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

566 NOTES137138of a group of former ministers who continued to style themselvesas members of the Provisional Government, on the opening of theConstituent Assembly at the Taurida Palace at 2.00 p.m. onNovember 28 (December 11). p. 354The Second All- Russia Congress of Soviets of Peasants’ Deputieswas held in Petrograd from November 26 to December 10 (December9 to 23), 1917. Apart from delegates from various localitiesinvited by the Right Socialist- Revolutionary Peasant ExecutiveCommittee, it was attended by all the delegates of the ExtraordinaryPeasant Congress, a total of 790 with vote, including 305Socialist- Revolutionaries of the Centre and Right, 350 Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, and 91 Bolsheviks. The atmosphere at theCongress was extremely tense. The Right Socialist- Revolutionariestried to push the Congress their way, and to drive a wedge betweenthe Bolsheviks and the Left Socialist- Revolutionaries, who weresitting on the fence. There was an especially stiff fight over theattitude to the Constituent Assembly and the government’s decreedeclaring the Cadets enemies of the people.Lenin spoke on these issues on December 2 (15). At first a considerablemajority supported the Right Socialist- Revolutionaries,whose resolution demanded the transfer of power to the ConstituentAssembly and censure of the government’s acts in orderingthe arrest of several Cadets. The Bolshevik group insisted on a revote,and the Congress passed the resolution of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries. Contradictions on the issue split the Congressand the Right- wingers walked out. The Left- wing majority remainedand continued their work. They confirmed the decisions of theExtraordinary All- Russia Peasants’ Congress and adhered to thedecisions of the Second All- Russia Congress of Soviets. The Congresselected a new Executive Committee of Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies,which it authorised to join the All- Russia Central ExecutiveCommittee in implementing the basic demands of the peasantsfor land and peace. p. 357Ukrainian Central Rada—a counter- revolutionary bourgeois- nationalistorganisation set up at the All- Ukraine National Congressin Kiev in April 1917 by a bloc of Ukrainian bourgeois and pettybourgeoisnationalist parties and groups. The ideologist of theUkrainian bourgeoisie, M. S. Grushevksy, was its chairman, andV. K. Vinnichenko, his deputy. The Rada had a social base ofurban and rural bourgeoisie, and petty- bourgeois nationalistmindedintellectuals. It tried to build up the power of the Ukrainianbourgeoisie and landowners and set up a Ukrainian bourgeoisstate with the aid of the national liberation movement in theUkraine. It waved the banner of national independence in aneffort to lead the Ukrainian masses away from the all- Russiarevolutionary movement, subordinate them to the Ukrainianbourgeoisie and prevent the socialist revolution from winningout in the Ukraine. It supported the Provisional Governmentin spite of contradictions over the issue of Ukrainian autonomy.