For those who worked, the young Soviet State gave its citizens the right to vote and to stand for election at an earlier age than in any other country. The representatives that the people elected, if they proved unsatisfactory, were subject to recall by their electors. And, when elected, every representative of the people was bound, not only to participate in the making of decisions, but also in their execution. In addition, so as to draw into the work of administration a vast number of working people—far more than could actually be elected to membership of the Soviets—a system was early evolved by which working men and women, in their spare time, should represent their fellows in the various organs of State administration, national and local, and participate in their work.
The result is that, whether we take a local Soviet or the Central Executive Committee of the U.S.S.R., we find in its offices three categories of workers. First, elected members of the Soviet or Executive Committee, who are bound to participate in the work of one of the departments of the public authority to which they have been elected. Secondly, there are paid employees, appointed by, and responsible to, the elected body. And thirdly, voluntary workers, not bound by any law to do this work, but who have been elected in their trade union meetings to participate in the work of the Soviets, or of an Executive Committee.
I have, while working in the Soviet Union, participated in an election. I, too, had a right to vote, as I was a working member of the community, and nationality and citizenship is no bar to electoral rights. The procedure was extremely simple. A general meeting of all the workers in our organization was called by the trade union committee, candidates were discussed, and a vote was taken by show of hands. Anybody present had the right to propose a candidate, and the one who was elected was not personally a member of the Party. In considering the claims of the candidates their past activities were discussed, they themselves had to answer questions as to their qualifications, anybody could express an opinion, for or against them, and the basis of all the discussion was: What justification had the candidates to represent their comrades on the local Soviet?
As far as the elections in the villages were concerned, these took place at open village meetings, all peasants of voting age, other than those who employed labour, having the right to vote and to stand for election. As in the towns, any organization or individual could put forward candidates, anyone could ask the candidate questions, and anybody could support or oppose the candidature. It is usual for the Communist Party to put forward a candidate, trade unions and other organizations can also do so, and there is nothing to prevent the Party’s candidate from not being elected, if he has not sufficient prestige among the voters.
In the towns the “electoral district” has hitherto consisted of a factory, or a group of small factories sufficient to form a constituency. But there was one section of the town population which has always had to vote geographically, since they did not work together in one organization. This was the housewives. As a result, the housewives met separately in each district, had their own constituencies, and elected their own representatives to the Soviet. Here, too, vital interest has always been shown in the personality of every candidate. Why should this woman be elected? What right had she to represent her fellow housewives on the local Soviet? In the district next to my own at the last election the housewife who was elected was well known as an organizer of a communal dining-room in the district. This was the land of person that the housewives wanted to represent them on the Soviet. Another candidate, a Communist, proposed by the local organization of the Party, was turned down in her favour.
It will be clear from this description that a Soviet election has, up to the present, been a most simple and informal affair, for the purpose of sending forward the best representatives of the people to sit on the local and national organs of government. Organizations and individuals have both been able to put forward candidates, and in cases where the Communist Party has supported candidates they have not always necessarily been members of the Party itself, and, whether they have been members or not, there has never been any guarantee of their election, other than their desirability as candidates to a majority of those present at the meeting. If since November 1917 the Communist Party in the U.S.S.R. has continued to have its members as a majority of the delegates to the Congresses of Soviets, this is purely due to the fact that the Communist Party has put up for election those very people that the electors were likely to respect, and has not as a rule put up people whom the electors were likely to reject.
The election of delegates to the local Soviet is not the only function of voters in the Soviet Union, It is not a question here of various parties presenting candidates to the electorate, each with his own policy to offer. The Soviet electorate has to select a personality from its midst to represent it, and instruct this person in the policy which is to be followed when elected. At a Soviet election meeting, therefore, as much or more time may be spent on discussion of the instructions to the delegate as is spent on discussing the personality of the candidates.
At the last election to the Soviets, in which I personally participated, we must have spent three or four times as much time on the working out of instructions as we did on the selection of our candidate. About three weeks before the election was to take place the trade union secretary in every department of our organization was told by the committee that it was time to start to prepare our instructions to the delegate. Every worker was asked to make suggestions concerning policy which he felt should be brought to the notice of the new personnel of the Moscow Soviet. As a result, about forty proposals concerning the general government of Moscow were handed in from a group of about twenty people. We then held a meeting in our department at which we discussed the proposals, and adopted some and rejected others. We then handed our list of proposals to a commission, appointed by the trade union committee, and representing all the workers in our organization. This Commission coordinated the proposals received, placed them in order according to the various departments of the Soviet, and this coordinated list was read at the election meeting itself, again discussed, and adopted in its final form.
The proposals which were made were of an extremely practical character. For when we set out as citizens to make constructive proposals for our local authority to carry out, the general atmosphere of practicability is very much greater than it can ever possibly be in an election carried out on the basis of party antagonism, where each side will throw exorbitant challenges at the other, hoping to make electoral capital as a result, but having no illusions as to the ultimate practicability of the suggested policy.
To take a concrete example, let us compare the L.C.C. elections of March 1937 with the elections to the Moscow Soviet which took place in 1935, and in which I participated personally. In the former we notice that the Labour Party made great and justifiable play with the increase in housing construction since it came to power. On the other hand, the “moderate” and other candidates tended to centre their anti-Labour propaganda on the so-called “extravagance,” not of building so many more houses, but in spending in certain isolated cases of more on individual buildings than was necessary. In this way the issue was put to the electorate as: Labour—More Houses; Anti-Labour—Less Extravagance. The accusation of extravagance might quite well cause people who wanted more houses to vote “anti-Labour,” to discover afterwards that the real meaning of less extravagance was to cut down the housing program to what it had been before Labour was elected! And, in elections on a party basis, such a false contrasting of issues is bound to arise continuously, to the utter confusion of electors.
But let us return to the election in Moscow. Here we found no spectacular demands for more houses, since the Moscow Soviet was already building increasing numbers of houses each year. But we did have very strong comments suggesting that the new Soviet should be particularly careful not to build any more large blocks without having a universal store included, that hot water should always be laid on, and that in future the approach to new blocks should be completed together with the houses, instead of having an approach of mud for three months or more after the houses themselves were already inhabited. The question of housing was raised in the Moscow election as well as in the London one, but in the former it took the shape of citizens’ definite instructions; in the latter, it was a propaganda weapon which could easily be made a luxurious cloak for a policy that could not command support among the voters at all if it had been fully revealed.
Since, in the U.S.S.R., practically the whole of trade is now controlled by public authorities, a number of instructions dealt with the shops. Those who lived in outlying areas stated the sites where they felt that the Soviet should place shops in the immediate future, and so on. Then there was a question dealing with the manners of the militia! Several years ago the Moscow Soviet opened a series of enquiry bureaus scattered about the city. Since these were opened, several of us had found that the militia, instead of answering enquiries as to where various places were, would always refer the questioner to the nearest enquiry office. We recommended that this be stopped, and I am glad to find that before I left this had been done.
It is not only questions of local importance, however, which are discussed by Soviet citizens. The Central Executive Committee, in considering legislation of major importance, has often called conferences or congresses of those particularly concerned, for consultative purposes, before such legislation is adopted. Or, in cases where it is considered that the proposed legislation affects the personal interests of the whole population, then it may be submitted to the whole country for consideration.
As an example of the former, we may mention the model statutes for the collective farm, which were adopted in 1935. The Central Executive Committee, two years after the record harvest of 1933 had conclusively proved the effectiveness of collective farming, decided that the time had come when an official model set of statutes for the collective farms should be adopted. It therefore drew up a project, based on the experience of the most successful collectives. It then called the Congress of Collective Farm shock-workers. This meant that the collective farmers were asked to appoint their best shock-workers as delegates, and these elected delegates came to Moscow to discuss the new statutes. Then, after the congress had adopted what it considered the ideal statutes, the Central Executive Committee endorsed these statutes and they became law. In this way a new law was passed only after the fullest consultation with those whom it intimately affected.
Examples of the other procedure, of submitting laws to the whole population for discussion, are more frequent in the case of matters which relate to the personal lives of the population. Thus, between 1917 and 1920 there were conferences and discussions throughout Soviet Russia on the subject of abortion. Finally, in spite of considerable opposition, the law was passed, which has already been quoted, making abortion legal in State clinics. In 1925, when a number of changes were proposed in the marriage law, a discussion took place for a whole year before the law was altered. And again, in 1936, when the Government considered that the time had come when legal abortion was no longer justified by circumstances, there was a general discussion in factories and collective farms, and in the pages of the Press, before the altered law was finally adopted. Again, in 1936, after the Seventh Congress of Soviets had decided to bring up to date the Constitution of the U.S.S.R., a special committee elected at the Congress drew up the draft, and it was then submitted to the whole population for almost six months’ discussion before it was finally amended and ratified at the Eighth Congress. As a result of this discussion, and of the discussion in the Congresses of Soviets in each of the constituent republics, the final draft contained over forty amendments to that which had been originally submitted.
Just as, in the sphere of discussion, the elected authorities of the U.S.S.R. refer to the general public for their opinion, so, too, in the sphere of action, they draw into the administration of the State large numbers of ordinary citizens. The meetings of workers in the factories, and villagers in the country, not only elect their delegates to the Soviets, but also put forward thousands of voluntary workers who are then attached to the different sections of the Soviets. These form the third category mentioned at the beginning of this chapter—workers who voluntarily participate in the various administrative bodies, both local and national. Already, in discussing equality of opportunity, we pointed out how, in this way, many “amateur” administrators find their way into the State apparatus as permanent workers.
The work of every Soviet is divided into departments, such as health, housing, transport, industry, trade, education, and so on. In each of these sections there is ample scope for voluntary workers, as inspectors of existing conditions, to see that laws are enforced, and to report where improvements should be made and money should be spent. In Moscow alone, hundreds of volunteers do work for the housing department, inspecting dwellings and recommending improvements or demolition; finding suitable building sites; and discovering suitable positions for the creation of open spaces and playgrounds.
Workers for the health department organize campaigns against epidemics, and run meetings and lectures on all subjects of importance to health. Such workers may become professional lecturers if they show ability, thus joining the ever-growing health service of the U.S.S.R. In the case of the education department, section workers become acquainted with the work of the schools, get to know the children personally, and attend the meetings of teachers and of students. By going from school to school they are able to make suggestions for better work, on each occasion describing how the best school in each particular sphere organizes its activities. The experience of all such voluntary workers, reported back to the Soviet, is a basis for new legislation.
But voluntary work for the Soviets does not stop at such matters as health, housing, and education. The militia, the organization for preserving law and order, is also assisted by voluntary workers, usually young enthusiasts from the big factories. We may say, in fact, if the comparison is permissible, that the Soviet “Special” is the young man who, at a trade union meeting, is selected as one who is suited to do voluntary work in the department of the militia, dealing with cases of drunkenness, theft, or other disorders, when a uniformed militiaman is not in sight!
The work of volunteers in the Soviet State is not, however, limited to local government. It also extends upwards throughout the Soviet State, right to the offices of the Central Executive Committee itself. Here, for example, in the Complaints Bureau of the President, Kalinin, there work a number of volunteers from Moscow’s largest factories, sent there by their trade unions, and dealing with letters addressed to the President from all parts of the U.S.S.R. For the Soviet citizen not only has his Press to which to write, but also his President; and letters to Kalinin play an important part in exposing abuses by local authorities and the administration of factories when the complainant is unable locally to obtain redress.
It is only when the Soviet State is considered in detail, with its elected deputies, its voluntary workers, and its paid workers promoted according to merit from the rank and file of the population that we see how, in the words of Sir Bernard Pares, “Government and people are of the same stock.” This has happened because it is the people who have built up the Government of the U.S.S.R., republic by republic, institution by institution, as the demands of the welfare of the community have necessitated. The working people themselves participate in running the State; there are no longer, as the Webbs put it, “a Government and a people confronting each other.”