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A soviet ( "council") originally was a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia. According to the official historiography
Historiography

Historiography is the aspect of semiotics that is the study of how knowledge of the past, recent or distant, is obtained and transmitted. Broadly speaking, historiography examines the writing of history and the use of historical methods, drawing upon such elements such as authorship, sourcing, interpretation, style, bias, and audience....
 of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
, the first Soviet (in this sense) was organized during the 1905 Russian Revolution in Ivanovo
Ivanovo

Ivanovo is a types of inhabited localities in Russia and the administrative center of Ivanovo Oblast, Russia. Population: 406,465 ; Ivanovo has traditionally been called the textile capital of Russia....
 (Ivanovo region) in May 1905. However in his memoirs Volin
Volin

Vsevolod Mikhailovich Eikhenbaum , known in later life as Volin or Voline , was a leading Russian anarchist.He was born in the Voronezh district of Central Russia, where both his parents were doctors, and after finishing college there he went to Saint Petersburg to study jurisprudence....
 claims that he witnessed the creation of the St Petersburg Soviet in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a types of inhabited localities in Russia and a federal subjects of Russia of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea....
 in January 1905. The councils were later adopted by the Bolshevik
Bolshevik

Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists were a faction of the Marxism Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP in 1903 and ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union....
s, as the basic organizing unit of society.

Originally the soviets were a grassroots
Grassroots

A grassroots movement is one driven by the constituent of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it is natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures....
 effort to practice direct democracy
Direct democracy

Direct democracy, classically termed pure democracy, comprises a form of democracy and theory of civics wherein sovereignty is lodged in the assembly of all citizenship who choose to participate....
.






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A soviet ( "council") originally was a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia. According to the official historiography
Historiography

Historiography is the aspect of semiotics that is the study of how knowledge of the past, recent or distant, is obtained and transmitted. Broadly speaking, historiography examines the writing of history and the use of historical methods, drawing upon such elements such as authorship, sourcing, interpretation, style, bias, and audience....
 of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
, the first Soviet (in this sense) was organized during the 1905 Russian Revolution in Ivanovo
Ivanovo

Ivanovo is a types of inhabited localities in Russia and the administrative center of Ivanovo Oblast, Russia. Population: 406,465 ; Ivanovo has traditionally been called the textile capital of Russia....
 (Ivanovo region) in May 1905. However in his memoirs Volin
Volin

Vsevolod Mikhailovich Eikhenbaum , known in later life as Volin or Voline , was a leading Russian anarchist.He was born in the Voronezh district of Central Russia, where both his parents were doctors, and after finishing college there he went to Saint Petersburg to study jurisprudence....
 claims that he witnessed the creation of the St Petersburg Soviet in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a types of inhabited localities in Russia and a federal subjects of Russia of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea....
 in January 1905. The councils were later adopted by the Bolshevik
Bolshevik

Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists were a faction of the Marxism Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP in 1903 and ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union....
s, as the basic organizing unit of society.

Originally the soviets were a grassroots
Grassroots

A grassroots movement is one driven by the constituent of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it is natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures....
 effort to practice direct democracy
Direct democracy

Direct democracy, classically termed pure democracy, comprises a form of democracy and theory of civics wherein sovereignty is lodged in the assembly of all citizenship who choose to participate....
. Russian Marxists made them a medium for organizing against the state, and between the February and October Revolutions, the Petrograd Soviet
Petrograd Soviet

The Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, usually called the Petrograd Soviet, was the Soviet in Saint Petersburg , Russia established in March 1917 after the February Revolution as the representative body of the city's workers....
 was a powerful force. The slogan ??? ?????? ??????? (Vsya vlast sovyetam; "All power to the soviets" or "All power to the workers' councils") was popular in opposing the Provisional Government
Russian Provisional Government

The Russian Provisional government Government was formed in Saint Petersburg in 1917 after the February Revolution and the abdication of Nicholas II of Russia....
 led by Kerensky.

The term also came to be used outside the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
 by some Marxist-Leninist movements, for example, the Communist Party of China
Communist Party of China

The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and the ruling party of the People's Republic of China and the world's largest political party....
's efforts in the "Chinese Soviet Republic" immediately prior to the Long March.

Based on the view of the state implicit in the Bolshevik use of the term, the word "soviet" naturally extended, or consciously was extended, to mean in effect any body formed by a group of soviets to delegate, up a hierarchy of soviets, the authority to express and effect their will. In this sense, post-Kerensky government bodies at local and republic
Republics of the Soviet Union

The Republics of the Soviet Union were, according to the Article 76 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution, Sovereign Soviet Socialist states that had united with other Soviet Republics to become the Soviet Union....
 levels (but in the Russian federated republic
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
, local, republic
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
, and federated republic levels) were called "soviets", and at the top of the hierarchy, the Congress of Soviets
Congress of Soviets

The Congress of Soviets was the supreme governing body of the Russian SFSR and the Soviet Union in two periods, from 1917 to 1936 and from 1989 to 1991....
 was the nominal core of the Union government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
, officially formed in December 1922.

Later, in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
 local governmental bodies were named "soviet" (sovet: "council
Wiktionary

Wiktionary is a multilingualism, World Wide Web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in over 151 languages. Unlike standard dictionaries, it is written collaboratively by volunteers, dubbed "Wiktionarians", using wiki software, allowing articles to be changed by almost anyone with access to the website....
") with the adjective indicating of the administrative level, customarily abbreviated : gorsovet (gorodskoy sovet: city council), raysovet/raisovet (rayonny sovet: raion
Raion

A raion is a type of administrative unit of some post-Soviet states. The term, which is of French origin, describes both a type of a subnational entity and a division of a city, and is almost always translated as "district"....
 council), selsovet: rural council, possovet (poselkovy sovet: settlement council).

Footnotes


Further reading

  • Edward Acton Rethinking the Russian Revolution 1990 Oxford University Press ISBN 0713165308
  • Tony Cliff
    Tony Cliff

    Tony Cliff was a Trotskyist revolutionary activist. Born Yigael Gluckstein to a Jewish Zionist family in Palestine , he eventually changed his name to Yg'al , although in later years he would become far better known by his pen name Tony Cliff....
      1976 Pluto Press
  • Voline The Unknown Revolution Black Rose Books
  • Rex A. Wade The Russian Revolution, 1917 2005 Cambridge University Press ISBN 0521841550


See also

  • Congress of Soviets
    Congress of Soviets

    The Congress of Soviets was the supreme governing body of the Russian SFSR and the Soviet Union in two periods, from 1917 to 1936 and from 1989 to 1991....
  • Workers' council
    Workers' council

    A workers' council is a deliberative assembly, composed of working class members, intended to institute workers' self-management or workers' control....
  • Soviet democracy
    Soviet democracy

    Soviet democracy or sometimes council democracy is a form of democracy in which workers' councils called "soviets", consisting of worker-elected delegates, form organs of power possessing both legislative and executive power....
  • Council communism
    Council communism

    Council communism is a far-left movement originating in Germany and the Netherlands in the 1920s. Its primary organization was the Communist Workers Party of Germany ....
  • Participatory democracy
    Participatory democracy

    Participatory democracy, sometimes called "direct democracy," is a process promoted by the New Left in the early 1960's and on through the 1980's, emphasizing the broad participation of constituents in the direction and operation of political systems....
  • Workers' control
    Workers' control

    Workers' control is participation in the management of factories and other enterprises by the people who work there.The idea of workers' control is an old one....
  • Rada
    Rada

    Rada is the term for "council" or "assembly"borrowed by Polish language from the Low Franconian "Rad" and later passed into the Czech language, Ukrainian language, and Belarusian language languages....
     (Ukrainian equivalent)