In Defence of October

Study the lessons of the Russian Revolution

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Material On The Agrarian Question (Foreword)

"This article explained that it was necessary for the workers "to change the basic line pursued by the worker in addressing the peasant"."

The present pamphlet is a collection (made on the initiative of one of the Bolsheviks and not the author's) of my most important articles and speeches on the land question which are suitable for popular reading. They date from the end of April to the end of October 1917, and are supplemented by the Resolution of the April Conference of the R.S.D.L.P.(Bolsheviks), and the Decree on Land, adopted by the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies on October 26, 1917.[1] I wrote the original texts (that is, the drafts) of both these documents.

Taken together, these documents and articles give an accurate picture of how Bolshevik views developed over the six months of the revolution and how these views were applied in practice.

I also refer the reader to my article, "From a Publicist's Diary. Peasants and Workers", in the newspaper Rabochy (Petersburg, September 11 (August 29), 1917, No. 6). It gives a detailed analysis of the summarised peasants' Mandate which appeared in Izvestia Vserossiiskogo Soveta Krestyanskikh Deputatov No. 88, of August 19, and which was incorporated in the Decree on Land of October 26, 1917. Two months before the October 25 revolution, this article explained that it was necessary for the workers "to change the basic line pursued by the worker in addressing the peasant".

N. Lenin

Petersburg. November 27, 1917.

Footnotes

[1] See section Decree on Land from the Second All Congress of Soviets—Transcriber

 

Source: Marxist Internet Archive.

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