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

NOTES553France, Germany, Japan and other imperialist powers. FromNovember 10 (23), 1917, these documents were published inPravda and Izvestia, and in December were put out in a seriesentitled Collection of Secret Documents from the Archives of theFormer Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Seven volumes were publishedfrom December 1917 to February 1918. By publishing the secrettreaties, the Soviet Government’s revolutionary propaganda strucka great blow for a general democratic peace, without annexationsand indemnities, and exposed the imperialist nature of the FirstWorld War. p. 239101Held in Petrograd on October 25 and 26 (November 7 and 8),1917. It was also attended by delegates from a number of uyezdand gubernia Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies. When the Congressopened, 649 delegates were in attendance, among them 390 Bolsheviks,160 Socialist- Revolutionaries, 72 Mensheviks, and 14 Menshevikinternationalists. More delegates arrived later.It opened at Smolny Institute at 10.40 p.m. on October 25,while the Red Guard detachments, sailors and revolutionary unitsof the Petrograd garrison were still storming the Winter Palace,where the Provisional Government had taken refuge under theprotection of its shock troops and officer cadets. Lenin was directingthe uprising and did not attend the first sitting. FourteenBolsheviks were elected to the Presidium, among them Lenin,Antonov- Ovseyenko, Krylenko and Lunacharsky; seven Socialist-Revolutionaries including Kamkov, Karelin and Spiridonova,and one member of the Ukrainian Socialist Party. The Mensheviksand the Right Socialist- Revolutionaries declined to sit on thePresidium. The leaders of the Menshevik and the Socialist- RevolutionaryRight wing motioned that negotiations should be startedwith the Provisional Government to set up a coalition government,because, they said, the socialist revolution then under way wasnothing but a plot. When they saw that the majority supportedthe Bolsheviks, they walked out (they were joined by Bund delegates).Shortly after 3.00 a.m., October 26 (November 8), theCongress heard a report on the capture of the Winter Palace andthe arrest of the Provisional Government and adopted its appeal“To Workers, Soldiers and Peasants!” It was written by Lenin,and proclaimed the transfer of power to the Soviets of Workers’,Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies. The sitting closed after5.00 a.m.The second sitting opened at 9.00 p.m. the same day, heardLenin’s reports and adopted his historic decrees on peace and onland; it formed the workers’ and peasants’ government known asthe Council of People’s Commissars, headed by Lenin. The LeftSocialist- Revolutionaries refused to enter the Soviet Government,which consisted of Bolsheviks only. A 101- man All- Russia CentralExecutive Committee elected by the Congress included 62 Bolsheviksand 29 Left Socialist-Revolutionaries.The Congress also decided that the All- Russia Central ExecutiveCommittee could be enlarged by delegates from Peasants’ Soviets