government first place in their demands. Moderate liberals, indeed, still looked, in 1917, to this sort of readjustment, and the provisional government of Lvov expected to work gradually in this direction. However, after 1906 the radical-minded elements grew distrustful of the conventional democratic program. They deplored the constant tendency of the bourgeois reformers to compromise with autocracy; they noted that the radicals in western lands were not satisfied with the fruits of democracy, but instead were clamoring for a different type of political organization; they became obsessed with the idea that the only road to freedom and well-being for themselves was the dictatorship of the proletariat. Accordingly they repudiated the ideal of a great nation-wide democracy and set before themselves the image of a state composed solely of workers and governed exclusively in the workers' interest; and when a singular turn of fortune brought them into power, they lost no time in turning this image, as far as they were able, into reality.

The Structure of Government. The structure of the new governmental system is somewhat complex and not wholly symmetrical. Its dominating feature is a pyramidal scheme of soviet congresses, culminating in an All-Russian Congress, and supplemented with commissars and other executive and administrative officers and committees. The primary unit is the village soviet in rural portions of the country, the city soviet in urban centers. The members of the village soviet are chosen by the workers of the village commune. All village soviets in the same volost, or township, elect a volost soviet, in the proportion of one delegate for every ten members of the inferior body, and all volost soviets in the same uyezd, or county, choose a county soviet, at the rate of one delegate for every thousand inhabitants. The city soviet is, of course, elected by the primary assembly of urban workers. Representatives of the rural and urban soviets are first brought together in the soviet of the gubernia, or province, in which the country districts are represented at the rate of one delegate for every ten thousand inhabitants and the urban areas in the proportion of one for every two thousand voters. Still

1 The fact should be noted that many serious-minded students of government, in Russia and elsewhere, question, as a recent writer puts it, "whether in our differentiated modern society a truly representative government may be reared on a basis of an economically amorphous mass of voters who are united by no other bond than residence in the same geographic locality, but are separated by the fundamental differences which flow from difference in occupation." E. A. Ross, in Amer. Polit. Sci. Rev., May, 1920, p. 320.

The constitution curiously speaks in terms of inhabitants when dealing with rural populations and in terms of voters when urban populations are mentioned.

above the provincial soviet stands the oblast, or regional soviet, composed of representatives of the urban and provincial (or county) soviets, who are chosen on the basis of one for every twenty-five thousand rural inhabitants and one for every five thousand voters in cities. Finally, the All-Russian Congress is composed of delegates of the city soviets, at the rate of one for every twenty-five thousand voters, and delegates of the provincial soviets at the rate of one for every one hundred and twentyfive thousand inhabitants. Urban populations are given the advantage of being represented in the supreme body, not only indirectly through the provincial soviets, but also by delegates specially elected for the purpose. Members of soviets are not chosen for a term, but are subject to recall by their constituents at any time; hence there are no fixed dates for elections throughout the country, or even in a given subdivision. Soviets of all grades are charged with carrying out " all orders of the respective higher organs of the Soviet power," taking all steps towards "raising the cultural and economic standard of the given territory," and coördinating all soviet activity in their respective jurisdictions. Village soviets are required to meet at least once a month, county and provincial soviets at least once every three months, and regional soviets at least twice a year. In all areas the soviet is the supreme power; but it elects an executive committee which carries out its decisions and, in intervals between the sessions of the soviet congress, acts as the highest governing authority.

In the All-Russian Congress, indirectly representing the entire electorate, are gathered all ultimate powers of sovereignty. This body has full authority to amend the constitution, establish and change boundaries, declare and carry on war, make treaties, cede territory, manage foreign relations, levy taxes, make loans, maintain armies and navies, grant and revoke citizenship, fix the rights of aliens, and regulate weights and measures; and by the most extraordinary "sweeping clause" to be found in any written constitution the Congress and the Central Executive Committee which it elects are empowered to "have charge of all other affairs which, according to their decision, require their attention." 1 By the terms of the constitution the Congress meets at least twice a year. Between sessions supreme power rests in the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, which is a body of not exceeding two hundred members, chosen by the Congress. Indeed, this Executive Committee continuously wields legis1 Art. III, Chap. 9.

lative and supervisory powers of such proportions that it may properly be conceived of as a sort of subordinate parliament, chosen by and fully responsible to the Congress, yet enjoying substantial autonomy. Meetings of the Congress are called by the Committee, either on its own initiative or at the request of local soviets representing not less than one third of the population of the republic.

Subject to ultimate control by the Congress, the Central Executive Committee has full charge of the nation's affairs. With a view to the performance of necessary executive and administrative tasks, it appoints and controls a Council of People's Commissars, which is, in effect, a ministry composed of the heads of seventeen executive departments named in the constitution, e.g., foreign affairs, army, navy, finance, justice, labor, social welfare, public health, commerce and industry, agriculture, and transportation. This ministry is responsible, singly and collectively, to the Executive Committee, and it must refer to that body all orders and resolutions" of great political significance." Every commissar, or minister, is assisted by a "college," or committee, whose members are appointed by the Council.1

Two or three major facts may be noted, in conclusion, about this scheme of government. The first is that there is practically no recognition of the doctrine of separation of powers. The All-Russian Congress is the repository of governmental powers of every kind and in unrestricted measure; the Central Executive Committee is at the same time an executive authority and a legislature; there is no provision whatsoever in the constitution for a judiciary. A second fact is that representation, and hence popular control, is far less direct than in western systems of government. Peasant voters select a village soviet, which selects representatives in the volost soviet, which elects delegates to the provincial soviet, which sends representatives to the AllRussian Congress at Moscow, which, finally, elects the commissars who have charge of the country's foreign relations, finances, and other great interests. The commissar is far removed from the peasant elector; and the system offers repeated chances for the commissars and other government leaders to apply influence or pressure to deflect the successive soviets farther and farther from the people's will. Furthermore, as a recent writer has pointed out, unless the principle of proportional representation is strictly adhered to at every stage, the minority strains must disappear from the skein and the Central 1 Art. III, Chap. 8.

Executive Committee will be composed entirely of the majority party.

This leads to the mention of a third salient fact, namely, that the system has thus far been operated exclusively in the interest of a single party and has been twisted and distorted to meet the purposes of that party. Sovietism and bolshevism triumphed together, and the soviets have been the means through which the party of Lenin and Trotzky kept itself in power. But the form of government and the party are two different things. The merits of sovietism are open to question; probably the world will refuse to subscribe to the principles upon which the scheme is based. But it should be recognized that the plan has had no fair trial in Russia. From first to last the Bolshevists systematically broke up soviets that were not of their way of thinking, manipulated elections so as to assure the victory of government candidates, completely suppressed freedom of speech and of the press, and used all the forces and arts of the old tsarist régime to perpetuate their own absolutist rule - the rule, it may be added, of, at the most, some six hundred thousand people in a total population of one hundred and twenty millions. The chief fault of sovietism may indeed prove to be that it lends itself peculiarly to that gravest of all political abuses, the tyranny of minorities.1

1 For a fair-minded appraisal of the new régime in Russia by an English liberal, see B. Russell, "Soviet Russia - 1920," in N. Y. Nation, July 31 and Aug. 7, 1920. Further discussion will be found in books mentioned on p. 747.

INDEX