Resolution adopted by the Fifth Congress of Soviets on the question of war and peace
presented by Comrade Trotsky
The Fifth All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Workers’, Peasants’, Red Army Men’s and Cossacks’ Deputies, having heard an emergency statement by the People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, has resolved:
Power to decide questions of peace and war lies exclusively with the All-Russia Congress of Soviets and the organs of central Soviet power established by it – the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People’s Commissars.
No group of the population will presume, independently of the All-Russia Soviet power, to take it upon itself to decide the question of armistice or offensive. All units of the Red Army are obliged, where these matters are concerned, most strictly to subordinate themselves to the decisions of the central Soviet power and the commissars and commanders appointed by it.
The All-Russia Congress of Soviets warns all workers and peasants, all soldiers of the Red Army, against the activity of hired provocateurs – agents of foreign imperialism who are trying, in a variety of ways, by violence, lies, provocation and deceit to draw the Soviet Republic into the imperialist slaughter.
The All-Russia Congress of Soviets entrusts the People’s Commissar for Military Affairs with the responsibility, acting through the organs subordinate to him, for purging all Red Army units of provocateurs and hirelings of imperialism, with out shrinking from the most decisive measures.
The All-Russia Congress of Soviets charges all Soviets in the front zone with the responsibility of thoroughly investigating all the sinister individuals who, sometimes hidden behind various Party names, have gone to the Ukrainian front in order to agitate for an immediate offensive. Such agitators must be arrested and punished in accordance with martial law.
The All-Russia Congress of Soviets charges its Presidium with the duty of immediately sending to Kursk-Lgov an extraordinary commission armed with unlimited powers to put down provocation and establish firm revolutionary order.
The well-being of the Soviet Republic is the highest law. Whoever sets himself against this law must be wiped off the face of the earth.
