4th All Russian Congress of Soviets

Fourth All-Russian Congress of Soviets. March 14-16, 1918

Verbatim report of the All-Russian IV Congress of Soviets, held on March 14-16, 1918 in Moscow. The ratification of the Brest Peace Treaty took place at the congress, and a decision was made to transfer the capital to Moscow.

According to the credentials committee, published in Izvestia VTsIK on March 17, 1918, it was present with a decisive vote 1204 delegates: 795 Bolsheviks, 284 "Left" Socialist-Revolutionaries, 14 anarchists, 3 Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionaries, 24 Maximalists, 29 Center Socialist-Revolutionaries, 11 Menshevik Internationalists, 6 United Mensheviks, 21 Mensheviks, 17 Non-Party People.

The most important item on the agenda of the congress was the question of ratifying the Brest Peace Treaty with the powers of the Quadruple Alliance. By a majority of 724 votes against 276 and with 118 abstentions, the congress on March 15 (2) approved the resolution written by Lenin and proposed by the Bolshevik faction on the ratification of the Brest Peace Treaty.

The decision of the congress marked the victory of Lenin's policy of peace. This victory was won by the party in a merciless struggle against the bourgeoisie and its agents in the person of the Mensheviks, right and "left" Socialist-Revolutionaries, as well as against anti-party groups - the Trotskyists, "left communists", who provoked the war against German imperialism, which was disastrous for Soviet Russia.

Lenin's tactics of winning a peaceful respite to strengthen the dictatorship of the proletariat and create a powerful armed forces of the republic in the person of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, brilliantly justified in the further course of historical events. In October-November 1918, the collapse of German imperialism followed as a result of its defeat on the fronts of the imperialist war and the rapid development of the revolution in Germany. On November 13, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a resolution annulling the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty,

The question of transferring the capital to Moscow came close to the Soviet government at the end of February 1918 in connection with the German offensive on February 18 (5), which threatened the nearest approaches to Petrograd. According to the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, all government agencies on March 11-12 (February 26-27) 1918 moved from Petrograd to Moscow. The extraordinary IV All-Russian Congress of Soviets approved by its resolution this government decision.