# Second Congress of Soviets adopts the Decree on Peace

Date: 1917

## The fact

On 8 November 1917 N.S. the Second Congress of Soviets adopted the Decree on Peace, proposing an immediate armistice and a peace without annexations or indemnities. [Lenin](/people/vladimir-lenin) presented it. Talks with Germany followed.

Later speeches, cult, and measured outcomes are not mixed into this Fact.

## Context

Soldiers were already deserting. The decree is a political appeal, not a signed armistice. Brest-Litovsk in March 1918 is the costly settlement Fact.

Shared responsibility with other offices is part of the record. Sharing is not a reason to drop this person's documented role, and it is not a reason to treat every later consequence as their handwriting.

## Evidence and sources

The decree is official. Britannica independently dates it. German-Soviet talks are in diplomatic series.

Official or archival record: Lenin, Decree on Peace, 26 October 1917 (https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/oct/25-26/26b.htm; Marxists Internet Archive / Congress decree reprint). Later commission estimates are attributed to those commissions.

## Significance

Improving path onto reduced World War intensity for Russia, medium confidence because a punitive separate peace followed.

## What is established and what is not

Established: the Decree on Peace was adopted 8 November 1917 N.S. Not established: that it was a just peace or that it bound Germany without Brest.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original protocol with a different date or signatory; a demonstrated forgery; or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of war, weather, or unauthorized local action.

The documentary limit is the same for every instrument in this dossier. Central files can show that an order was issued; they cannot reconstruct every locality's implementation. Memoir and literary evidence is independent texture, never the sole causal source. Official statistics of the period are treated as claims with known incentives. Later archival openings and museum publications are independent or successor-state records. They do not convert this Fact into a personality score and do not cancel the original instrument. The contribution is direct where this person signed, chaired, or issued the act, and remains bounded by other offices that had to act. Readers who want the welfare path should open the named driver rather than treating a portrait as the mechanism.

The documentary limit is the same for every instrument in this dossier. Central files can show that an order was issued; they cannot reconstruct every locality's implementation. Memoir and literary evidence is independent texture, never the sole causal source. Official statistics of the period are treated as claims with known incentives. Later archival openings and museum publications are independent or successor-state records. They do not convert this Fact into a personality score and do not cancel the original instrument. The contribution is direct where this person signed, chaired, or issued the act, and remains bounded by other offices that had to act. Readers who want the welfare path should open the named driver rather than treating a portrait as the mechanism.

The documentary limit is the same for every instrument in this dossier. Central files can show that an order was issued; they cannot reconstruct every locality's implementation. Memoir and literary evidence is independent texture, never the sole causal source. Official statistics of the period are treated as claims with known incentives. Later archival openings and museum publications are independent or successor-state records. They do not convert this Fact into a personality score and do not cancel the original instrument. The contribution is direct where this person signed, chaired, or issued the act, and remains bounded by other offices that had to act. Readers who want the welfare path should open the named driver rather than treating a portrait as the mechanism.

The documentary limit is the same for every instrument in this dossier. Central files can show that an order was issued; they cannot reconstruct every locality's implementation. Memoir and literary evidence is independent texture, never the sole causal source. Official statistics of the period are treated as claims with known incentives. Later archival openings and museum publications are independent or successor-state records. They do not convert this Fact into a personality score and do not cancel the original instrument. The contribution is direct where this person signed, chaired, or issued the act, and remains bounded by other offices that had to act. Readers who want the welfare path should open the named driver rather than treating a portrait as the mechanism.

## People

- Vladimir Lenin: https://factrail.ai/people/vladimir-lenin

## Drivers

- Armed-Conflict Intensity: https://factrail.ai/drivers/sec-armed-conflict-intensity

## Sources

- https://www.britannica.com/event/Decree-on-Peace
- https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/oct/25-26/26b.htm

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/ru-decree-on-peace-1917