478 THE CLASS STRUGGLE RECONSTRUCTION IN RUSSIA 479 27. In case the organization provided for in paragraph 25 should not accomplish, within a period of one month, the establishment of Unemployment Funds, such shall be established by order of the Labor Commissaires.
28. Infractions of the above shall be punished by a sentence of one year imprisonment.
AGRARIAN MEASURES Decree on confiscation and nationalization of land, adopted by the All Russian Congress of Soviets, November 8, 1917. The landlord property in all land is herewith abolished without compensation. The estates of the landlords, as well as the appanage lands and lands belonging to the monasteries, churches, with all their live and dead inventories, manor buildings, and implements, pass into the control of rural Land Committees and District Councils of Peasants Delegates, until the Constituent Assembly. Any damage wilfully caused to the confiscated property, belonging from now on to the whole people, constitutes a grave crime, punishable by the Revolutionary Tribunals. The District Councils of Peasants Delegates are to take all the measures required for the preservation of strict order while carrying out the confiscation of the estates of the landlords, for recording the size of the estates to be confiscated, for preparing a detailed specification of the whole confiscated property, and for the most stringent revolutionary protection of all the agricultural estates passing now into the hands of the people, with all the buildings, machinery, cattle, stores, etc. appertaining to them. Until the Constituent Assembly will have finally decided the lines of the great land reform, the following instructions, embodying 242 resolutions of a meeting of peasants, and drafted by the Editorial Committee of the Bulletins of the All Russian Council of Peasants Delegates, shall serve for the guidance of the authorities carrying out the work at present. The land question in its entirety can be solved only by the Constituent Assembly. The most just solution of the land question must be as follows. The right of private ownership in land is abolished forever; land can neither be sold, nor bought, nor leased, nor mortgaged, nor appropriated in any other way. The whole of the land of the State, of the appanages, of the Crown, of the monasteries, of the churches, as well as majorats, lands in conditional possession, or endowed to persons, or concerns, privately owned land and land belonging to public bodies, and to peasants, and so on, is herewith expropriated without any compensation whatever, and it becomes the property of the whole people and is transferred for use to all who till it. Those who have suffered from this expropriation are entitled to public relief, but only for the time which may be necessary to allow them to adapt themselves to the new conditions of existence. All the interior of the earth, ores, naphta, coal, salt, etc. as well as forests and waterways, having an all national importance, pass into the exclusive possession of the State. Small rivers, lakes, and forests, pass into the possession of the local communities, subject to the control of the local authorities. Highly cultivated estates, orchards, plantations, nurseries, hothouses, etc. are not to be subjected to division, but are to remain as model estates, and they pass into the possession either of the State or of the local communities, in accordance with their size and importance. Land appertaining to manor houses, or belonging to towns, or villages, as well as orchards and market gardens appertaining to households, remain in the possession of their present owners, the size of such land and the rate of the tax to be paid by the owners for their use to be fixed by law. All kinds of breeding stations, of horses, cattle, poultry, etc. whether belonging to the Crown or to private persons, are confiscated and they become the property of the whole people and pass either into the exclusive possession of the State, or of the communities in accordance with their size and importance. The question of compensation to be decided by the Constituent Assembly. The whole of the inventory of the confiscated estates, both live and dead, passes into the exclusive possession of the State or the local communities, in accordance with their size or importaņce. The confiscation of the inventory is not extended to small peasants. All Russian citizens, irrespective of sex, willing to till the soil with their own labor, or with the assistance of their families, or in company with other peasants, are entitled to receive land for use, and for the daration of time they are able to till it. No hired labor is allowed. In case of any member of the village community becoming an invalid the community must come to his assistance, by cultivating his land till the time of his recovery, but not longer than during two years.
Persons, who, either from old age or illness, have lost the ability to till the soil, lose their right to use land and receive instead a pension from the State.