Delivered: 26 July, 1918
First Published: 28 July, 1918 Pravda No. 157, Published according to the Pravda text
Source: Lenin’s Collected Works, 4th English
Edition, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1972 Volume 27, page 551
Translated: Clemens Dutt; Edited by Robert Daglish
Transcription/HTML Markup: David Walters & Robert
Cymbala
Online Version: Lenin Internet
Archive March, 2002
(Lenin was welcomed with cheers and loud applause.) Speaking on the subject, “What the Soviet Constitution Will Mean to the Working People”, Lenin noted that the Soviet Constitution, which, like the Soviets, had been created in a period of revolutionary struggle, was the first to proclaim the government power of the working people and to disfranchise the exploiters-the enemies of the building of a new life. This was the chief thing that distinguished it from the constitutions of other countries, and it was a pledge of ultimate victory over capital.
Referring to some of the chief principles of the Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People, Lenin said that the working people of all countries would see that the Soviet Constitution-the fundamental law of the Russian Socialist Federative Republic-reflected the ideals of the proletariat of the whole world. “The hour of reckoning with the bourgeoisie of all countries Is approaching! Indignation is growing in Western Europe! The task before us is to overcome all obstacles in our path, however difficult they may be, and to maintain the power of the Soviets until the working class of all countries revolts and raises aloft the great banner of a world socialist republic!” (Loud applause.)
[1] On July 26, 1918 meetings were held in all districts of Moscow on the subject #8220;What Does the Soviet Constitution Give the Working People#8221;, Prominent members of the Communist Party addresses the meetings explaining the importance of the Constitution of the R.S.F.S.R., which had been adopted on July 10, 1918 by the Fifth All-Russia Congress of Soviets.
Lenin addressed more than a thousand people assembled in the hall of the Higher Women's Courses.