Delivered: 28 January, 1918
First Published: 15 February, 1918, in
the newspaper Izvestia Sovetov Rabochikh, Soldatskish i
Krestyanskikh Deputatov Goroda Moshvy i Moshovkoi Oblast
No. 25
Source: Lenin’s Collected
Works, Progress Publishers, Moscow, Volume 26, 1972,
pp. 518-519
Translated: Yuri Sdobnikov and George
Hanna, Edited by George Hanna
Transcription & HTML Markup: Charles
Farrell and David Walters
Online Version:
Lenin Internet Archive December,
2000
We are now engaged in the great task of consolidating the gains of the working masses, the great task of uniting the workers, soldiers and peasants. At the Peasant Congress where the Rights had a majority I said that if the peasants recognised all our demands we in turn would support all the peasant demands, the chief of which is socialisation of land. We have now done this. We have passed the world's first law abolishing all private ownership of land. We now have power, the power of the Soviets. This power, brought to the fore by the people themselves, lays a sound foundation for the great cause of world peace. The war has been stopped, and demobilisation has been ordered on every front. There is still the war against the bourgeoisie which is mobilising all its forces to against Soviet power. We have almost put an end to the Russian counter-revolution. We are gaining the upper hand in almost every battle fought on all the fronts. There is still another enemy; it is international capital; the fight against this enemy will be a long one and we shall win by getting organised and obtaining support for our revolution from the international proletariat. We are still faced with a big fight, the class struggle at home. This is an economic struggle against the bourgeoisie, who, directly or indirectly, support our enemies and who will try to establish economic domination over the working masses.
One thing that we suffer from, that makes our country weak, is the lack of money. The big kulaks in town and country still have lots of money, which is evidence of their exploitation of the people's labour, and which must belong to the people. We are sure that the working peasants will declare a ruthless war against the kulaks, their oppressors, and will help us in our struggle for the people's better future and for socialism.
[1] Lenin delivered his speech at the closing sitting of the Land Conimittee Congress and the peasant section of the Third Congress of Soviets. The Land Committee Congress opened in Petrograd on January 17 (30), 1918. Its first sitting was attended by 472 delegates from 43 gubernias and 243 uyezds. The Congress subsequently worked together with the peasant section of the Third All-Russia Congress of Soviets which ended on January 18 (31). It was then attended by more than 1,000 delegates. The various sections of the Congress worked out the details of the Basic Law on the Socialisation of Land.