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

429DECLARATION OF THE R.S.D.L.P. (BOLSHEVIKS)GROUP AT THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY MEETINGJANUARY 5 (18), 1918 158The vast majority of working Russia—workers, peasantsand soldiers—have demanded that the Constituent Assemblyshould recognise the gains of the Great October Revolution,the Soviet decrees on land, peace and workers’ control, andabove all the power of the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’and Peasants’ Deputies. The All-Russia Central ExecutiveCommittee, fulfilling the will of the vast majority of theworking classes of Russia, has proposed that the ConstituentAssembly should declare itself bound by this will. However,the majority of the Constituent Assembly—in line with thepretensions of the bourgeoisie, has rejected this proposal,thereby challenging the whole of working Russia.The majority in the Constituent Assembly went to theParty of the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, the party ofKerensky, Avksentyev and Chernov. This party, whichcalls itself socialist and revolutionary, is leading the fightof the bourgeois elements against the workers’ and peasants’revolution and is in fact a bourgeois and counter-revolutionaryparty.The Constituent Assembly, as at present constituted, isthe result of the balance of forces obtaining before the GreatOctober Revolution. The present counter-revolutionarymajority of the Constituent Assembly elected on outdatedparty lists, is a reflection of an earlier period of the revolutionand is trying to throw up a roadblock in the way ofthe workers’ and peasants’ movement.The day-long debate has shown that the Party of RightSocialist-Revolutionaries continues, as it did under Kerensky,to lavish the people with promises of all manner of