Soviet Democracy

Pat Sloan

CHAPTER IX
WHAT ARE SOVIETS?

We have now reached a point where the fact that a new life is developing in the U.S.S.R. for the vast majority of the people is already established. The Soviet Union is a country where every citizen, irrespective of sex or nationality, has an opportunity to develop his abilities to the full, and, having developed them, to utilize them in the interests of society. Every citizen has an opportunity to participate in the economic, social, and political life of the country, not only as a subordinate, but as a responsible person. Personal initiative in everything that benefits society is encouraged. The trade unions and the co-operatives exist on a scale, and have powers, unknown elsewhere; though in the case of the latter the fact that the community itself bears now the main features of a co-operative commonwealth makes the organization of co-operative societies as such no longer a matter of principle, but one of expediency. The Press is owned and controlled by the organizations of the people, from the collective farm, or factory trade union committee to the Government itself and the General Council of Trade Unions. Women play an equal part with men in economic, social, and political life, and are compensated in so far as they suffer disabilities due to their natural function of bearing children. All these are features of the new life that is growing up in the Soviet Union. And this new life has grown up within the framework of a new kind of State, without which it could not have developed at all. This is the Soviet State, and, in order fully to understand the new life of the U.S.S.R., we must also understand something about this new State framework within which it has been created.

For the origin of the word “Soviet” in its present-day sense we must go back to the year 1905. Until that time the word “soviet” was used frequently in Russian to denote any kind of “council.” A “council of war” or a “council of ministers” were both “soviets,” and there were many other kinds of councils for which this word was used. Early in the year 1905 the workers of the textile town of Ivanovo-Vosnesensk set up a committee to co-ordinate strike action and to force the employers to bargain collectively. This committee consisted of delegates elected by show of hands at general meetings of the workers in the various factories of that town.

As the year 1905 went on, and the workers all over Russia were striking and demonstrating for better conditions, they copied the example of Ivanovo, and set up their own delegate committees or councils in their towns to lead the struggle. These councils came to be known as Soviets of Workers’ Delegates. In each case they consisted of elected delegates from the workers in the factories, led the struggle against the employers by organizing strikes, and put forward political demands for freedom of speech, the Press, and assembly. They were fighting organizations, led demonstrations, and in certain cases actually seized complete municipal power and passed laws to the disadvantage of the employers in their territory. They became a new form of municipal authority, passing decrees in the exclusive interests of the working people, the majority of the town dwellers.

But the Revolution of 1905 was suppressed. For more than ten years the working-class movement of Russia had no legal opportunity to express itself. Only towards the end of 1916 and the beginning of 1917, with the growing disgust at the way in which the Tsarist Government was conducting the war, the workers, peasants, and soldiers, together with many of the employers and even the allied Governments, began to express open opposition to the Government of the Tsar.

In February 1917 the Tsar abdicated and a new Government was set up by the employers. Side by side with this “Provisional Government” the workers of Petrograd once more organized a Soviet, and their example was followed in other cities. So great was the activity of the working-class movement at this time that the Provisional Government was forced to respect the existence of the Soviets and did not dare to try to suppress them.

In 1917, unlike 1905, the setting up of Soviets was not confined to the workers in the towns. In the villages the peasants elected their own councils, or Soviets, through which they demanded the immediate confiscation of the landed estates and their division among the peasantry. And in the army the soldiers in the ranks elected their own committees, in certain cases arrested their officers, and proceeded to govern themselves.

In this way, between February and October 1917, there were set up by the people of Russia—by the workers, peasants, and soldiers—a vast network of elected councils or committees, called Soviets, which led their struggle for better conditions of life.

So powerful were these Soviets that the Government itself was obliged to grant many of their demands. For example, on the very day that the Provisional Government came into existence, the Petrograd Soviet issued an order stating that committees of the ranks in the army should be set up everywhere, and that they were to elect representatives to the Soviet. In this way the elected representatives of workers and soldiers combined their political activities. “In all matters of policy,” said this order, “the military should submit to the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies and to their own committees.” The Government agreed to this order of the Soviet.

At the end of March 1917 a conference was held in Petrograd, attended by over 400 delegates from local Soviets throughout the country. It was decided that an All-Russian Congress should be called in the near future, and the elected Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, together with ten delegates elected at the conference, was made responsible for the calling of this Congress.

It was as a result of this decision that in June 1917 an All-Russian Congress of Soviets was held, at which there were nearly 800 delegates from Workers’ and Soldiers’ Soviets all over Russia. The Congress elected an Executive Committee to co-ordinate and lead the work of the Soviets until the next Congress.

Now let us pause a moment and examine what had happened in Russia during this short period of five months, A Completely new form of organization had come into being, covering the whole country and representing the working people, the peasants, and the soldiers— the vast majority of the population.

In its structure this network of Soviets bore a striking resemblance to democratic working-class organizations all over the world. Locally, there were the directly elected Soviets. Nationally, the supreme authority was a Congress of delegates from all the local Soviets. And to co-ordinate the work of these Soviets between Congresses, and to carry out its general instructions, the Congress elected an Executive Committee.

The Soviets had developed in a period of a few months into a nation-wide organization. The structure of this organization was like that of working-class organizations all over the world. There were local elected committees, which sent delegates to Congresses, and the Congress elected an Executive Committee to lead the organization between Congresses.

But this Soviet system was broader than the usual working-class organization in one very important respect. It not only represented the industrial workers: it represented both the industrial workers and the soldiers. And, at the same time, the peasants in the villages were electing their own delegates to Soviets of peasants. In this way the new Soviet organization embraced practically the whole of the people of the country; only the landlords, employers of labour, high officials of the Government, and people associated with these categories, did not take part in their activity.

Between June 1917, when the first Congress of Soviets met in Petrograd, and October 1917, the Provisional Government of Russia continued to carry on the war. But the people became increasingly opposed to its continuation, and the demand for peace was more and more put forward at the election of delegates to the Soviets.

At the same time the Government was becoming increasingly disturbed at the growing demands of the people, and at the political activity of the workers and peasants. This resulted in a danger that, as soon as it was in a position to do so, the Government might impose a military dictatorship and smash the rapidly growing democratic organizations of the workers, peasants, and soldiers, including the Soviets.

It was in this situation, when the people of Russia were faced with the imminent suppression of their own organizations and the deprival of that freedom of discussion which the Soviets had given them, that, in October 1917, an armed uprising, led by the Bolsheviks took place in Petrograd; and, on the following day, at the Second Congress of Soviets, a new Government was set up, responsible to the Soviets themselves.

A few extracts from the resolution of this Congress, setting up the new form of government, may be of interest:

“The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies has opened. The enormous majority of the Soviets are represented in it. A number of delegates from the Peasants’ Soviets are present at the Congress. . . . The Congress takes power into its hands, relying on the will of the enormous majority of the workers, soldiers, and peasants, supported by the victorious uprising of the workers and the garrison which has taken place in Petrograd . . .

“The Congress decrees: all power throughout the country passes into the hands of Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’, and Peasants’ Deputies.”

The new Government consisted of a Council of People’s Commissars, a People’s Commissar being the head of a State Department. These Commissars were directly responsible to the Congress, and, between Congresses, to the Executive Committee which the Congress elected.

At the Second Congress of Soviets, however, while the workers and soldiers were well represented, there were present only a comparatively small number of delegates from the Peasants’ Soviets, which had their own Executive Committee, and which were preparing for their own separate Congress a week later. At this Congress of Peasants’ Soviets, after Lenin had explained the reasons for the seizure of power ten days previously and the decree which had been already adopted on the land question, it was decided that the Peasants’ Congress should elect a number of representatives to the Central Executive Committee, and that thus a united Government should be formed representing the workers, peasants, and soldiers. It was this united Executive Committee which now became the supreme authority, and which summoned the Third Congress of Soviets in January 1918 at which there were over 700 delegates, representing workers, peasants, and soldiers from all over Russia.

In a period of a few weeks there had come into being in Russia a new kind of State. In structure this new State corresponded to democratic organizations of working people all over the world. But whereas a trade union represents only the wage-earners in particular occupations, the Soviet State embraced all working citizens, in industry, on the land, and in the army. Only a very small percentage—less than 5 percent of the Russian population—did not participate in the work of the Soviets.

Sometimes, I think, the reason why certain types of citizen did not participate in the Soviets is misunderstood. And the misunderstanding arises from the fact that the essential nature of the Soviet State, as a State of a new type, is not fully appreciated. When, however, we watch the historical development of the Soviets, it should be quite clear that, as fighting organizations of the working people against the employers, they naturally excluded the employers from participation in running them; just as trade unions in Britain to-day, as organizations of the workers against the employers, exclude the employers from the right to participate in their affairs. Similarly, in the country, where the Soviets were used by the peasants for confiscating and dividing-up the landlords’ estates, they were not going to invite the landlords to join with them in the work of these Soviets!

It is as a fighting organization of the vast majority of the population against the small minority of landlords and employers and their officials that the Soviet State came into being in 1917. It is, therefore, not surprising that, in the Declaration of Rights of the Labouring and Exploited Masses which was adopted at the Third Congress, it is expressly stated that “now, at the decisive moment in the struggle between the workers and their exploiters, there can be no place for the latter on any organ of government.” The Soviet State was a democratic organization of the vast majority of the people, but it deprived the small minority of property-owners of political rights. For the working people, for all but the small minority of employers, together with certain sections of the population closely allied to them, universal suffrage was introduced for men and women alike, at the age of eighteen, irrespective of sex, nationality, or religion. All working citizens, and housewives who made it possible for others to work, had the right to vote, and to stand for election without property or residential qualifications, so long as they had reached eighteen years of age. In this way a degree of democracy for over 95 percent of the population was introduced, such as they had never previously enjoyed. On the other hand, for less than 5 percent of the population—those who lived on unearned incomes—there no longer existed the right to participate in government.

Similarly, with regard to the Press, steps were taken by the Soviet Government which has already been described, and which, from the standpoint of the overwhelming majority of the people of Russia, can only be regarded as democratic. But, from the point of view of the private Press lords, these steps were an outrageous attack on their rights! For, in the Constitution of the Russian Soviet Republic, adopted at the Fifth Congress of Soviets in July 1918, we find “effective liberty of opinion” for the working population being ensured by putting “an end to the dependence of the Press upon capital.” Freedom to own the Press passed from the Press lords to the people.

In England, at the beginning of May 1926, just before the General Strike, the workers on the Daily Mail refused to print certain articles with which they disagreed. In an official statement from Downing Street this was described as a “gross interference with the freedom of the Press.” The men that produced the paper had claimed a say in what they printed! The Soviet Government, early in 1918, went far further than the workers on the Daily Mail. It confiscated all the privately owned printing presses and transferred them in their entirely to the organizations of the workers, peasants, and soldiers. From the point of view of the private owners of newspapers, the young Soviet Government was guilty of the most outrageous interference with the freedom of the Press.

But look at the same situation from the standpoint, not of the small minority of people in Russia who were rich enough to own newspapers, but of the overwhelming majority of the people who had never before had at their disposal the columns of the Press! For these people—for practically the whole of the people of Russia—the newspapers became their own, collectively controlled through the Soviets and other organizations. To these people the Soviet Government had given a freedom of the Press such as they had never before dreamt of possessing.

In our Introduction we saw that the Soviet State, from its very inception, combined features both of democracy and dictatorship. We are now in a position to see why it combined these features. It combined them because, as a democratic fighting organization of the working people—of the overwhelming majority of the people of Russia—it took steps to put an end to the power of the employing class, a small minority. While granting universal suffrage to all citizens, men and women alike, that worked for a living, it deprived of political rights that small minority that lived by employing others. Similarly, in granting the use of the printing presses to the organizations of the overwhelming majority of the people, it withdrew the use of these presses from those who, hitherto, had owned them only because they had been rich enough to do so.

The Soviet State is fundamentally different from other States in the world to-day. It is in essence an organization of the working people, of the vast majority of the population, in their struggle for better conditions. Many of the steps which it took, democratic when considered from the point of view of the vast majority of the people, were sheer outrages to the owners of property, against whom such measures were taken.

That is why, from 1918 to 1922, the new Soviet State had to fight for its very existence against the combined forces of more than ten foreign Powers.

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