Primary Documents - Lenin's Proclamations, 26 October 1917
Reproduced below is the
text of three of Lenin's post-October Revolution proclamations. These
were issued in the immediate aftermath
of the overthrow of
Alexander
Kerenski's Provisional Government.
In the first proclamation Lenin announced that power in Russia now resided with Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates. In the second he announced the revocation of the death penalty at the front and the release of political prisoners. In the third he announced the arrest of numerous former ministers, and stated that former premier Kerenski was in hiding. He concluded with the warning that "all complicity with Kerenski will be dealt with as high treason".
Lenin's Proclamations of 26 October 1917
First Proclamation
To All Provincial Councils of Workmen's and Soldiers' and Peasants' Delegates:
All power lies in the Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates. Government commissaries are relieved of their functions. Presidents of the Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates are to communicate direct with the Revolutionary Government. All members of agricultural committees who have been arrested are to be set at liberty immediately and the commissioners who arrested them are in turn to be arrested.
Second Proclamation
The death penalty re-established at the front by Premier Kerenski is abolished and complete freedom for political propaganda has been established at the front. All revolutionary soldiers and officers who have been arrested for complicity in so-called political crimes are to be set at liberty immediately.
Third Proclamation
Former Ministers Konovaloff, Kishkin, Terestchenko, Malyanovitch, Nikitin, and others have been arrested by the Revolutionary Committee.
M. Kerenski has taken flight and all military bodies have been empowered to take all possible measures to arrest Kerenski and bring him back to Petrograd. All complicity with Kerenski will be dealt with as high treason.
Source: Source Records of the Great War, Vol. V, ed. Charles F. Horne, National Alumni 1923
The USA suffered 57,476 fatal army casualties during the war.
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