Ten Days That Shook the World, John Reed [intellectual books to read .txt] 📗

>2. All privileges connected with the former ranks and grades, also all outward marks of distinction, are abolished.

3. All addressing by titles is abolished.

4. All decorations, orders, and other marks of distinction are abolished.

5. With the abolition of the rank of officer, all separate officers’ organisations are abolished.

Note.�Orderlies are left only for headquarters, chanceries, Committees and other Army organisations.

President of the Council of People’s Commissars, VL. ULIANOV (LENIN).

People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, N. KRYLENKO.

People’s Commissar for Military Affairs, N. PODVOISKY.

Secretary of the Council, N. GORBUNOV.

*

 

On the Elective Principle and the Organisation of Authority in the Army

1. The army serving the will of the toiling people is subject to its supreme representative�the Council of People’s Commissars.

2. Full authority within the limits of military units and combinations is vested in the respective Soldiers’ Committees and Soviets.

3. Those phases of the life and activity of the troops which are already under the jurisdiction of the Committees are now formally placed in their direct control. Over such branches of activity which the Committees cannot assume, the control of the Soldiers’ Soviets is established.

4. The election of commanding Staff and officers is introduced. All commanders up to the commanders of regiments, inclusive, are elected by general suffrage of squads, platoons, companies, squadrons, batteries, divisions (artillery, 2-3 batteries), and regiments. All commanders higher than the commander of a regiment, and up to the Supreme Commander, inclusive, are elected by congresses or conferences of Committees.

Note.�By the term “conference” must be understood a meeting of the respective Committees together with delegates of committees one degree lower in rank. (Such as a “conference” of Regimental Committees with delegates from Company Committees.�Author.)

5. The elected commanders above the rank of commander of regiment must be confirmed by the nearest Supreme Committee.

Note. In the event of a refusal by a Supreme Committee to confirm an elected commander, with a statement of reasons for such refusal, a commander elected by the lower Committee a second time must be confirmed.

6. The commanders of Armies are elected by Army congresses. Commanders of Fronts are elected by congresses of the respective Fronts.

7. To posts of a technical character, demanding special knowledge or other practical preparation, namely: doctors, engineers, technicians, telegraph and wireless operators, aviators, automobilists, etc., only such persons as possess the required special knowledge may be elected, by the Committees of the units of the respective services.

8. Chiefs of Staff must be chosen from among persons with special military training for that post.

9. All other members of the Staff are appointed by the Chief of Staff, and confirmed by the respective congresses.

Note.�All persons with special training must be listed in a special list.

10. The right is reserved to retire from the service all commanders on active service who are not elected by the soldiers to any post, and who consequently are ranked as privates.

11. All other functions beside those pertaining to the command, with the exception of posts in the economic departments, are filled by appointment of the respective elected commanders.

12. Detailed instructions regarding the elections of the commanding Staff will be published separately.

President of the Council of People’s Commissars.

VL. ULIANOV (LENIN).

People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs,

N. KRYLENKO.

People’s Commissar for Military Affairs,

N. PODVOISKY.

Secretary of the Council,

N. GORBUNOV.

 

*

 

On the Abolition of Classes and Titles

1. All classes and class divisions, all class privileges and delimitations, all class organisations and institutions and all civil ranks are abolished.

2. All classes of society (nobles, merchants, petty bourgeois, etc.),and all titles (Prince, Count and others), and all denominations of civil rank (Privy State Councillor, and others), are abolished, and there is established the general denomination of Citizen of the Russian Republic.

3. The property and institutions of the classes of nobility are transferred to the corresponding autonomous Zemstvos.

4. The property of merchant and bourgeois organisations is transferred immediately to the Municipal Self-Governments.

5. All class institutions of any sort, with their property, their rules of procedure, and their archives, are transferred to the administration of the Municipalities and Zemstvos.

6. All articles of existing laws applying to these matters are herewith repealed.

7. The present decree becomes effective on the day it is published and applied by the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’, and Peasants’ Deputies.

The present decree has been confirmed by the Tsay-ee-kah at the meeting of November 23d, 1917, and signed by:

President of the Tsay-ee-kah,

SVERDLOV.

President of the Council of People’s Commissars,

VL. ULIANOV (LENIN).

Executive of the Council of People’s Commissars,

V. BONCH-BRUEVITCH.

Secretary of the Council,

N. GORBUNOV.

 

*

 

On December 3d the Council of People’s Commissars resolved “to reduce the salaries of functionaries and employees in all Government institutions and establishments, general or special, without exception.”

To begin with, the Council fixed the salary of a People’s Commissar at 500 rubles per month, with 100 rubles additional for each grown member of the family incapable of work�.

This was the highest salary paid to any Government official�.

4.

Countess Panina was arrested and brought to trial before the first Supreme Revolutionary Tribunal. The trial is described in the chapter on “Revolutionary Justice” in my forthcoming volume, “Kornilov to Brist-Litovsk.” The prisoner was sentenced to “return the money, and then be liberated to the public contempt.” In other words, she was set free!

5.

RIDICULE OF THE NEW R�GIME

From Drug Naroda (Menshevik), November 18th:

“The story of the ‘immediate peace’ of the Bolsheviki reminds us of a joyous moving-picture film�. Neratov runs�Trotzky pursues; Neratov climbs a wall, Trotzky too; Neratov dives into the water�Trotzky follows; Neratov climbs onto the roof�Trotzky right behind him; Neratov hides under the bed�and Trotzky has him! He has him! Naturally, peace is immediately signed�.

“All is empty and silent at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The couriers are respectful, but their faces wear a caustic expression�.

“How about arresting an ambassador and signing an armistice or a Peace Treaty with him? But they are strange folk, these ambassadors. They keep silent just as if they had heard nothing. Hola, hola, England, France, Germany! We have signed an armistice with you! Is it possible that you know nothing about it? Nevertheless, it has been published in all the papers and posted on all the walls. On a Bolshevik’s word of honour, Peace has been signed. We’re not asking much of you; you just have to write two words�.

“The ambassadors remain silent. The Powers remain silent. All is empty and silent in the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

“‘Listen,’ says Robespierre-Trotzky to his assistant Marat-Uritzky, ‘run over to the British Ambassador’s, tell him we’re proposing peace!’

“‘Go yourself,’ says Marat-Uritzky. ‘He’s not receiving.’

“‘Telephone him, then.’

“‘I’ve tried. The receiver’s off the hook.’

“‘Send him a telegram.’

“‘I did.’

“‘Well, with what result?’

“Marat-Uritzky sighs and does not answer. Robespierre-Trotzky spits furiously into the corner�.

“‘Listen, Marat,’ recommences Trotzky, after a moment. ‘We must absolutely show that we’re conducting an active foreign policy. How can we do that?’

“‘Launch another decree about arresting Neratov,’ answers Uritzky, with a profound air.

“‘Marat, you’re a blockhead!’ cries Trotzky. All of a sudden he arises, terrible and majestic, looking at this moment like Robespierre.

“‘Write, Uritzky!’ he says with severity. ‘Write a letter to the British ambassador, a registered letter with receipt demanded. Write! I also will write! The peoples of the world await an immediate peace!’

“In the enormous and empty Ministry of Foreign Affairs are to be heard only the sound of two typewriters. With his own hands Trotzky is conducting an active foreign policy�.”

6.

ON THE QUESTION OF AN AGREEMENT

To the Attention of All Workers and All Soldiers.

November 11th, in the club of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, was held an extraordinary meeting of representatives of all the units of the Petrograd garrison.

The meeting was called upon the initiative of the Preobrazhensky and Semionovsky Regiments, for the discussion of the question as to which Socialist parties are for the power of the Soviets, which are against, which are for the people, which against, and if an agreement between them is possible.

The representatives of the Tsay-ee-kah, of the Municipal Duma, of the Avksentiev Peasants’ Soviets, and of all the political parties from the Bolsheviki to the Populist Socialists, were invited to the meeting.

After long deliberation, having heard the declarations of all parties and organisations, the meeting by a tremendous majority of votes agreed that only the Bolsheviki and the Left Socialist Revolutionaries are for the people, and that all the other parties are only attempting, under cover of seeking an agreement, to deprive the people of the conquests won in the days of the great Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolution of November.

Here is the text of the resolution carried at this meeting of the Petrograd garrison, by 61 votes against 11, and 12 not voting:

“The garrison conference, summoned at the initiative of the Semionovsky and Preobrazhensky Regiments, on hearing the representatives of all the Socialist parties and popular organisations on the question of an agreement between the different political parties finds that:

“1. The representatives of the Tasy-ee-kah, the representatives of the Bolshevik party and the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, declared definitely that they stand for a Government of the Soviets, for the decrees on Land, Peace and Workers’ Control of Industry, and that upon this platform they are willing to agree with all the Socialist parties.

“2. At the same time the representatives of the other parties (Mensheviki, Socialist Revolutionaries) either gave no answer at all, or declared simply that they were opposed to the power of the Soviets and against the decrees on Land, Peace and Workers’ Control.

“In view of this the meeting resolves:

“‘1. To express severe censure of all parties which, under cover of an agreement, wish practically to annul the popular conquests of the Revolution of November.

“2. To express full confidence in the Tsay-ee-kah and the Council of People’s Commissars, and to promise them complete support.’

“At the same time the meeting deems it necessary that the comrades Left Socialist Revolutionaries should enter the People’s Government.”

7.

WINE “POGROMS”

It was afterward discovered that there was a regular organisation, maintained by the Cadets, for provoking rioting among the soldiers. There would be telephone messages to the different barracks, announcing that wine was being given away at such and such an address, and when the soldiers arrived at the spot an individual would point out the location of the cellar�.

The Council of People’s Commissars appointed a Commissar for the Fight Against Drunkenness, who, besides mercilessly putting down the wine riots, destroyed hundreds of thousands of bottles of liquor. The Winter Palace cellars, containing rare vintages valued at more than five million dollars, were at first flooded, and then the liquor was removed to Cronstadt and destroyed.

In this work the Cronstadt sailors, “flower and pride of the revolutionary forces,” as Trotzky called them, acquitted themselves with iron selfdicipline�.

8.

SPECULATORS

Two orders concerning them:

Council of People’s Commissars

To the Military Revolutionary Committee

The disorganisation of the food supply created by the war, and the lack of system, is becoming to the last degree acute, thanks to the speculators, marauders and their followers on the railways, in the steamship offices, forwarding offices, etc.

Taking advantage of the nation’s greatest misfortunes, these criminal spoliators are playing with the health and life of millions of soldiers and workers, for their own benefit.

Such a situation cannot be borne a single day longer.

The Council of People’s Commissars proposes to