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

NOTES573Sergeyev (Artyom) and Sokolnikov favoured peace. The LeftCommunists did not expect the “revolutionary war now” sloganto go through (only two voted for it), and so voted for Trotsky’sproposal, which received 9 votes to 7 against. In the hope of overcomingthe resistance to the conclusion of peace within the CentralCommittee and winning over the section of the masses whichfollowed the advocates of a revolutionary war, Lenin motionedthe proposal that the talks should be delayed in every possibleway, and this was passed by 12 votes to one. p. 442162The Third All- Russia Congress of Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’and Peasants’ Deputies was held in Petrograd from January 10to 18 (23 to 31), 1918. It was attended by delegates from 317 Sovietsof Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies and 110 army, corpsand divisional committees. At the opening were 707 delegates,441 of them Bolsheviks. On January 13 (26), it was joined by thedelegates to the Third All- Russia Congress of Soviets of Peasants’Deputies. Together with late arrivals there was a total of 1,587delegates at the final sitting.The Presidium of the Congress consisted of 10 Bolsheviks,3 Left Socialist- Revolutionaries and 1 delegate from each othergroup (Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, etc.).Greetings were conveyed by delegates from the Swiss, Rumanian,Swedish and Norwegian Social- Democratic parties, theBritish Socialist Party and the labour socialists of America.The Congress discussed Sverdlov’s report on the activity ofthe All- Russia Central Executive Committee. Lenin reported tothe Congress on the activity of the Council of People’s Commissars.In the debates, the Mensheviks, Right Socialist- Revolutionariesand the Menshevik internationalists opposed the domestic andforeign policy of Soviet power. Their attitudes were criticisedby Lenin in a summing- up speech. The Congress approved Lenin’s“Declaration of Rights of the Working and Exploited People”,which later became the basis of the Soviet Constitution. A Congressresolution gave full approval to the policy of the All- Russia CentralExecutive Committee and the Council of People’s Commissarsand gave them a vote of confidence.The Congress also approved the Government’s policy on peaceand conferred on it the broadest powers in this matter.The Congress heard a report by Stalin, People’s Commissarfor Nationalities’, on the principles of federation and the policyof Soviet power on the question of nationalities and adopted aresolution constituting the Russian Socialist Republic as a federationof Soviet Republics, on the basis of a free union of thepeoples of Russia. The Congress approved the Government’spolicy on the question of nationalities.The arrival of the delegates to the Third All- Russia Peasants’Congress was a notable event: the Congress continued its deliberationsas a joint Congress of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’Deputies.