The Russian Revolution was one of the most important events of the 20th century. It had a massive impact on the world and revolutionary movements, especially in the period after world war two when many groups seeking to imitate the Bolshevik triumph in Russia came to power. The revolution itself shows two main things. Firstly, the revolution validates anarchist critiques of the "workers state" or "dictatorship of the proletariat" advocated by Marxists and other authoritarian socialists. Anarchists have long predicted that these schemes would inevitably result in the creation of a new bureaucratic ruling class that dominated and exploited the proletariat, a prediction that was proven correct in Russia and subsequent state socialist revolutions. Second, the early phases of the revolution provide an example of how society might be run in an anarchistic manner without capitalism, the state or other authoritarian systems. This period saw the creation of non-hierarchical organizations on a mass scale very similar to those advocated by anarchists. These organs of self-management can be compared to the systems set up by anarchists during the 1936 Spanish Revolution.
The 1917 revolution was preceded by the 1905 revolution, the "dress rehearsal" for the 1917 revolution. As a result of Russia's loss in the war with Japan mass rebellions broke out against the king of Russia, Tsar Nicholas Romanov the second. The Tsar quickly made peace with Japan and granted a few concessions including changing Russia to a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament, the Duma, limiting his power. This, combined with a good deal of repression, succeeded in ending the rebellions and saving the monarchy. After the revolution was defeated most of the concessions the Tsar made were undone and the Duma lost most of its power.
In 1914 Russia joined the First World War on the side of the entente. As in the Russo-Japanese war Russia took heavy loses and was severely strained by the war. Unlike the Russo-Japanese war the Tsar could not simply end the war when it threatened to topple his kingdom. The stress was too much and the Tsar was overthrown in February 1917, thus beginning the Great Russian Revolution. In the Tsar's place a provisional government was set up which was to hold elections to create a Russian Republic. In October 1917 another revolution occurred which overthrew the Provisional government and brought revolutionary socialists to power. The Bolshevik party led by Vladimir Illyich Lenin and Leon Trotsky played a leading role in the October revolution, but did not do it alone. Although initially democratic the new government quickly evolved into a totalitarian state under the dictatorship of the Bolshevik party. This was followed by a civil war from May 1918 until November 1920 and the solidification of the state bureaucracy into a new ruling class.
Revolution in the Cities
The February Revolution began on February 23rd, International Women's Day. In the capital, Petrograd, spontaneous demonstrations, strikes and battles with the police erupted. Their main slogan was a demand for bread, other ones included "down with the autocracy" and "down with the war." Over the next several days the rebellion spread and became bigger, by the 25th it had turned into a general strike. "The workers come to the factories in the morning; instead of going to work they hold meetings; then"1 demonstrations. Troops were called in to suppress the insurrection; on the 27th they mutinied en masse. The government lost control of the capital and on March 2nd the Tsar abdicated. The Provisional Committee of the Duma created the provisional government. This group of politicians (who were not elected to these posts) was to run the government until they could hold elections for a constituent assembly that would write a new republican constitution for Russia.
During and after the February revolution mass meetings were held by ordinary people to discuss the situation and organize themselves. In workplaces workers held worker assemblies, in villages peasants held peasant assemblies, soldiers had soldier assemblies. These operated on principles of direct democracy and served to organize revolutionary action by the masses. These popular assemblies have appeared in many revolutions – the French had the Sans-Culottes sectional assemblies, the Mexican had peasant assemblies, the Portuguese had worker and neighborhood assemblies and the Spanish had worker and peasant assemblies. They have also been formed in recent rebellions in Argentina and Algeria. Many anarchists see an anarchist society as being organized by popular assemblies such as the ones formed in these revolutions.
The wake of the February revolution also saw the creation of another anarchic institution – the soviets. These were decentralized directly democratic institutions created by the workers to coordinate their struggle. "The Russian Soviets fulfilled a double function: during great events they served as rallying points for the direct initiative of the masses, throwing into the scale their enthusiasm, their blood and lives. In periods of relative stability they were organs of popular"2 self-management. As the struggle intensified they took on more power and threatened the power of the state and ruling class, acting as an alternative way to organize society. Workers in each workplace would elect a number of delegates to the soviet based on the number of people who worked there. Delegates were not only recallable but also mandated. Most cities had soviets and there were eventually soldier and peasant soviets set up. Large cities also had local borough soviets for different parts of the city.
As historian Oscar Anweiler pointed out in his definitive history of the Russian soviets, they came quite close to ideas advocated by many anarchist thinkers, including Joseph Proudhon and Mikhail Bakunin:
"Proudhon's views are often directly associated with the Russian councils, and sometimes even held decisive for their establishment. Bakunin … much more than Proudhon, linked anarchist principles directly to revolutionary action, thus arriving at remarkable insights into the revolutionary process that contribute to an understanding of later events in Russia.
In 1863 Proudhon declared ... 'All my economic ideas as developed over twenty-five years can be summed up in the words: agricultural-industrial federation. All my political ideas boil down to a similar formula: political federation or decentralization.'...
Proudhon's conception of a self-governing [society] ... founded on producers' corporations [i.e. federations of co-operatives], is certainly related to the idea of 'a democracy of producers' which emerged in the factory soviets. To this extent Proudhon can be regarded as an ideological precursor of the councils. But his direct influence on the establishment of the soviets cannot be proved. ...
Bakunin … suggested the formation of revolutionary committees with representatives from the barricades, the streets, and the city districts, who would be given binding mandates, held accountable to the masses, and subject to recall. ... Bakunin proposed the ... organization of society 'through free federation from the bottom upward, the association of workers in industry and agriculture -- first in the communities, then through federation of communities into districts, districts into nations, and nations into international brotherhood.' These proposals are indeed strikingly similar to the structure of the subsequent Russian system of councils ...
Bakunin's ideas about spontaneous development of the revolution and the masses' capacity for elementary organization undoubtedly were echoed in part by the subsequent soviet movement. ... Because Bakunin - unlike Marx - was always very close to the reality of social struggle, he was able to foresee concrete aspects of the revolution. The council movement during the Russian Revolution, though not a result of Bakunin's theories, often corresponded in form and progress to his revolutionary concepts and predictions."3
In classical anarchist theory popular assemblies (or other local groups) would coordinate their activities through the use of mandated and recallable delegates (also called spokes or contact people). Delegates are mandated, meaning they must represent the position the group (assemblies, etc.) they come from has decided. They are instructed by the group(s) they come from, at every level, on how to deal with any issue. These instructions will be binding, committing delegates to a framework of policies within which they must act and providing for their recall and the nullification of their decisions if they fail to carry out their mandates. Decision-making power stays with the assemblies (or other local groups), delegates simply implement and communicate them to delegates from other assemblies. This differs from representative institutions in that decision making power stays in the assemblies whereas representatives can make whatever decisions they want and have authority over others. With this system assemblies (or other groups) can coordinate their actions with each other without authority, organizing things from the bottom up instead of centralizing power. Rather than top-down organizations, there are decentralized confederations and networks. Contemporary North American anarchists often call these spokescouncils; sometimes they are called workers' councils.
Initially the soviets came very close to this system, but they did not match exactly. The first soviets, which were born in the 1905 revolution (and suppressed along with the defeat of the revolution), appear to have come closer to the anarchist ideal. "This was the first experience of direct democracy for most of those involved. The Soviets were created from below, by the workers, peasants, and soldiers, and reflected their desires--which were expressed in non-sectarian resolutions. No political party dominated the Soviets, and many workers were opposed to allowing representation for political parties."4 Anarchists raised the slogan "all power to the soviets" in this revolution.5
After the February revolution the soviets were created once again. In 1905 the soviets were just a working class phenomenon; in 1917 soldiers set up soviets and eventually so did peasants. In some cases the worker, soldier and/or peasant soviets would merge together to form joint soviets. Regional federations of soviets were set up and on June 3rd an all-Russian congress of soviets was held. That soviet congress agreed to hold another soviet congress every three months.
Like the 1905 soviets, these soviets initially were very close to the anarchist system of mandated and recallable delegates. However, there were small differences that appeared. In the 1917 soviets political parties eventually came to play a more important role and began to dominate them. Mandates were not always strictly followed. Soviets tended to go from being made up of mandated delegates to being representative bodies, where delegates followed the party agenda instead of the decisions of the workplace that elected them. Party discipline over any party member that became a delegate interfered with the directly democratic nature of the soviets. In addition, political parties were often allowed to send their own delegates regardless of their popular support, giving them disproportionate influence. The higher-level soviets tended more to become representative institutions, while the borough and local soviets stayed closer to the masses. The transformation of soviets into representative, instead of mandated delegate, bodies was rapidly accelerated by the October revolution but their tendency to act as representative instead of delegate bodies already existed prior to October. "Even before the Bolsheviks seized power in October 1917, actual political authority had been shifted to the Executive Committee while the soviet plenum was left with only approval or rejection of ready-made resolutions and with decisions on basic questions."6
Since anarchists constituted only a small minority of those who participated in the soviets it is not surprising that they deviated from the anarchist ideal. The Tsar had only recently been overthrown and so most were not as familiar with the dangers of representative democracy. Mandates weren't strictly followed and the attempts of political parties to take them over were not resisted as much as they should have been. What is remarkable is that the soviets (and other organizations) were very close to what most anarchists had advocated for decades even though most were not only non-anarchists but knew very little of anarchist theory.
The February revolution began with the mutiny of the military and the collapse of military discipline. Within the military participatory democratic structures were created by rank-and-file soldiers that had the effect of undermining the power of the government and military command. Soldiers (most of whom were peasant conscripts) set up their own soldiers' soviets similar to the workers' soviets. In some cases they merged with worker soviets and in some with both worker and peasant soviets. Officers and soldier committees were elected and subject to recall by soldier assemblies. This kind of military democracy has appeared in many revolutions – the soldiers' councils among the Levellers in the English revolution, the minutemen in the American Revolution, the anarchist militias in the Spanish revolution and other popular revolutions.
Another anarchic institution that appeared after the February revolution was the factory committees. These were initially set up to coordinate the workers' struggle against their bosses and limit the power of management. "Because the committees represented the worker right at his place of work, their revolutionary role grew proportionately as the soviet consolidated into a permanent institution and lost touch with the masses."7 Many committees ended up taking over the factories. Factory takeovers began first as a response to the closing down of factories by their owners (usually due to un-profitability), the workers took them over and were usually able to run them where capitalists had failed. Eventually the expropriations spread to factories not abandoned by their owners, accelerating with the October revolution.8
Many historians have noted the similarity of these factory committees to the worker self-management advocated by anarcho-syndicalists (and other anarchists). In anarcho-syndicalist theory, the workers using worker assemblies would run their own workplaces. Factory committees would be created to carry out coordination and administrative tasks. They would be elected, mandated and subject to recall. Decision making power would stay with the workers in their assemblies. The committees would simply implement the decisions made by the workers in their assemblies and would not have authority over workers.
This is what was implemented in the Spanish revolution; the factory committees in the Russian Revolution were virtually identical. There were two differences. The first was that, whereas the takeover of industry in the Spanish revolution was done rapidly in the space of a few weeks, the takeover of industry in Russia was comparatively slow, taking the better part of a year. The second was that the self-managed factories in Russia sold their products on the market, producing largely the same thing and for the same customers. The majority of anarcho-syndicalists are opposed not only to capitalism but also to markets and so in Spain eventually set up non-hierarchical forms of coordination between workplaces. Industry in Spain was reorganized to be more effective and adapt to changing circumstances brought on by civil war.
Notes:
1 Trotsky, Russian Revolution p. 123
2 Chernov, 103-4
3 Anweiler, p. 8-11
4 Rachleff
5 Flood, Russian Revolution
6 Anweiler, p. 235
7 Anweiler, p. 174
8 Farber, p. 62-80
