DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF THE
TOILING AND EXPLOITED PEOPLES
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 tlie 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.