Document 8
proclaiming the new socialist government, november 1917
comrades, the workers’ and peasants’ revolution, about the necessity of which the bolsheviks
have always spoken, has been accomplished.
what is the significance of this workers’ and peasants’ revolution? its significance is, first of all,
that we shall have a soviet government, our own organ of power, in which the bourgeoisie will
have no share whatsoever. the oppressed masses will themselves create a power. the old state
apparatus will be shattered to its foundations and a new administrative apparatus set up in the
form of the soviet organisations.
from now on, a new phase in the history of russia begins, and this, the third russian
revolution, should in the end lead to the victory of socialism. .
within russia a huge section of the peasantry have said that they have played long enough with
the capitalists, and will now march with the workers. a single decree putting an end to landed
proprietorship will win us the confidence of the peasants. the peasants will understand that the
salvation of the peasantry lies only in an alliance with the workers. we shall institute genuine
workers’ control over production. .
we must now set about building a proletarian socialist state in russia. .
source: v. i. lenin, collected works, volume 26, progress publishers
according to v. i. lenin, what is one goal of the bolshevik revolution?