27.08.1998

The Russian workers in power

From 'The Call', paper of the British Socialist Party, August 22 1918

Great interest was occasioned by the publication recently in The Call of Lenin’s article on ‘What are the soviets?’ We are privileged to publish the following additional exposition of the fundamentals underlying the soviet form of administration, specially written by a well informed Russian socialist.

The form of government which is now established in Russia and is known by the name of ‘soviet government’ is remarkably characteristic, and differs entirely from the usual parliamentarianism of western Europe. One must study it, or rather watch it, in order to grasp all the details of the regime, all its merits and its shortcomings.

... The soviets of workers’, soldiers’ and peasants’ delegates came into being at the time of the revolution of the Russian democracy in the struggle for its rights. To begin with, they were organs of revolutionary struggle, and when this struggle ended in a victory for the workers and peasants, the soviets became organs of government. The soviet government is the organ of the dictatorship of the working class and peasantry.

Every government is the dictatorship of one or more classes of society over the others ... In a society divided into classes the government is always an institution with whose help the ruling and exploiting classes invariably assert their powers over the oppressed and exploited sections of society. Therefore every government takes the form of a dictatorship, open or veiled, strict or lenient ...

Thus the government of soviets is an instrument of the dictatorship of the workers and peasants over the classes who until recently had exploited them - ie, over the capitalists and big landowners. The Russian revolutionaries openly acknowledge this. They recognise that this dictatorship cannot and must not disappear until the power of the counterrevolution is completely broken, until an end is made of the division of society into classes - in short until the socialist order is firmly established.

Until then a regime of dictatorship is unavoidable, be it a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie over the workers and peasants or vice versa. In all the belligerent countries of western Europe, where freedom and liberty have been so drastically curtailed, a regime of bourgeois dictatorship now prevails ...

Being an organ of the dictatorship of the workers and peasants, the soviet government does not recognise the political rights of any but these classes. Consequently the right to elect delegates to the soviet and be elected is restricted to those who earn their living by productive or social work ...

Each town or village elects its soviet of workers’ and peasants’ delegates. The government in this town or village is entirely in the hands of this soviet ...

The soviets and congresses meet only periodically for the decision of questions of paramount importance. For less important business the soviet or congress elects from its own body a rather large executive committee ... The delegates to all the soviets are elected for three months only, after which they must present themselves for re-election. The elections in factories and works are carried out in proportion to the number of workers. The unemployed ballot separately. Delegates may be recalled at any time and replaced by others.

At first every three months and, according to the new rules, now every six months, there is an All-Russian Congress of Soviets ... The All-Russian Congress elects from its own body a central executive committee of 200 members, which governs the country during the periods between the meetings of the Congress. This executive committee has full power while it holds office ...

These institutions are a product of the Revolution, and only in this setting can they exist and further develop their activities.