page 219

March 30, 1918

    The decree on Soviet tribunals is in my opinion quite wrong and requires radical revision.

    It is incorrect to annul the decree on press tribunals without a preliminary summary (and discussion) of the results of their work.

    It is incorrect to establish the post of a one-man "tribune" outside the Collegium of the Commissariat for Justice. The result is something like the worst precedents of a "Prosecutor-General".

    Instead of devoting attention to reforms of institutions, to petty or almost verbal reforms ("tribune"), attention should be directed to the practical results of the work of the Collegium for Justice in setting up a really revolutionary court that is rapid and mercilessly severe in dealing with counter-revolutionaries, hooligans, idlers and disorganisers.

Lenin  

    The Council of People's Commissars instructs the Commissariat for Justice to revise the draft decree on tribunals in the direction of abolishing the one-man power of the

 
page 220

"tribune" and laying chief stress not on petty alterations of the institutions set up since October 1917, but on the practical results to be achieved by setting up courts that will act really swiftly and with revolutionary ruthlessness against counter-revolutionaries, bribe-takers, disorganisers and violators of discipline.

    The final draft is to be published and submitted to the C.E.C.

page 578

  [89] The first draft of the Decree on Revolutionary Tribunals was submitted by the People's Commissariat for Justice on March 30, 1918 for approval by the Council of People's Commissars. When it was discussed by the Council a decision (document "B") proposed by Lenin, stating that it should be radically revised, was accepted. The draft was revised on the basis of Lenin's instructions, approved at a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars on May 4, 1918 and published on May 17, 1918.    [p. 219]