Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies
Decree on Abolishment of Capital Punishment


Written: October 26/November 8, 1917
First Published: Vtoroi Vserossiiskii Sezd Sovetov R. i S.D., p. 94.
Source: James Bunyan and H.H. Fisher, The Bolshevik revolution, 1917-1918: Documents and materials, Stanford University Press; London: H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1934, p. 124.
Translated: Emanuel Aronsberg
Transcription/Markup: Zdravko Saveski
Online Version: marxists.org 2017


Capital punishment, restored by Kerensky on the front, is hereby abolished.

Fullest freedom of agitation on the front is restored. All soldiers and revolutionary officers who are now under arrest charged with a so-called "political crime" are to be released immediately.