 Militantly atheist, Lenin and the Communist Party wanted to demolish organised religion, and in January 1918 the government decreed the separation of church and state and prohibited religious instruction in schools.In November 1917, Lenin issued the Decree on Workers' Control, which called on the workers of each enterprise to establish an elected committee to monitor their enterprise's management.That month they also issued an order requisitioning the country's gold, and nationalised the banks, which Lenin saw as a major step toward socialism.