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

NOTES557counter- revolution after the victory of the October insurrectionin Petrograd. On October 29 (November 11), 1917 it adopted a resolutioncalling for a so- called “uniform socialist government”,consisting of representatives of all parties, from the Bolsheviks tothe Popular Socialists. The Conference on the composition of thegovernment opened on the same day and was attended by Menshevikdefencists, Menshevik internationalists, Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, Left Socialist- Revolutionaries, and members ofthe Postal Union, the Petrograd Duma, the Executive Committeeof the Soviet of Peasants’ Deputies, etc. The Bolshevik CentralCommittee decided to attend stating that any talks on the enlargementof the government and the All- Russia Central ExecutiveCommittee could take place only on the basis of the programmefor Soviet power adopted by the Second Congress of Soviets.Kamenev and Sokolnikov were authorised by the Central Committeeto attend. The All- Russia Central Executive Committeealso sent its representatives to the Conference, among whom wasRyazanov.The Mensheviks and the Socialist- Revolutionaries expectedto play the leading part in any coalition government and to useit to fight the dictatorship of the proletariat. In the Co- ordinatingCommittee set up by the Conference, they demanded that resistanceto Kerensky’s troops be stopped and insisted that the All- RussiaCentral Executive Committee should be replaced by a People’sCouncil which would have a majority of members representingthe Executive Committee of the All- Russia Soviet of Peasants’Deputies City councils and other organisations which they hadunder control. They proposed the establishment of a new governmentheaded by Chernov or Avksentyev. The Bolshevik delegateswho attended took a conciliatory attitude and did not object todiscussing the proposals tabled by the Mensheviks and the Socialist-Revolutionaries.The Bolshevik Central Committee discussed the question ofnegotiations with the Vikzhel and the behaviour of the Bolshevikdelegates on November 1 (14). The majority censured the policyof conciliation and proposed that the talks should either be brokenoff or formulated as an ultimatum. Kamenev, Milyutin, Rykovand Ryazanov insisted on a continuation of the talks. A C.C. resolutionsaid the parties of conciliation were negotiating to subvertSoviet power, and the C.C. therefore authorised Bolshevik representativesto attend the talks with the sole aim of exposing thefutile attempts to set up a coalition government, and terminatingthe talks. The All- Russia Central Executive Committee discussedthe progress of the talks on the night of November 1 (14) and adopteda Bolshevik resolution drawn up in the spirit of the C.C. decisionof November 1 (14). However, the opposition group of Kamenev,Zinoviev, Rykov, Milyutin, Larin, Ryazanov and others,who took a Right- wing opportunist stand, opposed their lineto that of the Central Committee and fought against the C.C.decision. On November 2 (15), the C.C. adopted a resolutionon the opposition within the C.C. (see pp. 277- 79). At the All-