# The Land Revolution in Russia/Land Decree of November 8, 1917

LAND DECREE
Of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Delegates, of November 8, 1917.
1. The landowners' right of property in land is herewith abolished without compensation.
2. The landowners' estates as well as all the lands of the Imperial family, of the monasteries and of the Church, with all their live and inanimate stocks, manor buildings and all appurtenances are placed in the charge of the cantonal Land Committees and District Soviets of Peasants' Delegates pending the decision of the Constituent Assembly on the land question.
3. Any damage caused to the thus confiscated property, which henceforth belongs to the entire people, is hereby declared a grave. crime punishable by the revolutionary courts. The District Soviets of Peasants' Delegates shall take the necessary measures for carrying out the confiscation of the landowners' estates in a strictly orderly manner, for determining the maximum size and the kind of land plots which are to be confiscated, for drawing up an exact inventory of the entire property to be confiscated, and for the establishment of the strictest revolutionary control over all the property now passing into the hands of the people, including the buildings, implements and machinery, cattle, stores, etc.
4. The following Peasants' instruction, drawn up on the basis of 242 local peasants' instructions by the editorial committee of the Izvestia of the All-Russian Soviet of Peasants' Delegates and published in No. 88 (August 19th, 1919) of that paper, shall serve everywhere as a guidance for carrying out the great land reforms, pending the final decision on them of the Constituent Assembly,
5. The lands of the rank-and-file peasants and rank-and-file Cossacks are not subject to confiscation.
THE LAND INSTRUCTION OF THE PEASANTS.
The land problem in its entirety can only be solved by a popular Constituent Assembly. The most equitable solution of the land problem must proceed on the following lines:—
1. The right of private property in land is to be abolished for all time. The land shall not be bought, sold, leased or otherwise alienated. All lands, whether belonging to the State, the former Imperial family, the ex-Tsar, the monasteries, or the Church, whether copyhold, entailed, private, public or peasant, ​shall be taken over without compensation, turned into the property of the entire people, and placed at the disposal of all who till them for use. Those who have suffered by this revolution in the property relations shall only be entitled to public support for such time as may be needed for their adaptation to the new conditions of life.
2. All the wealth that is below the surface, such as ore, oil, coal, salt, etc., as well as forests and waters which have a national importance, shall be placed in the hands of the State for its exclusive use. All the smaller rivers, lakes, woods, etc., are placed at the disposal of the communes, provided they are managed by the local organs of self-government.
3. Landed plots of high cultural value, such as orchards, plantations, nurseries, seed plots, hot-houses, etc., shall not be broken up and divided, but shall be preserved as model farms under the exclusive management of the State or commune, as suits their size and importance. Lands under dwelling houses, urban and rural, with the gardens and vegetable gardens belonging to them, shall be left in the use of their present owners, the size of such lands and the amount of tax to be paid for their use being fixed by subsequent legislation.
4. Studs, cattle-breeding and poultry farms, whether belonging to the State or to private individuals, shall become the property of the entire people under the management of the State or commune, as suits their size and importance. The question of compensation in such cases is reserved for the Constituent Assembly.
5. The entire farm property to be confiscated, i.e., the live and dead stocks, shall be placed under the charge of the State or commune as the case may be, according to their size and importance, for their exclusive use, without any compensation. Peasants possessing insufficient amounts of land are not affected by the above provision regarding confiscating of farm properties.
6. The right to use the land shall be given to all citizens, regardless of sex, of the Russian State, who desire to work it by their own hands, that is, by the labour of their respective families or on co-operative principles, for such periods only as they are able to do so. Hired labour is not permissible. Should a member of a village community become disabled for a period not exceeding two years, the said village community shall, pending his recovery, assist him by arranging for the tillage of his land by means of public labour. Agriculturists who, through old age or permanent incapacity, should permanently cease to be able to work their lands, shall forfeit the right to use them, but shall receive a State pension instead.
​7. The lands shall be distributed among those who use them on the principle of equalisation, that is, on the basis, as determined by local conditions, of the normal units of labour or food. No restrictions shall be placed on the mode of land-tenure, the individual villages determining whether it should be by households, individuals, village communities, or co-operative organisations.
8. All lands, on their confiscation, form the land stock of the entire people, its distribution among the labouring classes being effected by the local and central organs of self-government, from the democratically organised non-class village and urban communities up to the central regional institutions. The land stock shall be periodically re-divided in accordance with the changes in the population and the growth of productivity and the improvement of agriculture, provided that the original allotment-nucleus remains intact. The lands of those who cease to be members of their respective communities shall revert to the common land stock, the nearest relations of the previous users or persons designated by them being entitled to preference in any new allotment of them. The value of permanent improvements as well as the cost of the fertilisers put in such lands shall be repaid in so far as they have not been used up during the reversion of the allotment to the land stock.
Should the local available land stock prove insufficient to satisfy the needs of the entire local population, the surplus population shall be transferred elsewhere. This transfer shall be carried out by the State, which shall also bear the cost of the operation and of the supply of live and dead stock, etc. The population is to be transferred in the following order:—Willing peasants who have no lands at all; undesirable members of the community, deserters and others of that kind; and those who agree to go voluntarily or are selected by lots.
All the above provisions in the INSTRUCTION, as being the expression of the absolute will of the overwhelming majority of thinking peasants throughout Russia, shall have the force of a provisional law and shall, pending the meeting of the Constituent Assembly, be carried out with as little delay as possible, and in some parts, with the inevitable graduation determined upon by the District Soviets of Peasants' Delegates.