V. I. Lenin

Speech On The Dissolution
Of The Constituent Assembly

Delivered To The All-Russia Central Executive
Committee

January 6 (19), 1918

Comrades, the clash between Soviet power and the Constituent
Assembly results from the entire course of the Russian revolution, which was confronted by the unprecedented task of
reconstructing society on socialist lines. After the events of
1905 there could be no doubt that tsarism’s day was over
and that it had scrambled out of the pit only because of the
backwardness and ignorance of the rural population.
The Revolution of 1917 was marked on the one hand by the
transformation of the bourgeois imperialist party into a
republican party under the pressure of events, and on the
other hand, by the emergence of democratic organisations, the
Soviets, that had been formed in 1905; even then the socialists had realised that the organisation of these Soviets
was creating something great, something new and unprecedented
in the history of world revolution. The Soviets, created
solely by the initiative of the people, are a form of democracy without parallel in any other country of the world.

The revolution produced two forces—the union of the masses for the purpose of overthrowing tsarism, and the
organisations of the working people. When I hear the enemies
of the October Revolution exclaim that the ideas of socialism
are unfeasible and utopian, I usually put to them a plain and
simple question. What in their opinion, I ask, are the
Soviets? What gave rise to these organisations of the people,
which have no precedent in the history of the development of
world revolution? Not one of them has been able to give a
precise answer to this question. Defending the bourgeois
system by inertia, they oppose these powerful organisations,
the formation of which has never before been witnessed in any
revolution in the world. All who are fighting the landowners
are joining forces with the Soviets of Peasants’
Deputies. The Soviets embrace all who do not wish to stand
idle and are devoting themselves to creative work. They have
spread their network over the whole country, and the denser
this network of Soviets of the people, the less will it be
possible to exploit the working people. For the existence of
the Soviets is incompatible with a prosperous bourgeois
system. That is the source of all the contradictions among the
bourgeoisie, who are fighting our Soviets solely in their own
interests.

The transition from capitalism to a socialist system entails a
long and bitter struggle. Having overthrown tsarism, the
Russian revolution was bound to go farther; it could not stop
at the victory of the bourgeois revolution; for the war, and
the untold sufferings it caused the exhausted peoples, created
a soil favourable for the outbreak of the social revolution. Nothing, therefore, is more ludicrous than the
assertion that the subsequent development of the revolution,
and the revolt of the masses that followed, were caused by a
party, by an individual, or, as they vociferate, by the will
of a “dictator“. The fire of revolution broke out solely because of the incredible sufferings of Russia, and
because of the conditions created by the war, which sternly
and inexorably faced the working people with the alternative
of taking a bold, desperate and fearless step, or of perishing, of dying from starvation.

And revolutionary fire was manifest in the creation of the
Soviets—the mainstay of the workers’ revolution. The
Russian people have made a gigantic advance, a leap from
tsarism to the Soviets. That is a fact, irrefutable and
unparalleled. While the bourgeois parliaments of all countries
and states, confined within the bounds of capitalism and
private property, have never anywhere supported a revolutionary movement, the Soviets, having lit the fire of
revolution, imperatively command the people to fight, take
everything into their own hands, and organise themselves. In
the course of a revolution called forth by the strength of the
Soviets there are certain to be all kinds of errors and
blunders.

But everybody knows that revolutionary movements are always
and inevitably accompanied by temporary chaos, destruction and
disorder. Bourgeois society is the same war, the same shambles; and it was this circumstance that gave rise to and
accentuated the conflict between the Constituent Assembly and
the Soviets. Those who point out that we are now “dissolving“ the Constituent Assembly although at
one time we defended it are not displaying a grain of sense,
but are merely uttering pompous and meaningless phrases. At
one time, we considered the Constituent Assembly to be better
than tsarism and the republic of Kerensky with their famous
organs of power; but as the Soviets emerged, they, being
revolutionary organisations of the whole people, naturally
became incomparably superior to any parliament in the world, a
fact that I emphasised as far back as last April. By completely smashing bourgeois and landed property and by
facilitating the final upheaval which is sweeping away all
traces of the bourgeois system, the Soviets impelled us on to
the path that has led the people to organise their own lives. We have taken up this great work of organisation, and
it is well that we have done so. Of course, the socialist
revolution cannot be immediately presented to the people in a
clean, neat and impeccable form; it will inevitably be accompanied by civil war, sabotage and resistance. Those who
assert the contrary are either liars or cowards. (Stormy applause.) The events of April 20, when the people,
without any directions from “dictators“ or parties, came out independently and solidly against the government of
compromisers, showed even then that the bourgeoisie were weak
and had no solid support. The masses sensed their power, and
to placate them the famous game of ministerial leapfrog began,
the object of which was to fool the people. But the people
very soon saw through the game, particularly after Kerensky,
both his pockets stuffed with predatory secret treaties with
the imperialists, began to move the armies for an offensive. Gradually the activities of the compromisers became
obvious to the deceived people, whose patience began to be
exhausted. The result was the October Revolution. The people
learned by experience, having suffered torture, executions and
wholesale shootings and it is nonsense for the butchers to
assert that the Bolsheviks, or certain “dictators“, are responsible for the revolt of the working people. They are
given the lie by the split that is occurring among the people
themselves at congresses, meetings, conferences, and so
forth. The people have not yet fully under-stood the October
Revolution. This revolution has shown in practice how the
people must take into their own hands, the hands of the
workers’ and peasants state, the land, the natural resources, and the means of transport and production. Our cry
was, All power to the Soviets; it is for this we are fighting. The people wanted the Constituent Assembly summoned,
and we summoned it. But they sensed immediately what this
famous Constituent Assembly really was. And now we have
carried out the will of the people, which is~— All power
to the Soviets. As for the saboteurs, we shall crush them. When I came from Smolny, that fount of life and vigour,
to the Taurida Palace, I felt as though I were in the company
of corpses and lifeless mummies. They drew on all their
available resources in order to fight socialism, they resorted
to violence and sabotage, they even turned knowledge—the
great pride of humanity—into a means of exploiting the working people. But although they managed to hinder somewhat
the advance towards the socialist revolution, they could not
stop it and will never be able to. Indeed the Soviets that
have begun to smash the old, outworn foundations of the
bourgeois system, not in gentlemanly, but in a blunt proletarian and peasant fashion, are much too strong.

To hand over power to the Constituent Assembly would again be
compromising with the malignant bourgeoisie. The Russian
Soviets place the interests of the working people far above
the interests of a treacherous policy of compromise disguised
in a new garb. The speeches of those outdated politicians,
Chernov and Tsereteli, who continue whining tediously for the
cessation of civil war, give off the stale and musty odour of
antiquity. But as long as Kaledin exists, and as long as the
slogan “All power to the Constituent Assembly“ conceals the slogan “Down with Soviet power“, civil
war is inevitable. For nothing in the world will make us give
up Soviet power! (Stormy applause.) And when the
Constituent Assembly again revealed its readiness to post-pont’ all the painfully urgent problems and tasks
that were placed before it by the Soviets, we told the
Constituent Assembly that they must not be postponed for one
single moment. And by the will of Soviet power the Constituent
Assembly, which has refused to recognise the power of the
people, is being dissolved. The Byabushinskys have lost their
stakes; their attempts at resistance will only accentuate and
provoke a new outbreak of civil war.

The Constituent Assembly is dissolved. The Soviet revolutionary republic will triumph, no matter what. the
cost. (Stormy applause. Ovation.)