Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 26 - From Marx to Mao

18PREFACEthe conclusion of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk is reflectedin his “Outline Programme for Peace Negotiations”, “Onthe History of the Question of the Unfortunate Peace”,and speeches at meetings of the C.C., R.S.D.L.P.(B.) inJanuary and February 1918, and other documents.Several of the works deal with the convocation and dissolutionof the Constituent Assembly. They are Theses on theConstituent Assembly, Declaration of the R.S.D.L.P.(Bolsheviks) Group at the Constituent Assembly Meeting,January 5 (18), 1918, “People from Another World”, etc.The volume also includes “Fear of the Collapse of theOld and the Fight for the New”, “How to Organise Competition?”,“Draft Decree on Consumers’ Communes”, whichgive an analysis of various aspects of socialist constructionand substantiate the need for a full-scale socialist competitioncampaign. These works lay accent on the strictestaccounting and control in the economy, as the main task.Fourteen items in this volume are included in the CollectedWorks for the first time. They are: “Draft Resolution onFreedom of the Press”, “Statement to the Bolshevik Groupat the Extraordinary All-Russia Congress of Soviets ofPeasants’ Deputies”, “The Tasks of the Public Library inPetrograd”, “Outline Programme for Peace Negotiations”,“On the Opening of the Constituent Assembly”, “DraftResolution on the Provisional Bureau of the BolshevikGroup in the Constituent Assembly”, “Direct-Line Conversationwith L. D. Trotsky, Chairman of the SovietPeace Delegation at Brest-Litovsk”, “Instructions to theRed Guard H. Q.”, “Draft Decree on the Nationalisation ofMerchant Marine and Inland Water Transport”, “WirelessMessage Addressed to All. Special to the Peace Delegationin Brest-Litovsk”, “Wireless Message Addressed to All”,“Trotsky. Russian Peace Delegation. Brest-Litovsk”, “Direct-LineConversation with the Moscow Soviet”. All thesewere written after the October Revolution and are a reflectionof the Bolshevik Party’s efforts to consolidate Sovietpower and secure a just and democratic peace.