DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF THE
TOILING AND EXPLOITED PEOPLES
PART 1
CHAPTER ONE
- 1. Russia is proclaimed a Republic of
Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies. All central
and local authority is vested in these Soviets.
- 2. The Russian Soviet Republic is
established on the basis of a free union of free nations, a
federation of National Soviet Republics.
CHAPTER TWO
The Constituent Assembly sets for itself as a
fundamental task the suppression of all forms of exploitation of man by
man and the complete abolition of class distinctions in society. It aims
to crush unmercifully the exploiter, to reorganize society on a
socialistic basis, and to bring about the triumph of Socialism
throughout the world. It further resolves:
- 1. In order to bring about the socialization
of land, private ownership of land is abolished. The entire
land fund is declared the property of the nation and turned over
free of cost to the toilers on the basis of equal right to its use.
All forests, subsoil resources, and waters of national importance as
well as all live stock and machinery, model farms, and agricultural
enterprises are declared to be national property.
- 2. As a first step to the complete
transfer of the factories, shops, mines, railways, and other means
of production and transportation to the Soviet Republic of
Workers and Peasants, and in order to ensure the supremacy of the
toiling masses over the exploiters, the Constituent Assembly
ratifies the Soviet law on workers' control and that on the Supreme
Council of National Economy.
- 3. The Constituent Assembly ratifies the
transfer of all banks to the ownership of the workers' and peasants'
government as one of the conditions for the emancipation of the
toiling masses from the yoke of capitalism.
- 4. In order to do away with the parasitic
classes of society and organize the economic life of the country, universal
labor duty is introduced.
- 5. In order to give all the power to the
toiling masses and to make impossible the restoration of the power
of the exploiters, it is decreed to arm the toilers, to establish a Socialist
Red Army, and to disarm completely the propertied classes.
CHAPTER THREE
- 1. The Constituent Assembly expresses its
firm determination to snatch mankind from the claws of capitalism
and imperialism which have brought on this most criminal of all
wars and have drenched the world with blood. It approves
whole-heartedly the policy of the Soviet Government in breaking with
the secret treaties, in organizing extensive fraternisation between
the workers and peasants in the ranks of the opposing armies and in
its efforts to bring about, at all costs, by revolutionary means, a
democratic peace between nations on the principle of no annexation,
no indemnity, and free self-determination of nations.
- 2. With the same purpose in mind the
Constituent Assembly demands a complete break with the barbarous
policy of bourgeois civilization which enriches the exploiters in a
few chosen nations at the expense of hundreds of millions of the
toiling population in Asia, in the colonies, and in the small
countries. The Constituent Assembly welcomes the policy of the
Soviet of People's Commissars in granting complete independence to
Finland, of removing the troops from Persia and allowing Armenia the
right of self-determination. The Constituent Assembly considers the
Soviet law repudiating the debts contracted by the government of the
Tsar, landholders, and the bourgeoisie a first blow to international
banking and finance-capital. The Constituent Assembly expresses its
confidence that the Soviet Government will follow this course firmly
until the complete victory of the international labour revolt
against the yoke of capital.
CHAPTER FOUR
- 1. Having been elected on party lists made
up before the November Revolution, when the people were not yet in a
position to rebel against the exploiters whose powers of opposition
in defence of their class privileges were not yet known, and when
the people had not yet done anything practical to organize a
socialistic society, the Constituent Assembly feels that it would be
quite wrong even technically to set itself up in opposition to the
Soviet.
- 2. The Constituent Assembly believes that at
this present moment of decisive struggle of the proletariat against
the exploiters there is no place for the exploiters in any organ of
government. The government belongs wholly to the toiling masses and
their fully empowered representatives, the Soviets of Workers',
Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies.
- 3. In supporting the Soviet and the decrees
of the Soviet of People's Commissars, the Constituent Assembly
admits that it has no power beyond working out some of the
fundamental problems of reorganizing society on a socialistic basis.
4. At the same time, desiring to bring
about a really free and voluntary, and consequentlv more complete
and lasting, union of the toiling classes of all nations in Russia,
the Constituent Assembly confines itself to the formulation of the
fundamental principles of a federation of the Soviet Republics of
Russia, leaving to the workers and peasants of each nation to decide
independently at their own plenipotentiary Soviet Congresses whether
or not they desire, and if so on what conditions, to take part in
the federated government and other federal Soviet institutions.
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