Stalin responds to mensheviks on "freedom of press"

About Stalin's speech at a meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on the issue of those arrested and freedom of the press

11/06/1917

[SPEECH AT THE MEETING OF THE ALL-RUSSIAN CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE SR and S.D. November 6, 1917

Comrade Stalin makes an addition to Karelin’s message : the Mensheviks demanded the release of all those arrested and freedom not only for the socialist, but also for the bourgeois press.

In view of this, Comrade Stalin proposes the adoption of the following resolution:

Having heard the report of the commission, the CEC decides:

The prerequisites for negotiating an agreement set forth at a meeting of the conciliation commission by Abramovich and repeated in yesterday’s issue of Rabochaya Gazeta , namely, the release of all those arrested on political affairs without exception, and freedom of the press (the whole press) are unacceptable.

The CEC considers it necessary, however, to continue negotiations on the basis of the CEC resolutions on the agreement without additional preconditions.

RGASPI. F. 558. Op. 11. D. 937. L. 6. Published according to the text of the protocols. Typographic galley.

Published: Minutes of meetings of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers, Soldiers, Peasants and Cossack Deputies of the second convocation. M., 1918.