Soviet democracy

Soviet democracy,also calledcouncil democracy,is a type ofdemocracy in Marxism,in which theruleof a population is exercised by directly electedsoviets(workers' councils). Soviets are directly responsible to their electors and bound by their instructions using adelegate model of representation.Such animperative mandateis in contrast to atrustee model,in which elected delegates are exclusively responsible to their conscience. Delegates may accordingly be dismissed from their post at any time throughrecall elections.Soviet democracy forms the basis for thesoviet republicsystem of government.

In a soviet democracy, people are organized in basic units; for example, the workers of a company, the inhabitants of a district, or the soldiers of a barracks. They directly elect delegates as public functionaries, which act as legislators, government, and courts in one. Soviets are elected on several levels; at the residential and business level, delegates are sent through plenary assemblies to a local council which, in turn, delegates members to the next level. This system of delegation continues to a body such as theCongress of Sovietsor theSupreme Sovietat the state level.The electoral processes thus take place from the bottom upward. The levels are usually tied to administrative levels.In contrast to earlier democratic modelsà laJohn LockeandMontesquieu,noseparation of powersexists in soviet democracy.

Definition

Kazuko Kawamoto writes that soviet democracy "may sound odd to many, especially in the younger generation, while to others in the older generation they may bring back memories of the 'good old' Cold War years, when they supported liberal democracy against Soviet socialist democracy, or vice versa. Many Cold War contemporaries thought that there was such a thing as soviet democratic theory, despite not believing the Soviet government's claim of the superiority of soviet democracy over liberal democracy."

The "totalitarian model" ofSoviet and communist studieshistoriography, which was dominant during theCold War,follows the view that soviet democracy was a farce and that "the Soviet regime was simply oppressive andtotalitarian,and not democratic at all. "Critics such asZbigniew BrzezinskiandCarl Joachim Friedrichoften blamed the Soviet regime for "lacking liberty, which undermined the meaning ofpolitical participation."Nonetheless, "revisionist school" historians focused on the relatively autonomous institutions which might influence policy at the higher level,representing those who "insisted that the old image of the Soviet Union as a totalitarian state bent on world domination was oversimplified or just plain wrong. They tended to be interested in social history and to argue that the Communist Party leadership had had to adjust to social forces."

Some scholars have had a differing view and attributed the establishment of theone-party systemin the Soviet Union to the wartime conditions imposed on the Bolshevik governmentand others have highlighted the initial attempts to form a coalition government with theLeft Socialist Revolutionaries.Specifically, Russian historianVadim Rogovinwrote that the Bolsheviks made strenuous efforts to preserve theSoviet partiessuch as theSocialist-Revolutionaries,Mensheviks,and other left parties within the bounds of Soviet legality and their participation in the soviets on the condition of abandoning armed struggle against the Bolsheviks.

Kazuko writes that "the Soviet government did encourage the working people to speak out. As numerous studies have shown, Soviet citizens responded by writing letters and visiting government offices to address the authorities, even if there were limits to the realization of their demands and the effectiveness of their entreaties."According to Kazuko, these studies showed that "people demanded to be heard and the authorities responded, however insufficiently, because the ideas of democracy obligated them to do so."The reason why the process leading to theSoviet Constitution of 1936took so long, about twenty years according to Kazuko, was "deeply rooted in the ideas of Soviet democracy. The Soviet regime was democratic in its own sense of the word and this article gives it a more democratic face than what is usually imagined, especially among Western people. However, the regime's unique democratic character seemed to make it rather difficult to function adequately."

History

In Russia and the Soviet Union

The Soviet of Workers' Deputies of St. Petersburg in 1905:Leon Trotskyin the center.

The first soviets, also calledworkers' councils,were formed after the1905 Russian Revolution.Vladimir Leninand theBolshevikssaw the soviet as the basic organizing unit of society in a socialist system and at first supported this form of democracy. The soviets also played a considerable role in theFebruaryandOctober Revolutions.At that time, they represented a variety of socialist parties in addition to Bolsheviks. According to the officialSoviet historiography,the first soviet was formed in May 1905 inIvanovo(north-east of Moscow) during the1905 Russian Revolution(Ivanovsky Soviet). In his memoirs, the Russian anarchistVolinclaims that he witnessed the beginnings of theSaint Petersburg Sovietin January 1905. The Russian workers were largely organized at the turn of the 20th century, leading to a government-sponsoredtrade unionleadership. In 1905, as theRusso-Japanese War(1904–1905) increased the strain on Russian industrial production, the workers began to strike and rebel. The soviets represented an autonomous workers' movement, one that broke free from the government's oversight of workers' unions. Soviets sprang up throughout the industrial centers ofRussia,usually organized at the factory level. The soviets disappeared after the Revolution of 1905, but re-emerged undersocialistleadership during theRussian Revolution.Lenin argued for the destruction of the foundations of thebourgeois stateand its replacement with whatDavid Priestlanddescribed as an "ultra-democratic"dictatorship of the proletariatbased on theParis Commune's system.

In post-revolutionary Russia local workers' soviets would elect representatives that go on to form regional soviets, which in turn elect representatives that form higher soviets, and so on up to the Congress of Soviets. Later theSupreme Soviet of the Soviet Unionwould become the highest legislative body of the entire country. After Lenin's party, the Bolsheviks, only got a minority of the votes in the election to theRussian Constituent Assembly,he disbanded it by force after its first meeting, citing the refusal of theRight Socialist Revolutionaries(SRs) and Mensheviks to honor the sovereignty of soviet democracy, arguing that a system in whichparliamentary democracywas sovereign could not fairly represent the workers since it was in practice dominated by thebourgeoisie,that the proportional representation did not take into account theSR split,and that the soviets (where the Bolsheviksdidget a majority) more accurately represented the opinion of the people, which had changed as shown in the elections to the soviets between the time of the elections to the Assembly and the first meeting of the Assembly. He also explicitly stated that democracy did not include those considered bourgeois.

After the revolution, the Bolsheviks had to defend the newly formed government inWorld War Iand theRussian Civil War.According to some critics, many of the effects of the wars on the newSoviet governmentmay be part of what led to the decline of soviet democracy in Russia (due to the authority the state took on in war time) and to the emergence of the bureaucratic structure that maintained much control throughout thehistory of the Soviet Union.Some believe that one key blow against soviet democracy occurred as early as March 1918, when all nineteen city soviets that were elected during the spring were disbanded in a series of Bolshevik coups d'état because workers returned Menshevik-SR majorities, or non-Bolshevik socialist majorities.

However, a key development in the course of soviet democracy in Russia occurred in March, 1921, with theKronstadt rebellion.The outset of the year was marked by strikes and demonstrations - in both Moscow and Petrograd, as well as the countryside - due to discontent with the results of policies that made upwar communism.The Bolsheviks, in response to the protests, enacted martial law and sent the Red Army to disperse the workers.This was followed up by mass arrests executed by theCheka.Repression and minor concessions only temporarily quelled the discontent as Petrograd protests continued that year in March. This time the factory workers were joined by sailors stationed on the nearby island-fort of Kronstadt.Disappointed in the direction of the Bolshevik government, the rebels demanded a series of reforms including a reduction in Bolshevik privileges, newly electedsoviet councilsto includesocialist and anarchist groups,economic freedom for peasants and workers, dissolution of the bureaucratic governmental organs created during the civil war, and the restoration ofworkers' rightsfor the working class.The workers and sailors of the Kronstadt rebellion were promptly crushed by Red Army forces, with a thousand rebels killed in battle and another thousand executed the following weeks, with many more fleeing abroad and to the countryside.These events coincided with the10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks).There, Lenin argued that the soviets and the principle ofdemocratic centralismwithin the Bolshevik party still assured democracy. However, faced with support for Kronstadt within Bolshevik ranks, Lenin also issued a "temporary"ban on factions in the Russian Communist Party.This ban remained until therevolutions of 1989and, according to some critics, made the democratic procedures within the party an empty formality, and helped Stalin to consolidate much more authority under the party. Soviets were transformed into the bureaucratic structure that existed for the rest of the history of the Soviet Union and were completely under the control of party officials and thepolitburo.

Russian historianVadim Rogovinattributed the establishment of the one-party system to the conditions which were “imposed on Bolshevism by hostile political forces”. Rogovin highlighted the fact that the Bolsheviks made strenuous efforts to preserve theSoviet partiessuch as the Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, and other left parties within the bounds of Soviet legality and their participation in the Soviets on the condition of abandoning armed struggle against the Bolsheviks.According to historianMarcel Liebman,Lenin's wartime measures such as banning opposition parties was prompted by the fact that several political parties eithertook up armsagainst the newSoviet government,or participated in sabotage,collaborationwith the deposedTsarists,or madeassassination attempts against Leninand other Bolshevik leaders.Liebman noted that opposition parties such as the Cadets andMenshevikswho were democratically elected to the Soviets in some areas, then proceeded to use their mandate to welcome in Tsarist andforeign capitalist military forces.In one incident in Baku,the British military, once invited in, proceeded to execute members of the Bolshevik Party who had peacefully stood down from the Soviet when they failed to win the elections. As a result, the Bolsheviks banned each opposition party when it turned against the Soviet government. In some cases, bans were lifted. This banning of parties did not have the same repressive character as later bans enforced under theStalinistregime.

Trotsky also argued that he and Lenin had intended to lift the ban on theopposition partiessuch as theMensheviksandSocialist Revolutionariesas soon as the economic and social conditions ofSoviet Russiahad improved.In exile, Trotsky condemned the Stalinist bureaucracy and called for a revival of Soviet democracy:

"Bureaucratic autocracy must give place to Soviet democracy. A restoration of the right of criticism, and a genuine freedom of elections, are necessary conditions for the further development of the country. This assumes a revival of freedom of Soviet parties, beginning with the party of Bolsheviks, and a resurrection of the trade unions. The bringing of democracy into industry means a radical revision of plans in the interests of toilers."

Other historians likeRobert W. Thurstonargue, while the top of the soviet system became largely bureaucratic, the local levels of society remained largely participatory.He writes "while sane, calm, and sober, no worker would have dared to say that socialism was a poor system or that Stalin was an idiot" but then goes on to argue that these bounds still allowed for citizens to have meaningful participation on their immediate situation and this local participation meant "ultimately relatively little was controlled by the government or party decree".

This is supported by some historical accounts. For example, in Pat Sloan's historical account of participating in a Soviet election, he wrote:

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 are no bar to electoral rights. The procedure was extremely simple. A general meeting of all the workers in our organisation 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?

In Germany and the Weimar Republic

In October 1918, theconstitution of the German Empire was reformedto give more powers to the elected parliament. On 29 October,rebellionbroke out inKielamong sailors. There, sailors, soldiers, and workers began electingworkers' and soldiers' councils(Arbeiter- und Soldatenräte) modeled after the soviets of theRussian Revolution.The revolution spread throughout Germany, and participants seized military and civil powers in individual cities.

At the time, the Socialist movement which represented mostly laborers was split among two major left-wing parties: theIndependent Social Democratic Party of Germany(USPD), which called for immediate peacenegotiationsand favored a soviet-style planned economy, and theSocial Democratic Party of Germany(SPD) also known as"Majority" Social Democratic Party of Germany(MSPD), which supported the war effort and favoured aparliamentary system.The rebellion caused great fear in the establishment and in the middle classes because of the revolutionary aspirations of the councils. It terrified the well-off classes as the country was on the brink of a working class revolution.

TheSpartacus League,originally part of the USPD, split as a more radical group which advocated for violent proletarian revolution to establish communism. After the failedSpartacist Uprising,the Spartacist League became theCommunist Party of Germany(KPD). TheCommunist Workers' Party of Germany(KAPD) split from the KPD as a distinct council communist tendency. Their main goal was an immediate abolition of bourgeois democracy and the constitution of adictatorship of the proletariatthrough the seizure of power by the workers' councils. Communists in the KAPD formed theGeneral Workers' Union of Germany(AAUD), who sought to form factory organizations as the basis of region wide workers' councils.

In view of the mass support for more radical reforms among the workers' councils, acoalitiongovernment called "Council of the People's Deputies"(Rat der Volksbeauftragten) was established, consisting of three MSPD and three USPD members. Led byFriedrich Ebertfor the MSPD andHugo Haasefor the USPD it sought to act as a provisional cabinet of ministers. But the power question was unanswered. Although the new government was confirmed by the Berlin worker and soldier council, it was opposed by the Spartacus League. Ebert called for a "National Congress of Councils" (Reichsrätekongress), which took place from 16 to 20 December 1918, and in which the MSPD had the majority. Thus, Ebert was able to institute elections for a provisionalNational Assemblythat would be given the task of writing a democratic constitution for parliamentary government, marginalizing the movement that called for a socialist republic.

In January, the Spartacus League and others in the streets of Berlin made more armed attempts to establish communism, known as theSpartacist uprising.Those attempts were put down by paramilitaryFreikorpsunits consisting of volunteer soldiers. Bloody street fights culminated in the beating and shooting deaths ofRosa LuxemburgandKarl Liebknechtafter their arrests on 15 January. With the affirmation of Ebert,those responsible were not tried before acourt-martial,leading to lenient sentences, which made Ebert unpopular among radical leftists.

The National Assembly elections took place on 19 January 1919. In this time, the radical left-wing parties, including the USPD and KPD, were barely able to get themselves organised, leading to a solid majority of seats for the MSPD moderate forces. To avoid the ongoing fights in Berlin, the National Assembly convened in the city ofWeimar,giving the future Republic its unofficial name. TheWeimar Constitutioncreated a republic under asemi-presidential systemwith theReichstagelected byproportional representation.The parliamentary parties obtained a solid 80% of the vote.

During the debates in Weimar, fighting continued. TheBavarian Soviet Republicwas declared inMunich,but was quickly put down byFreikorpsand remnants of the regular army. The fall of the Munich Soviet Republic to these units, many of which were situated on the extreme right, resulted in the growth of far-right movements and organisations inBavaria,includingOrganisation Consul,theNazi Party,and societies of exiled Russian Monarchists. Sporadic fighting continued to flare up around the country. In eastern provinces, forces loyal to Germany's fallen monarchy fought the Republic, while militias of Polish nationalists fought for independence: theGreater Poland uprisingin the PrussianProvince of Posenand threeSilesian UprisingsinUpper Silesia.

See also

• Anarchist communism
• Council communism
• Demokratizatsiya (Soviet Union)
• New Democracy
• People's democracy (Marxism–Leninism)
• Free soviets
• List of political parties in the Soviet Union
• Socialist democracy

Literature

• Avrich, Paul(1970).Kronstadt, 1921.Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.ISBN0-691-08721-0.OCLC67322.
• Avrich, Paul(2004).Kronstadt, 1921(in Spanish). Buenos Aires: Libros de Anarres.ISBN9872087539.
• Chamberlin, William Henry(1965).The Russian Revolution, 1917–1921.Princeton, N.J.: Grosset & Dunlap.OCLC614679071.
• Daniels, Robert V. (December 1951). "The Kronstadt Revolt of 1921: A Study in the Dynamics of Revolution".American Slavic and East European Review.10(4): 241–254.doi:10.2307/2492031.ISSN1049-7544.JSTOR2492031.
• Figes, Orlando (1997).A People's Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution.New York: Viking.ISBN978-0-670-85916-0.OCLC36496487.

References

This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.Country Studies.Federal Research Division.

Further reading

• Farber, Samuel(1990).Before Stalinism: The Rise and Fall of Soviet Democracy.Verso Books.ISBN0860915301.

External links

Soviet and pro-Soviet works on Soviet democracy

• The Soviet ConstitutionbyAndrew Rothstein,1923.
• How the Soviets WorkbyH. N. Brailsford,1927.
• Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation?Volume I bySidneyandBeatrice Webb,chapter II, 1936.
• Soviet Democracyby Pat Sloan, 1937.
• The New Soviet Constitution: A Study in Socialist DemocracybyAnna Louise Strong,1937.
• The Social and State Structure of the U.S.S.R.by Vyacheslav Karpinsky, 1952.
• How the Soviet Union Is Governedby Vyacheslav Karpinsky, 1954.
• The Soviet Representative Systemby V. Kotok, 1964.
• Russia Re-Examined: The Land, the People and How They LivebyWilliam Mandel,chapter 9, 1967.
• The Soviet Parliamentby M. Saifulin, 1967.
• The Soviet State and Law,chapter 3, by V.M. Chkhikvadze, 1969.
• Soviet Democracy and how it worksby Jessica Smith, 1969.
• Soviet Democracy and Bourgeois Sovietologyby Marat Perfilyev, 1970.
• First Decrees of Soviet Powercompiled by Yuri Akhapkin, 1970.
• The Soviet Form of Popular Governmentby V.M. Chkhikvadze, 1972.
• The State, Democracy and Legality in the USSR: Lenin's Ideas Todayby V.M. Chkhikvadze, 1972.
• People's Control in Socialist Societyby Victor Turovtsev, 1973.
• Soviet Deputy (Legal Status)by Anatoly Bezuglov, 1973.
• Socialist Democracy: Aspects of TheorybyGeorgy Shakhnazarov,1974.
• Workers' Participation in the Soviet Unionby Mick Costello, 1977.
• Soviet Democracy: Principles and PracticebyKonstantin Chernenko,1977.
• The Soviet Political System Under Developed Socialismby E. Chekharin, 1977.
• Six Decades That Changed the World: The USSR After 60 Yearsedited by Marilyn Betchtel,David LaibmanandJessica Smith,chapter 14, 1978.
• Soviet Democracy in the Period of Developed Socialism,1979.
• Is the Red Flag Flying? The Political Economy of the Soviet Unionby Albert Szymanski, chapter 5, 1979.
• Talks on Soviet Democracyby M.A. Krutogolov, 1980.
• Human Rights and Freedoms in the USSRby Fyodor Medvedev and Gennady Kulikov, 1981.
• Working Versus Talking Democracyby Mike Davidow, 1982.
• On Soviet Socialist Democracycompilation of works by Lenin, 1984.
• Human Rights in the Soviet Unionby Albert Szymanski, chapters 5, 7 and 8, 1984.
• Soviet Democracy: A DiscussionbyMikhail Taratuta,1985.
• The Russians are Coming: The Politics of Anti-SovietismbyV.L. Allen,chapters 4 and 5, 1987.
• Soviets of People's Deputies: Democracy and Administrationby Georgi Barabashev and Konstantin Sheremet, 1989.
• "Before Stalinism: A Response to Critics"bySamuel Farber,1992