V. I. Lenin

On The Opening Of The Constituent Assembly


Written: 19 December, 1917
First Published: 19 December, 1917 in Pravda No. 207
Source: Lenin’s Collected Works, Progress Publishers, Moscow, Volume 26, 1972, pp. 367
Translated: Yuri Sdobnikov and George Hanna, Edited by George Hanna
Transcription & HTML Markup: Charles Farrell and David Walters
Online Version: Lenin Internet Archive November, 2000


In view of the delay in the elections to the Constituent Assembly, mainly due to the fault of the former All-Russia Electoral Commission, and in view of the formation by counter-revolutionary groups of a special Constituent Assembly Commission in opposition to the Commissariat set up by Soviet power, rumours have been circulated that the Constituent Assembly, as at present constituted, would not be convened at all. The Council of People’s Commissars deems it necessary to declare that these are absolutely false rumours, deliberately and maliciously spread by the enemies of the Soviets of Peasants’, Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. According to the decree of the Council of People’s Commissars, which has been approved by the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets, the Constituent Assembly is to meet as soon as one-half of its members, namely 400 deputies, are duly registered at the Taurida Palace chancellory.

Vl. Ulyanov (Lenin),
Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars