Lenin's first decrees: peace and land
Within hours of taking power, the Bolsheviks promise to end the war and hand peasants the landlords' estates.
Quick facts
- Date
- 8 November 1917 (26 October O.S.)
- Adopted by
- Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets
- Author
- Vladimir Lenin
What happened
On 26 October 1917 by the old calendar (8 November modern), the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, meeting at the Smolny Institute the night the Winter Palace fell, adopted the first two decrees of the new Soviet government, both proposed by Lenin. The Decree on Peace called for an immediate end to the world war and a peace without annexations or indemnities. The Decree on Land abolished private ownership of landlord, church, and crown estates without compensation and handed the land to peasant committees for redistribution, with plots sized to what a family could work without hired labor. World History Encyclopedia notes decrees kept coming within 24 hours of the takeover, including an eight-hour working day and worker control of production.
Why it matters
These first decrees delivered on the Bolshevik slogan of "Peace, Land, and Bread" almost immediately, giving the new government a claim to legitimacy with soldiers exhausted by war and peasants hungry for land, even before it had consolidated any real control over the country. The Decree on Land effectively endorsed a peasant land seizure already underway across rural Russia rather than creating one.
How we know
World History Encyclopedia and the Marx Memorial Library's project on the Russian Revolution both document the decrees' adoption the night the Congress of Soviets opened at Smolny.
Sources
- Marx Memorial Library. Decree on Peace, October 27th 1917 · General sourcemarx-memorial-library.org.uk · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- World History Encyclopedia. Bolshevik Revolution: When Russia Became a Socialist State in 1917 · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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