The Government proposes to all the governments and to the peoples of
all the belligerent countries to conclude an immediate armistice, at
the same time suggesting that the armistice ought to last three
months, during which time it is perfectly possible, not only to hold
the necessary pourparlers between the representatives of all the
nations and nationalities without exception drawn into the war or
forced to take part in it, but also to convoke authorised assemblies
of representatives of the people of all countries, for the purpose
of the definite acceptance of the conditions of peace.
In addressing this offer of peace to the Governments and to the
peoples of all the belligerent countries, the Provisional Workers'
and Peasants' Government of Russia addresses equally and in
particular the conscious workers of the three nations most devoted
to humanity and the three most important nations among those taking
part in the present war-England, France, and Germany. The workers of
these countries have rendered the greatest services to the cause of
progress and of Socialism. The splendid examples of the Chartist
movement in England, the series of revolutions, of world-wide
historical significance, accomplished by the French proletariat-and
finally, in Germany, the historic struggle against the Laws of
Exception, an example for the workers of the whole world of
prolonged and stubborn action, and the creation of the formidable
organisations of German proletarians-all these models of proletarian
heroism, these monuments of history, are for us a sure guarantee
that the workers of these countries will understand the duty imposed
upon them to liberate humanity from the horrors and consequences of
war; and that these workers, by decisive, energetic and continued
action, will help us to bring to a successful conclusion the cause
of peace-and at the same time, the cause of the liberation of the
exploited working masses from all slavery and all exploitation.
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