Soviet Order No 1, March 15th 1917

To the garrison of the Petrograd Military District, to all soldiers of the guard, army, artillery and fleet for immediate and exact executiob, and to all workers of Petrograd for their information.

The Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies has decreed:

1        Committees are to be elected immediately in all companies, battalions, regiments, parks, batteries, squadrons, and individual units of the different forms of military directorates, and in all naval vessels, from the elected representatives of the rank and file of the above-mentioned units.

2        All troop units which have not yet elected their representatives to the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies are to elect one representative per company. Such representatives are to appear, with written confirmation, at the state Duma building at 10 am on March 2^nd.

3        In all political actions, troop units are subordinate to the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies and to the committees thereof.

4        The orders of the Military Commission of the State Duma are to be obeyed, with the exception of those instances in which they contradict the orders and decrees of the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies.

5        All types of arms, such as rifles, machine guns, armoured cars and others, must be at the disposal of company and batallion committees and under their control, and are not, in any case, to be issued to officers, even upon command.

6        On duty and in the performance of service responsibilities, soldiers must observe the strictest military discipline, but when off duty, in their political, civil and private lives, soldiers shall enjoy fully and completely the same rights as all citizens. In particular standing at attention and compulsory saluting when off-duty are abolished.

7        In the same way, addressing officers by honoury titles (‘Your Excellency’, ‘Your Honour’ etc) is abolished and is replaced bythe following form of address: ‘Mr General’, ‘Mr Colonel’ etc.

          Addressing soldiers rudely by anyone of higher rank and in particular addressing soldiers by ‘ty’ (thou) is prohibited and any breach of this provision, as well as any misunderstandings between officers and soldiers, are to be reported by the latter to the company committee.

Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies