Kozhevnikov, Resolution of the Army Committee of the Western Front. October 30, 1917

Original Source: N. E. Kakurin (ed.), Razlozhenie armiii v 1917 godu (Moscow, 1925), pp. 147-48.

In its session of October 30 the executive committee of the Western front adopted the following resolution:

(1) All calamities that the country suffers are a direct consequence of the war which was started by the imperialists of all countries.

(2) The continuation of the way is sure to destroy the revolution; the productive forces of the country lead revolutionary Russia to inevitable ruin.

(3) The army which has suffered for three years ... insistently demands peace. A movement is on foot which threatens to break up the front and to destroy the revolution. The indecisive policy of the government is accelerating the crisis.

The front committee, having deliberated on the state of affairs in the army and the country, resolved:

1. That the war must be stopped as soon as possible by the energetic efforts of the international and the Russian democracies in accordance with the program of the Russian Revolution which proclaimed a peace without annexations or indemnities, and on the basis of the self-determination of nations.

2. That the Russian democracy must take resolute measures toward a speedy realization of peace. The measures are as follows:

a) To demand categorically from the Provisional Government that it bring up the question of peace at the Paris conference ...

b) To demand the issuing of passports to the socialists of the Allied countries in order that the Stockholm Socialist Conference may become a reality.

c) To impress upon the democracies of the world that any delay on their part in the struggle for peace threatens to destroy the Russian Revolution and bring about the triumph of international reaction, and that the responsibility for the future of the Russian Revolution now lies with the democracies of the world.

3. In internal affairs the Russian democracy must secure a guaranty that the land reform will be accomplished without fail and must see to it that a decree is published transferring all privately owned large land estates to the state to be handed over to the land committees. (Note: The Socialist Revolutionaries maintain that all lands having agricultural value should be handed over to the land committees. They insist that the Constituent Assembly be convened at the time set and that until then the government should be responsible to the organs of the revolutionary democracy; that the death penalty be abolished, the army completely democratized, and its size reduced as much as possible.)

At the same time the front committee is of the opinion that the All-Russian democracy should undertake every means to supply the army with all necessities ... since the demobilization can proceed only gradually.

To accomplish the above measures ... it is necessary: (a) to elect representatives to make reports to all front committees and to the Central Executive Committee with the purpose of organizing an extensive peace campaign; (b) to propose that the Provisional Government accept the demands of the front; (c) to send a delegation to the Pre-Parliament to announce ... the resolutions of the front; (d) to appeal to the army explaining the ways of conducting an organized struggle for peace ... (e) to appeal to the country to support the front in its struggle for peace and to supply the front with necessities.

Kozhevnikov
Chairman of Executive Committee of the Western Front

Source: James Bunyan and H.H. Fisher, ed., Bolshevik Revolution, 1917-1918; Documents and Materials (Stanford: Stanford University Press; H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1934), pp. 28-29.