V. I.

Lenin

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

APRIL 24–29, 1917

17

Resolution on the Soviets of Workers’ And Soldiers’ Deputies

The Conference has discussed the reports and communications of
comrades working in the Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’
Deputies in different parts of Russia and states that:

In many provincial areas the revolution is progressing in the
following way: the proletariat and the peasantry, on their own
initiative, are organising Soviets and dismissing the old
authorities; a proletarian and peasant militia is being set up;
all lands are being transferred to the peasants; workers’
control over the factories and the eight-hour day have been
introduced and wages have been increased; production is being
maintained, and workers control the distribution of food, etc.

This growth of the revolution in the provinces in depth and
scope is, on the one hand, the growth of a movement for
transferring all power to the Soviets and putting the workers
and peasants themselves in control of production. on the other
hand, it serves as a guarantee for the build-up of forces, on a
national scale, for the second stage of the revolution, which
must transfer all state power to the Soviets or to other organs
directly expressing the will of the majority of the nation
(organs of local self-government, the Constituent Assembly,
etc.).

In the capitals and in a few other large cities the task of
transferring state power to the Soviets is particularly
difficult and requires an especially long period of preparation
of the proletariat’s forces. This is where the largest forces of
the bourgeoisie are concentrated, where a policy of compromise
with the bourgeoisie is most strongly in evidence, a policy
which often holds back the revolutionary initiative of the
masses and weakens their independence; this is particularly
dangerous in view of the leading role of these Soviets for the
provinces.

It is, therefore, the task of the proletarian party, on the one
hand, to support in every possible way the indicated development
of the revolution locally, and, on the other to conduct a
systematic struggle within the Soviets (by means of propaganda
and new elections) for the triumph of the proletarian line. The
party must concentrate all its efforts and all its attention on
winning over the mass of workers and soldiers, and must draw a
line between the policy of the proletariat and that of the petty
bourgeoisie, between the internationalist policy and the
defencist policy, between the revolutionary and the opportunist
policy. The party must organise and arm the workers and build up
their forces for the next stage of the revolution.

The Conference repeats that it is necessary to carry out
many-sided activity within the Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’
Deputies, to increase the number of Soviets, to consolidate
their power, and to weld together our Party’s proletarian
internationalist groups within the Soviets.

| Pravda No. 46, May 15 (2), 1917 | Published according to the typewritten copy of the Minutes |

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