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

NOTES567139140141142After the Great October Socialist Revolution, the Rada proclaimeditself the supreme organ of the Ukrainian People’s Republicand launched an open struggle against Soviet power. It wasone of the centres of the counter-revolution.The First All- Ukraine Congress of Soviets, held in Kharkovin December 1917, proclaimed the Ukraine a Soviet republic.The Congress declared the Central Rada overthrown. The Councilof People’s Commissars of the R.S.F.S.R. recognised the UkrainianSoviet Government as the sole legitimate government of theUkraine and decided to give it immediate help in fighting thecounter- revolutionary Rada. Armed uprisings against the CentralRada for the re- establishment of Soviet power took place all overthe country in December 1917 and January 1918. In January1918, Soviet troops in the Ukraine launched an offensive and onJanuary 26 (February 8) occupied Kiev. The bourgeois Radawas overthrown.Defeated and ousted from the territory of the Soviet Ukraine,deprived of any support among the working people, the CentralRada joined the German imperialists in an alliance to overthrowSoviet power and restore the rule of the bourgeoisie in the Ukraine.It sent a delegation to Brest- Litovsk and secretly concluded a separatepeace giving Germany the Ukraine’s corn, coal, raw materialsin return for military aid in the fight against Soviet power.In March 1918, the Rada returned to Kiev as the puppet of theAustro- German invaders who dispersed it in late April when theyrealised that it was absolutely incapable of suppressing the revolutionarymovement in the Ukraine and delivering the goods.p. 361The rest of the text was written by L. D. Trotsky and edited byLenin and Stalin. p. 362Written on December 6- 7 (19- 20), 1917. After the members ofthe presidium of the Congress had seen the Manifesto it was readout on their behalf at the evening sitting of December 8 (21).At the insistence of the Left Socialist- Revolutionaries the wordingwas toned down and in that form adopted by the Congress. Onbehalf of the Executive Committee of the All- Russia Soviet ofPeasants’ Deputies the Manifesto was published in the newspaperGolos Trudovogo Krestyanstva (Voice of the Labouring Peasantry)No. 22 of December 15 (28) under the title, “To the LabouringPeasants”. p. 368See Note 137. p. 371Lenin raised the question of fighting the internal counter- revolutionand sabotage before the Council of People’s Commissars onDecember 6 (19), 1917, in view of the fierce resistance to the measuresof the Soviet Government and a possible strike by seniorcivil servants. Dzerzhinsky was asked to form a commission toinquire into ways of fighting the sabotage. On December 7 (20),