Third Congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', Peasants', and Cossacks' Deputies
Resolution on Nationalities


Written: January 15/28, 1918
First Published: Tretii Vserossiiskii Sezd Sovetov Rabochikh, Soldatskikh i Krestianskikh Deputatov, Petrograd, 1918, 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. 397.
Translated: Emanuel Aronsberg
Transcription/Markup: Zdravko Saveski
Online Version: marxists.org 2017


The All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies whole-heartedly approves the policy of the People's Commissars in regard to nationalities based on the principle of self-determination of nations in the sense of self-determination of the toiling masses of all nationalities living in Russia. The Congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies confirms, in particular, the decrees passed by the Sovnarkom and the C.E.C. in regard to Finland and Armenia.

The Congress expresses its firm conviction that all subsequent steps taken by the Soviet Government in this field will help to transform the former Russian Empire, which kept the different nationalities within its borders by means of oppression and force, into a brotherly union of Russian Soviet Republics freely united on federative principles.