses;
(5) the land—seizure of it, etc.; (6) factories; control
over them; (7) undivided power; (8) local, municipal revolution going forward;
(9) bureaucratisation, submission to the bourgeoisie in the centre.

Conclusions:
( α ) 1 : build-up in the centre (build-up of forces for a new revolution);
( β )

2 : advance the revolution (power? land? factories?) in the local areas;
( γ ) 3 : communes locally, i.e.
( α α ) complete local autonomy; self-established; ( β β ) without police, without government
officials, full power by armed worker and peasant masses;
( δ ) 4 : combat bureaucratising and bourgeois-placating influence of the petty-bourgeois elements;
( ε ) 5 : gather local experience for prodding the centre: local areas become a
model .

( σ ) 6 : bring home to the mass of workers, peasants, and soldiers that the reason for the
revolution’s success locally is undivided power and the
dictatorship of the proletariat.

( η ) 7 : in the centre, of course, it is more difficult , takes more time.

+ ( ι ) 8 : development of the revolution by
way of communes formed out of suburbs and blocks in the
large cities....

( χ ) 9 : transformation (in the capital cities, etc.) into “servants of the bourgeoisie”.

| Written April 25–26 (May 8-9), 1917 | Published according to the manuscript |
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| First published in 1925 Lenin Miscellany IV | |

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