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

384SPEECH AT THE EXTRAORDINARY ALL-RUSSIACONGRESS OF RAILWAYMENDECEMBER 13 (26), 1917 144Allow me to greet the Congress on behalf of the Councilof People’s Commissars and to express the hope that theorganisation of the railwaymen will be conducted on thesame lines as the vast majority of workers and peasants inRussia. There is no doubt at all that the October Revolution,carried out by the workers, peasants and soldiers, is asocialist one. It is opposed by all the forces of the bourgeoisieand the top salaried sections, who have grown accustomedto the old order and cannot understand that the revolutionis going to remake the old system from top to bottom. Listento their loud cries that Soviet power is repudiated by themajority in Russia. You know the worth of all this clamour.There is a flood of telegrams saying that troops are movingon Petrograd, against the gains of the October Revolution.We throw them into the waste-paper basket, being fullyaware that we shall not have to wait long for a refutation.The top-drawer organisations of the First Peasant Congress,as represented by the Avksentyevs, said on behalf of thepeasant mass that they were opposed to the rule of tyrantsand usurpers. What we said was: “Let them curse, we shallsee what the peasants have to say when we start confiscatingthe landed estates and giving them to the peasants.” As yousee, the Second Peasant Congress has brought victory toSoviet power. We have established close contacts with theSecond Soviet of Peasants’ Deputies. It is with them thatwe have organised the Soviet power of workers, soldiers andpeasants. We shall surely find the same attitude among themass of railwaymen. You are aware that disruption of railwaycommunications—aggravated by sabotage on the part