Decree on Peace
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The first decree of Soviet power, drafted by Lenin and adopted unanimously by the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets on 8 November [O.S. 26 October] 1917, immediately after the October Revolution. It appealed to all belligerent governments and peoples for an immediate democratic peace without annexations or indemnities, and proclaimed the abolition of secret diplomacy with the full publication of the Tsarist secret treaties. The decree's dual address, to governments and to peoples, embodied the Bolshevik conception of turning the imperialist world war into a European-wide revolution, though in practice it led to the separate peace of Brest-Litovsk with Germany and inspired Wilson's Fourteen Points.
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Sources
- Marxists Internet Archive Full text of the Decree on Peace as presented by Lenin to the Second Congress of Soviets
- encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net Siobhan Peeling, 'Decree on Peace', 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War: scholarly analysis of the decree's background, immediate impact, and aftermath
- Wikipedia (EN) Core facts: adoption date, key provisions (no annexations, no indemnities, abolition of secret diplomacy), relationship to Brest-Litovsk and Wilson's Fourteen Points