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

347FOREWORD TO THE PAMPHLET,MATERIAL ON THE AGRARIANQUESTIONThe present pamphlet is a collection (made on the initiativeof one of the Bolsheviks and not the author’s) of mymost important articles and speeches on the land questionwhich are suitable for popular reading. They date from theend of April to the end of October 1917, and are supplementedby the Resolution of the April Conference of theR.S.D.L.P.(Bolsheviks),* and the Decree on Land, adoptedby the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Workers’and Soldiers’ Deputies on October 26, 1917.** I wrotethe original texts (that is, the drafts) of both these documents.Taken together, these documents and articles give anaccurate picture of how Bolshevik views developed over thesix months of the revolution and how these views wereapplied in practice.I also refer the reader to my article, “From a Publicist’sDiary. Peasants and Workers”, in the newspaper Rabochy(Petersburg, September 11 (August 29), 1917, No. 6).***It gives a detailed analysis of the summarised peasants’Mandate which appeared in Izvestia Vserossiiskogo SovetaKrestyanskikh Deputatov No. 88, of August 19, and whichwas incorporated in the Decree on Land of October 26, 1917.* See present edition, Vol. 24.—Ed.** See pp. 258-60 of this volume.—Ed.*** See present edition, Vol. 25.—Ed.