Lenin approves the idea to adopt the 1918 rsfsr co

Lenin approves the idea to adopt the 1918 RSFSR Constitution. A story.


Vladimir Lenin, Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, looked at people's commissars. He announced the agenda of the meeting of the Soviet Government. He asked those gathered:

- Comrades, do you all agree with the proposed agenda? Will there be any proposals on the agenda?

The People's Commissar of Justice (the member of a Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party) Isaac Steinberg stood up.:

- I propose to include the issue "On the adoption of the Constitution" in the agenda.

Lenin looked at Steinberg with disbelief:

- Constitutions are needed to ensure that the state apparatus is under the control of the bourgeoisie and of other exploiting classes! What is the meaning of your suggestion?

- Comrades! – Steinberg addressed the people's commissars, - We must hold the revolutionary initiative in our hands. Who should we be guided by? By the Provisional Government, which proclaimed the "Russian Republic" [September 1 (14), 1917]? Perhaps by the Constituent Assembly? Traditionally, any modern state has a constitution. We must show that our power stands on solid legal grounds.

- We will return to your proposal at the end of our meeting, - Lenin announced.

The issues of agenda were considered one by one. Meanwhile, Lenin was reflecting on Steinberg's proposal:

"The Constitution restricts the state apparatus with certain rules. Why do we, the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat, need a constitution?.. A dictatorship shows it's activity in accordance to the will of unlimited violence, not according to the rules of laws.…

At the same time, it is a good idea to leave behind, in past, both the Provisional Government with his "Russian Republic" and the Constituent Assembly with her political mythology.…

Indeed, it is not convenient: "To form a provisional workers' and peasants' government to govern the country; this government will be named the Council of People's Commissars" [Decree of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies "On the establishment of the Council of People's Commissars". Published on October 26, 1917.] And which "country" is this? What is the name of this "country"? Will we use the name, set by the Provisional Government?

Ilya Nikolaevich [Lenin’s father], when we were boating along the Volga River, sang "Oh, dubinushka, let's do it [let’s hit]!" [dubinushka - a huge and thick stick that can be used as a weapon] and he talked about a free life in the Astrakhan steppes, about the uprising of Yemelyan Pugachev. In the Astrakhan steppes, life was fine - without any constitution. The people, ordinary people, all supported Peter the Third [Peter the Third - Yemelyan Pugachev's self-name] - without any laws or any constitutions. They hanged all the objectionable people without much thought, and they took the property (of those hanged) for themselves.…

Few people will read this constitution. We need to come up with some kind of name: more intricate, so that it looks like a kitayskaya gramota [kitayskaya gramota - mysterious, incomprehensible words, text]. Who understands what the "RSDWP" [Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party] is? - This name, these letters ["RSDWP"] sounds clever, but everyone uses the simple word "Bolsheviks"…

This is advisable: to create something like another Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People, to name this text a "Constitution"! To include in this "Constitution" the principles of "dictatorship" and of the defeat, suppression, restriction of the rights of the broad masses of the population …

Such action won't hurt us, - on the contrary: we have a "Constitution", we are civilized people – in the European sense...".

Lenin wrote on a piece of paper: "To approve Steinberg's proposal about the Constitution, to submit a draft Constitution for a further revision." The paper was handed over to the participants of the meeting for review, and this piece of paper soon returned to Lenin with handwritten inscriptions "I agree", "I support", "to study this issue deeply" and with similar opinions.

The meeting of the Council of People's Commissars has come to a finish.

- Comrades! – Lenin addressed the participants of the meeting, - we have no fundamental objections to comrade Steinberg's idea concerning Constitution; I propose to instruct the People's Commissariats for Internal Affairs, for Justice and for Public Education (with the involvement of other People's commissariats) to submit a draft Constitution of the country. Who is "against"? No one is "against". Accepted. Today's meeting of the Council of People's Commissars is declared over!

Lenin went to his Kremlin apartment. There was a glass of tea on the table. Lenin sat down at the table. "It was nice to remember a boating along the Volga River. "Oh, dubinushka, let's do it [let’s hit]!". We will adopt a new Constitution... the ruthless suppression of exploiters ... the destruction of the parasitic strata of society ... the establishment of a dictatorship ... of the urban and rural proletariat and of the poorest peasantry ..."

[Explanation: RSFSR - Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]


August 27, 2025 08:46 (08:46 a.m.)


Translation from Russian into English: August 28, 2025 12:56
Владимир Владимирович Залесский “ Ленин одобряет идею принятия Конституции РСФСР 1918 года. Рассказ. ”


{3721. Ленин одобряет идею принятия Конституции РСФСР 1918 года. Рассказ. - 27 августа 2025 г.
MMMDCXCII. Lenin approves the idea to adopt the 1918 RSFSR Constitution. A story. - August 27, 2025.

Vladimir Zalessky Internet-bibliotheca. Интернет-библиотека Владимира Залесского}