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

SECOND ALL-RUSSIA CONGRESS OF SOVIETS251owners and capitalists from February to October 25, 1917.The government proclaims the unconditional and immediateannulment of everything contained in these secret treatiesinsofar as it is aimed, as is mostly the case, at securing advantagesand privileges for the Russian landowners and capialists and at the retention, or extension, of the annexationsmade by the Great Russians.Proposing to the governments and peoples of all countriesimmediately to begin open negotiations for peace, the government,for its part, expresses its readiness to conductthese negotiations in writing, by telegraph, and by negotiationsbetween representatives of the various countries, orFROM MARXTO MAOat a conference of such representatives. In order to facilitatesuch negotiations, the government is appointing its pleni-⋆potentiary representative to neutral countries.The government proposes an immediate armistice to thegovernments and peoples of all the belligerent countries,and, for its part, considers it desirable that this armisticeshould be concluded for a period of not less than three months,i.e., a period long enough to permit the completion of negotiationsfor peace with the participation of the representativesof all peoples or nations, without exception, involved in orcompelled to take part in the war, and the summoning ofauthoritative assemblies NOT of the representatives FOR of the peoplesof all countries for the final ratification of the peace terms.While addressing this proposal for peace to the governmentsand peoplesCOMMERCIALof all the belligerent countries, theProvisional Workers’ and Peasants’ Government of Russiaappeals in particular DISTRIBUTIONalso to the class-conscious workersof the three most advanced nations of mankind and thelargest states participating in the present war, namely,Great Britain, France and Germany. The workers of thesecountries have made the greatest contributions to the causeof progress and socialism; they have furnished the greatexamples of the Chartist movement in England, a number ofrevolutions of historic importance effected by the Frenchproletariat, and, finally, the heroic struggle against theAnti-Socialist Law in Germany 104 and the prolonged, persistentand disciplined work of creating mass proletarian organisationsin Germany, a work which serves as a model to theworkers of the whole world. All these examples of proletar-