3 + 

Decrees + 

In the interest of the regular organisation of the national economy, of the thorough eradication of bank speculation and the complete emancipation of the workers, peasants, and the whole labouring population from the exploitation of banking capital, and with a view to the establishment of a single national bank of the Russian Republic which shall serve the real interests of the people and the poorer classes, the Central Executive Committee (Tsay-ee-kah) resolves: + 

The banking business is declared a state monopoly. + 

All existing private joint-stock banks and banking offices are merged in the State Bank. + 

The assets and liabilities of the liquidated establishments are taken over by the State Bank. + 

The order of the merger of private banks in the State Bank is to be determined by a special decree. + 

The temporary administration of the affairs of the private banks is entrusted to the board of the State Bank. + 

The interests of the small depositors will be safeguarded. + 

In realisation of the will of the revolutionary people regarding the prompt and decisive abolition of all remnants of former inequality in the Army, the Council of People’s Commissars decrees: + 

All ranks and grades in the Army, beginning with the rank of Corporal and ending with the rank of General, are abolished. The Army of the Russian Republic consists now of free and equal citizens, bearing the honourable title of Soldiers of the Revolutionary Army. + 

All privileges connected with the former ranks and grades, also all outward marks of distinction, are abolished. + 

All addressing by titles is abolished. + 

All decorations, orders, and other marks of distinction are abolished. + 

With the abolition of the rank of officer, all separate officers’ organisations are abolished. + 

Note.⁠—Orderlies are left only for headquarters, chanceries, Committees and other Army organisations. + 

The army serving the will of the toiling people is subject to its supreme representative⁠—the Council of People’s Commissars. + 

Full authority within the limits of military units and combinations is vested in the respective Soldiers’ Committees and Soviets. + 

Those phases of the life and activity of the troops which are already under the jurisdiction of the Committees are now formally placed in their direct control. Over such branches of activity which the Committees cannot assume, the control of the Soldiers’ Soviets is established. + 

The election of commanding Staff and officers is introduced. All commanders up to the commanders of regiments, inclusive, are elected by general suffrage of squads, platoons, companies, squadrons, batteries, divisions (artillery, 2⁠–⁠3 batteries), and regiments. All commanders higher than the commander of a regiment, and up to the Supreme Commander, inclusive, are elected by congresses or conferences of Committees. + 

The elected commanders above the rank of commander of regiment must be confirmed by the nearest Supreme Committee. + 

Note. In the event of a refusal by a Supreme Committee to confirm an elected commander, with a statement of reasons for such refusal, a commander elected by the lower Committee a second time must be confirmed. + 

The commanders of Armies are elected by Army congresses. Commanders of Fronts are elected by congresses of the respective Fronts. + 

To posts of a technical character, demanding special knowledge or other practical preparation, namely: doctors, engineers, technicians, telegraph and wireless operators, aviators, automobilists, etc., only such persons as possess the required special knowledge may be elected, by the Committees of the units of the respective services. + 

Chiefs of Staff must be chosen from among persons with special military training for that post. + 

All other members of the Staff are appointed by the Chief of Staff, and confirmed by the respective congresses. + 

Note.⁠—All persons with special training must be listed in a special list. + 

The right is reserved to retire from the service all commanders on active service who are not elected by the soldiers to any post, and who consequently are ranked as privates. + 

All other functions beside those pertaining to the command, with the exception of posts in the economic departments, are filled by appointment of the respective elected commanders. + 

Detailed instructions regarding the elections of the commanding Staff will be published separately. + 

All classes and class divisions, all class privileges and delimitations, all class organisations and institutions and all civil ranks are abolished. + 

All classes of society (nobles, merchants, petty bourgeois, etc.), and all titles (Prince, Count and others), and all denominations of civil rank (Privy State Councillor, and others), are abolished, and there is established the general denomination of Citizen of the Russian Republic. + 

The property and institutions of the classes of nobility are transferred to the corresponding autonomous Zemstvos. + 

The property of merchant and bourgeois organisations is transferred immediately to the Municipal Self-Governments. + 

All class institutions of any sort, with their property, their rules of procedure, and their archives, are transferred to the administration of the Municipalities and Zemstvos. + 

All articles of existing laws applying to these matters are herewith repealed. + 

The present decree becomes effective on the day it is published and applied by the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies. + 

The present decree has been confirmed by the Tsay-ee-kah at the meeting of November 23rd, 1917, and signed by: + 

On December 3rd the Council of People’s Commissars resolved “to reduce the salaries of functionaries and employees in all Government institutions and establishments, general or special, without exception.” + 

To begin with, the Council fixed the salary of a People’s Commissar at 500 rubles per month, with 100 rubles additional for each grown member of the family incapable of work.⁠ ⁠… + 

This was the highest salary paid to any Government official.⁠ ⁠… + 