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

568 NOTES143144145the government heard his report, in connection with which Leninappears to have written his draft decree. At the same sitting thegovernment formed the All- Russia Extraordinary Commission(Cheka) to Combat Counter- Revolution and Sabotage. Dzerzhinskywas appointed its chairman. p. 374On December 11 (24), 1917, the Central Committee of theR.S.D.L.P.(B.) discussed one question—the stand taken by theBolshevik group in the Constituent Assembly. It was raised inview of the fact that “Right- wing sentiments have prevailed inthe group, whose views differ from those of the Central Committee”(Minutes of the Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P.(B.), August,1917 to February 1918, (in Russian, Moscow, 1958, p. 160).The provisional bureau of the group opposed the C.C. lineon the Constituent Assembly. It took a bourgeois- democraticapproach to the Assembly and held that its convocation was thefinal stage of the revolution. It proposed that control over itsconvocation should be abandoned. The Central Committee resolvedto work out theses on the Constituent Assembly and set a meetingof members of the group in Smolny at 4.00 p.m. on December 12(25) to discuss a C.C. report and theses and to re- elect the bureauof the group. Lenin read out his “Theses on the Constituent Assembly”(see pp. 379- 83), which he had written at the Central Committee’srequest. After a prolonged debate, they were unanimouslyadopted by the group. On December 13 (26) they were publishedin Pravda. p. 377The Extraordinary All- Russia Congress of Railwaymen was heldin Petrograd from December 12 (25) to December 30, 1917 (January12, 1918). It was called on the initiative of the railwaymen’strade unions of the Moscow and Petrograd junctures, and wasattended by nearly 300 delegates, of whom more than half wereBolsheviks. On the second day of the Congress Lenin delivereda speech of greetings and was elected honorary chairman. TheCongress heard reports on the current situation, a speech by a representativeof the Vikzhel, and reports on the food situation, tradeunionorganisation and the establishment of a network of localSoviets of Railwaymen’s Deputies. The overwhelming majorityof the Congress supported the views of the Second All- RussiaCongress of Soviets. The Congress adopted a resolution statingthat the Vikzhel’s policy was playing into the hands of the counterrevolutionarybourgeoisie, and passed a vote of no confidencein it. The Congress elected 78 delegates for the Railwaymen’sCongress set by the Vikzhel for December 19, 1917 (January 1,1918). p. 384Written on December 14 (27), 1917, at the request of the SwedishLeft- wing Social- Democrat Höglund, who had arrived in Petrogradon an assignment from the Left- wing Social- DemocraticParty of Sweden. The article was first published in German inMay 1918 in the newspaper Jugend- Internationale, the organ of