Written: December 29, 1917/January 11, 1918
First Published: Sobranie Uzakonenii i Rasporiazhenii Rabochego i Krestianskogo Pravitelstva, 1917, No. 9, pp. 141-42.
Source: James Bunyan and H.H. Fisher, The Bolshevik revolution, 1917-1918: Documents and materials, Stanford University Press; London: H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1934, pp. 292-293.
Translated: Emanuel Aronsberg
Transcription/Markup: Zdravko Saveski
Online Version: marxists.org 2017
From the moment of the publication of this decree all arrests, searches, seizure of documents, and other actions of investigation are to be carried on according to the order of the following institutions:
(1) The Committee of Inquiry of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies.
(2) The organs of inquiry of the regional Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies.
(3) The Revolutionary Tribunals of all newly organized judicial offices.
(4) Special Committees of Inquiry: (a) All-Russian Commission to Fight Counter-Revolution and Sabotage, attached to the Soviet of People's Commissars. (b) The Committee to Fight Pogroms attached to the Central Executive Committee of Soviets of Workers, Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies.
All complaints dealing with wrong actions and mistakes made by the above commissions are to be directed to the institutions which control these commissions and also to the People's Commissariat of Justice.
I. STEINBERG
People's Commissariat of Justice