{{Short description|Socialist workers' council}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
{{Use American English|date=October 2022}}
{{Expand Russian|topic=gov|Советы|date=October 2013}}
[[File:1917petrogradsoviet assembly.jpg|thumb|287x287px|Soviet assembly in [[Petrograd]], 1917]]
A '''soviet''' ({{langx|ru|совет|sovet}}, {{IPA|ru|sɐˈvʲet|IPA|Ru-совет.ogg}}, {{lit|council}}) is a [[representative democracy|representative]] [[workers' council]] that follows a [[Socialism|socialist]] ideology, particularly in the context of the [[Russian Revolution]]. In the expanded meaning of "workers', peasants' and soldiers' councils", and later "councils of deputies", the soviets acted as the foundation of the form of government of [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]] and the [[Soviet Union]], and influenced the [[Makhnovshchina]].

The first soviets were established during the [[Russian Revolution of 1905|1905 Revolution]] in the late [[Russian Empire]]. In 1917, following the [[February Revolution]], there emerged a state of [[dual power]] between the [[Russian Provisional Government]] and the soviets. This ended later that year with the [[October Revolution]], during which the [[Second All-Russian Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies' Soviets|Second Congress of Soviets]] proclaimed itself the supreme governing body of the country.

{{anchor|Sovdepiya}}The governmental bodies on various levels were formally named "{{ill|Soviet of People's Deputies|ru|Советы народных депутатов|lt=Soviets of People's Deputies}}", colloquially "soviets of deputies" or "sovdeps". For this reason [[Soviet Russia]] or the Soviet Union may be called by the derogatory term "Sovdepiya" ({{langx|ru|[[wikt:совдепия|совдéпия]]}}).<ref>{{cite book |title=The Russian Civil War |last=Mawdsley |first=Evan |year=2007 |publisher=Pegasus Books |isbn=9781933648156 |pages=178–193}}</ref>

Because soviets gave their name to the later Soviet Union, they are frequently associated with the state's establishment. However, the term may also refer to any workers' council that is socialist, such as the [[Irish soviets]]. Soviets elsewhere do not inherently need to adhere to the ideology of the Soviet Union.

==Etymology==
"Soviet" is derived from a [[Russian language|Russian]] word meaning council, assembly, advice, harmony, or concord,<ref group="trans">{{langx|uk|рада}} (''[[rada]]''); {{langx|pl|rada}}; {{langx|be|савет}}; {{langx|uz|совет}}; {{langx|kk|совет/кеңес}}; {{lang-ka|საბჭო}}; {{langx|az|совет}}; {{langx|lt|taryba}}; {{langx|ro|soviet}} ([[Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet|Moldovan Cyrillic]]: совет); {{langx|lv|padome}}; {{langx|ky|совет}}; {{langx|tg|шӯравӣ}}; {{langx|hy|խորհուրդ / սովետ}}; {{langx|tk|совет}}; {{langx|et|nõukogu}}</ref> and all ultimately deriving from the [[Proto-Slavic language|Proto-Slavic]] [[Verb stem|verbal stem]] of *vět-iti "to inform", related to the [[Slavic languages|Slavic]] "věst" ("news"), English "wise", the root in "ad-vis-or" (which came to English through French), or the Dutch "weten" ('to know'; cf. "wetenschap" 'science').{{Citation needed|date=April 2019}}

The word "sovietnik" means "councillor", from the Russian word "soviet" plus the Russian suffix [[wikt:-ник#Russian|-ник]] denoting an occupation.<ref name="americana">{{Cite Americana|wstitle=Soviet|year=1920|first=Henri F. |last=Klein}}</ref>

A number of organizations in [[History of Russia|Russian]] were called "council" ({{langx|ru|сове́т}}).
For example, in [[Imperial Russia]], the [[State Council (Russian Empire)|State Council]], which functioned from 1810 to 1917, was referred to as a Council of Ministers.<ref name="americana"/>

The Polish and Ukrainian word is respectively {{Langx|pl|rada|label=none}} and {{Langx|uk|рада|lit=council, advice|label=none}}, from Middle High German ''rāt''. See [[Rada]].

== Russian Empire ==
[[File:Иваново-Вознесенский Совет.jpg|thumb|300px|Deputies of the first soviet, 1905.]]

=== Workers' councils ===
[[File:Lev Trotsky 1906-3.3 V1.jpg|250x250px|thumb|left|The [[Saint Petersburg Soviet|Soviet of Workers' Deputies of St. Petersburg]] in 1905: [[Leon Trotsky]] in the center. The soviets were an early example of a [[workers council]]]]According to the [[Soviet historiography|official historiography of the Soviet Union]], the first [[workers' council]] (soviet) formed in May 1905 in [[Ivanovo]] (north-east of [[Moscow]]) during the [[1905 Russian Revolution]] (''Ivanovsky Soviet''). However, in his memoirs, the Russian anarchist [[Volin]] claims that he witnessed the beginnings of the [[St Petersburg Soviet]] in January 1905. The Russian workers were largely organized at the turn of the 20th century, leading to a government-sponsored [[trade-union]] [[leadership]].

In 1905, as the [[Russo-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 and played a major role in the 1905 Russian Revolution.  Soviets sprang up throughout the industrial centers of [[Russia]], usually organizing [[meeting]]s at the factory level.  These soviets disappeared after the revolution of 1905, but re-emerged under [[socialist]] leadership during the [[Russian Revolution|revolutions of 1917]].

Soviets emerged as inclusive bodies to lead workers, and to organize strikes and to politically and militarily fight the government of [[Russian Empire]] mainly through [[direct action]], with the primary actors being [[Revolutionary socialism|socialist revolutionaries]] and [[anarchists]], as [[Lenin]]'s party was a minority.<ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.1017/S0020859000002285|title=The Russian Revolution and the Labour Movements of Australia and New Zealand, 1917–1922|year=1963|last1=O'Farrell|first1=P. J.|journal=International Review of Social History|volume=8|issue=2|pages=177–197|s2cid=145637715 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/4d22590a23c2f0196f7b8853e30dd1d9/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1819040|title = Rosenberg, "Liberals in the Russian Revolution, the Constitutional Democratic Party, 1917-1921" (Book Review)|website = [[ProQuest]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=okxdDwAAQBAJ|title = The End of Imperial Russia, 1855–1917|isbn = 9781349254835|last1 = Waldron|first1 = Peter|date = 7 April 1997| publisher=Macmillan Education UK }}</ref> During this time they established minor [[worker cooperatives]], though the operations were minor due to Russian crackdown on leftist organizations.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/600/comparing-the-tsarist-russian-and-soviet-empires|title=Comparing the Tsarist Russian and Soviet Empires|journal=Inquiries Journal|year=2011|volume=3|issue=12|last1=Noga|first1=Magdalena}}</ref>

==Russian Revolution==
{{multiple image
 | align = right
 | total_width = 300
 | image1 = Lenin in 1920 (cropped).jpg
 | caption1 = [[Vladimir Lenin]], founder of the [[Soviet Union]] and the leader of the [[Bolshevik party]].
 | image2 = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R15068, Leo Dawidowitsch Trotzki.jpg
 | caption2 = [[Leon Trotsky]], founder of the [[Red Army]] and a key figure in the [[October Revolution]].
}}

The popular organizations which came into existence during the [[February Revolution]] were called "Councils of Workmen's and Soldiers' Deputies". These bodies were supposed to hold things together under the [[Russian Provisional Government|provisional government]] until the election of a constituent assembly could take place; in a sense, they were vigilance committees designed to guard against [[counter-revolution]]. The [[Petrograd Soviet]] of 4,000 members was the most important of these, on account of its position in the capital and its influence over the garrison.<ref name="americana" />

At the beginning of the Revolution, these soviets were under control of the [[Socialist Revolutionary Party]], and even the [[Mensheviks]] had a larger share of the elected representatives than the [[Bolsheviks]]. As [[World War I]] continued and the Russians met defeat after defeat, and the provisional government proved inadequate at establishing industrial peace, the Bolsheviks began to grow in support. By degrees, the Bolsheviks dominated with a leadership which demanded "all power to the soviets."<ref name="americana"/>

The Bolsheviks promised the workers a government run by workers' councils to overthrow the bourgeoisie's main government body - the provisional government. In October 1917, the provisional government was overthrown, giving all power to the Soviets. [[John Reed (journalist)|John Reed]], an American eyewitness to the [[October Revolution]], wrote, "Until February 1918 anybody could vote for delegates to the Soviets. Even had the bourgeoisie organised and demanded representation in the Soviets, they would have been given it. For example, during the regime of the Provisional Government there was bourgeois representation in the Petrograd Soviet – a delegate of the Union of Professional Men which comprised doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/reed/1918/soviets.htm|title=Soviets in Action|first=John|last=Reed|website=www.marxists.org}}</ref>

Similarly, [[Leon Trotsky]] wrote in ''[[Terrorism and Communism]]'' (1920) that "In Petrograd, in November 1917, we also elected a Commune (Town Council) on the basis of the most democratic voting, without limitations for the bourgeoisie. These elections, being boycotted by the bourgeoisie parties, gave us a crushing majority. The democratically elected Council voluntarily submitted to the Petrograd Soviet... the Soviet Government placed no obstacle in the way of the bourgeois parties; and if the Cadets, the SRs and the Mensheviks, who had their press which was openly calling for the overthrow of the Soviet Government, boycotted the elections, it was only because at that time they still hoped soon to make an end of us with the help of armed force... If the Petrograd bourgeoisie had not boycotted the municipal elections, its representatives would have entered the Petrograd Council. They would have remained there up to the first Social Revolutionary and Cadet rising, after which ... they would probably have been arrested if they did not leave the Council in good time, as at a certain moment did the bourgeois members of the [[Paris Commune]]."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1920/terrcomm/ch05.htm|title=Leon Trotsky: Terrorism and Communism (Chapter 5)|first=Leon|last=Trotsky|website=www.marxists.org}}</ref>

[[Vladimir Lenin]] wrote that the soviets were originally politically open and inclusive entities, writing in ''The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky'' (1918) that, "the disenfranchisement of the bourgeoisie is not a necessary and indispensable feature of the dictatorship of the proletariat. And in Russia, the Bolsheviks, who long before October put forward the slogan of proletarian dictatorship, did not say anything in advance about disenfranchising the exploiters. This aspect of the dictatorship did not make its appearance 'according to the plan' of any particular party; it emerged of itself in the course of the struggle ... even when the Mensheviks (who compromised with the bourgeoisie) still ruled the soviets, the bourgeoisie cut themselves off from the soviets of their own accord, boycotted them, put themselves up in opposition to them and intrigued against them. The soviets arose without any constitution and existed without one for more than a year (from the spring of 1917 to the summer of 1918). The fury of the bourgeoisie against this independent and omnipotent (because it was all-embracing) organisation of the oppressed; the fight, the unscrupulous, self-seeking and sordid fight, the bourgeoisie waged against the soviets; and, lastly, the overt participation of the bourgeoisie (from the Cadets to the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, from [[Pavel Milyukov]] to [[Alexander Kerensky]]) in the [[Kornilov affair|Kornilov mutiny]]{{snd}}all this paved the way for the formal exclusion of the bourgeoisie from the Soviets."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1918/prrk/soviet_constitution.htm|title=PRRK: The Constituent Assembly and the Soviet Republic|first=Vladimir|last=Lenin|website=www.marxists.org}}</ref>

The Bolsheviks and their allies came out with a program called "soviet government". The soviet system was described as "a higher type of state" and "a higher form of democracy" which would "arouse the masses of the exploited toilers to the task of making new history". Furthermore, it offered "to the oppressed toiling masses the opportunity to participate actively in the free construction of a new society". According to Lenin, soviet rule "is nothing else than the organized form of the dictatorship of the proletariat". A code of rules governing elections to the soviets was framed in March 1918, but the following classes were disqualified to vote: "Those who employ others for profit; those who live on incomes not derived from their own work{{snd}}interest on capital, industrial enterprises or landed property; private business men, agents, middlemen; monks and priests of all denominations; ex-employees of the old police services and members of the [[Romanov dynasty]]; lunatics and criminals."<ref name="americana"/>

With village and factory soviets as a base, there arose a vast pyramid of district, cantonal, county and regional soviets, each with its executive soviet. Over and above these stood the "[[All-Russian Congress of Soviets|All-Russian Soviet Congress]]", which appointed an "[[All-Russian Central Executive Committee]]" of not more than 200 members, which in turn chooses the "[[Council of the People's Commissars|Soviet of People's Commissaries]]"{{snd}}the Ministry. Beginning with a minimum of three and maximum of 50 members for smaller communities, the maximum for town soviets was fixed at 1,000 members. The soviet system was seen as an alternative to parliamentary systems for administering [[republic]]an governments.<ref name="americana"/>

==Within the Soviet Union==
As outlined in the [[Treaty on the Creation of the USSR]] and the [[Declaration of the Creation of the USSR]], and successively the [[1924 Constitution of the Soviet Union]] and [[1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union]], the Soviets were the basis of government in the USSR.<ref>{{cite web |title=Constitution of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics January 1924 (abridged) |url=http://pwerth.faculty.unlv.edu/Const-USSR-1924%28abridge%29.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200625110836/http://pwerth.faculty.unlv.edu/Const-USSR-1924(abridge).pdf |archive-date=25 June 2020 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/1918SovietConstitution/1918+Soviet+Constitution_djvu.txt|title=Full text of "1918 Soviet Constitution"|website=archive.org|year=1918}}</ref> Factory and village Soviets would send delegates to town Soviets, and in turn the town Soviet would send delegates to the regional Soviet, town and regional Soviets elected delegates to the provincial Soviet, provincial Soviets sent delegates to the Soviet of the constituent republic, and the Soviets of the [[Republics of the Soviet Union|Union Republics]] sent delegates to the [[Congress of Soviets of the Soviet Union|Congress of Soviets of the U.S.S.R.]]<ref>{{Cite journal|title=State and Society Under Stalin: Constitutions and Elections in the 1930s|author=Getty, J. Arch|year=1991|journal=Slavic Review|volume=50|issue=1|pages=18–35|doi=10.2307/2500596|jstor=2500596|s2cid=163479192 }}</ref> As of 1936, the election of delegates up the pyramid became direct with the creation of the [[Supreme Soviet]]s.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/1936toc.html|title=1936 Constitution of the USSR, TOC|website=www.departments.bucknell.edu}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|Elections of delegates were made by a show of hands in open factory and village meetings, or in meetings of the rank and file of the army. Any candidate was personally known to the electors, and his qualifications could be argued about immediately in front of his face. Delegates once elected were liable to 'recall' should they cease to represent the views of their electorate. Since this electorate was a real entity, always in existence and discussing politics from day to day, it had a live and changing public opinion. Thus the will of his 'constituency' could easily, unmistakably and effectively be brought home to the delegate; and it was equally easy for him to report back to his electors. |Holme, "The Soviets and Ourselves: Two Commonwealths"}}

Local constituents within the factory and village soviet would compile a list of what they want the government to do, and the role of the elected delegates was to carry out the given tasks. Unsatisfactory delegates are liable to recall by majority decision of the electorate: in the 30s, fifteen delegates were so recalled within four years in Moscow alone. There were very few full time administrative workers or state functionaries; instead, many citizens would take part in the day-to-day running of the government. In the 1940s, it was estimated that at any given time there were over a million people participating in the running of the Soviets.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://londonprogressivejournal.com/article/view/2185/the-ussr-the-democracy-you-didnt-know-about|title=The USSR – the Democracy You Didn't Know About|website=London Progressive Journal}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Citizen Participation in Local Soviet Government|author=Hahn, Jeffrey W.|year=1988|publisher = Princeton University Press|doi=10.2307/j.ctv3hh4n4|jstor = j.ctv3hh4n4|isbn = 9781400886920}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wRzUh9CXT7IP1NoPwE3mBIEKPvRoztqz/view?usp=embed_facebook|title=Thurston, Robert Reassessing the History of Soviet Workers - Opportunities to Criticize and Participate in Decision-Making|website=Google Docs}}</ref>

Each Soviet has a variety of committees, parallel to the government departments in the USSR as a whole- public employees aided, advised and ran their relevant committees- for example, teachers would be on education sections, and doctors on healthcare sections:

{{Blockquote|One major factor making the standing committees a more likely arena for deputy participation in the work of the soviet is their smaller size [...] in 1985 nearly 2 million deputies were members of one or another standing committee - about 80 percent of all deputies. In addition, deputies are assisted in their work by unpaid volunteers (''aktiv'') with a particular interest or expertise in the issues before the committee. |Hahn, "Soviet Grassroots: Citizen Participation in Local Soviet Government"}}

The [[Republics of the Soviet Union|Union Republics]], Provinces and Town Soviets had jurisdiction to run their own industry, take censuses, employ more doctors, teachers, and nurses, build schools, libraries and hospitals so long as it did not directly conflict with the national policy. More than half of the Union Republic's income went towards local grants, and local Soviets were largely allowed to determine how their budget was spent.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://drive.google.com/file/d/174Y2CYVVaMumINW1ApKRO5DiC7JOyCI8/view?usp=embed_facebook|title=The_Soviets_and_Ourselves__Two_Commonwealths_1.pdf|website=Google Docs}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|title=The Soviet Concept of Democracy|author=Timasheff, N. S.|year=1950|journal=The Review of Politics|volume=12|issue=4|pages=506–518|doi = 10.1017/S0034670500047173|jstor = 1404887|s2cid=146236568 }}</ref>

Based on the Bolshevik view of the state, the word ''soviet'' [[Extension (semantics)|extended]] its meaning to any overarching body that obtained the authority of a group of soviets. In this sense, individual soviets became part of a [[Federalism|federal]] structure - Communist government bodies at local level and [[Republics of the Soviet Union|republic]] level<ref group="note">Earlier, in the [[Russian SFSR]], there were three levels of soviet hierarchy: local, [[Russia#Subdivisions|republic]], and federal-republic.</ref> were called "soviets", and at the top of the hierarchy, the [[Congress of Soviets]] became the nominal core of the Union government of the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]] (USSR), officially formed in December 1922.  Successive [[Constitution of the Soviet Union|Soviet Constitution]]s recognised the leading role of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]] in politics,{{citation needed|date=December 2015}}  - the [[1936 Soviet Constitution|1936 Constitution]] deemed it the "leading nucleus of all organisations of workers, whether public or state".<ref>
{{cite web|title=Конституция (Основной закон) Союза Советских Социалистических Республик (утверждена постановлением Чрезвычайного VIII Съезда Советов Союза Советских Социалистических Республик от 5 декабря 1936 г.). Глава Х: Основные права и обязанности граждан|trans-title=Constitution (Basic Law) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (confirmed by the decision of the Extraordinary 8th Session of the Soviets of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of 5 December 1936). Chapter 10: Basic rights and duties of citizens|url=http://constitution.garant.ru/history/ussr-rsfsr/1936/red_1936/3958676/chapter/10/|access-date=2015-12-19|website=Sait Konstitutsii Rossiiskoi Federatsii|publisher=НПП "Гарант-Сервис"|language=ru|quote=Статья 126. В соответствии с интересами трудящихся и в целях развития организационной самодеятельности и политической активности народных масс гражданам СССР обеспечивается право объединения в общественные организации: профессиональные союзы, кооперативные объединения, организации молодежи, спортивные и оборонные организации, культурные, технические и научные общества, а наиболее активные и сознательные граждане из рядов рабочего класса и других слоев трудящихся объединяются во Всесоюзную коммунистическую партию (большевиков), являющуюся передовым отрядом трудящихся в их борьбе за укрепление и развитие социалистического строя и представляющую руководящее ядро всех организаций трудящихся, как общественных, так и государственных.}}
</ref>
The soviets were structured as the instruments through which the Party governed the country. Thus the organs of the Communist Party (the highest being the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee]]) made decisions on state policy, while the soviets acted as a system for public approval of implementing the Party's programme.

Later,{{when|date=December 2015}} in the USSR, local-government bodies were named soviet (''sovyet'': council) with an adjective indicating the administrative level, customarily abbreviated: ''gorsoviet'' (''gorodskoy sovyet'': city council), ''raysoviet''/''raisoviet''' (''rayonny sovyet'': [[raion]] council), ''[[selsoviet]]'' (''sel'sky sovyet'': rural council), ''possoviet'' (''poselkovy sovyet'': settlement council). In practice deputies in a soviet often worked in standing committees and carried out functions with the help of unpaid volunteers (the ''aktiv'' - {{langx |ru| актив}}).<ref>
{{cite book|last1=Hahn|first1=Jeffrey W.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YTLuBPO-E9YC|title=Soviet Grassroots: Citizen Participation in Local Soviet Government|date=1988|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=9781850431039|page=230|quote=One major factor making the standing committees a more likely arena for deputy participation in the work of the soviet is their smaller size [...] in 1985 nearly 2 million deputies were members of one or another standing committee - about 80 percent of all deputies. In addition, deputies are assisted in their work by unpaid volunteers (''aktiv'') with a particular interest or expertise in the issues before the committee.}}
</ref>

However, political pluralism disappeared very early. Under Bolshevik rule, rival political parties were suppressed or excluded, and political power became concentrated in the Communist Party. A Cambridge history of Lenin's government notes that Lenin himself came to describe the dictatorship of the proletariat as meaning, “in essence,” the dictatorship of the Communist Party.<ref>{{Citation |title=Government, soviets and party |date=1979 |work=Lenin's Government: Sovnarkom 1917-1922 |pages=160–189 |editor-last=Rigby |editor-first=T. H. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/lenins-government/government-soviets-and-party/F2814164D50C33D03DC27A8D851206E0 |access-date=2026-08-13 |series=Cambridge Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511895579.013 |isbn=978-0-521-06756-0|url-access=subscription }}</ref> 

Furthermore, the existence of elections and recall did not by itself make the soviets democratic in the ordinary competitive sense. By the Stalin period, elections normally did not offer voters a genuine choice among competing political programmes. This is particularly striking after the supposedly democratic 1936 Constitution. Historian J. Arch Getty notes that the first elections to the Supreme Soviet in 1937 permitted only uncontested candidates, while the constitutional civil liberties and democratic guarantees largely remained dead letters.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Getty |first=J. Arch |date=1991 |title=State and Society under Stalin: Constitutions and Elections in the 1930s |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/slavic-review/article/abs/state-and-society-under-stalin-constitutions-and-elections-in-the-1930s/76DA0ACD92C09ADF7C13CC50CB261671 |journal=Slavic Review |language=en |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=18–35 |doi=10.2307/2500596 |issn=0037-6779|url-access=subscription }}</ref> 

The leadership initially contemplated multicandidate elections under the 1936 Constitution, partly as a way of disciplining unpopular local officials. Those plans were abandoned in 1937. The intention was never to permit electoral competition that threatened Communist Party rule.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Samantha |first=Lomb |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315194004 |title=Stalin’s Constitution: Soviet Participatory Politics and the Discussion of the 1936 Draft Constitution: Soviet Participatory Politics and the Discussion of the 1936 Draft Constitution |date=2017-11-09 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-315-19400-4 |edition=1 |location=London |language=en |doi=10.4324/9781315194004}}</ref> Criticism of a factory manager or inefficient local official, for example, was not equivalent to challenging Communist Party rule. Indeed, the system sometimes deliberately encouraged criticism within prescribed ideological boundaries. But organized political opposition to the Party's monopoly on power was another matter. Under Stalin it could be extraordinarily dangerous, including expulsion, dismissal, arrest, imprisonment, exile or execution. Even much later, dissidents could face professional sanctions, surveillance, imprisonment or other forms of repression. One modern scholarly summary puts the development particularly succinctly: the soviets “soon became a rubber stamp of the Communist Party,” with the dictatorship of the proletariat becoming a dictatorship of the party and, under Stalin, of the leader.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rahnema |first=Saeed |date=2023 |title=The (In)conceivability of Real “Workers’ Control” Under Capitalism |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-labor-and-working-class-history/article/inconceivability-of-real-workers-control-under-capitalism/4FE0AB81C4EA9208333A4D81AE593887 |journal=International Labor and Working-Class History |language=en |volume=103 |pages=328–344 |doi=10.1017/S0147547922000308 |issn=0147-5479|doi-access=free }}</ref> 

Opposition was severely constrained. The 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union formally guaranteed freedom of speech, press, assembly and demonstrations in Article 125, but explicitly framed those freedoms as being exercised “in conformity with the interests of the working people” and for strengthening the socialist system. Article 126 simultaneously defined the Communist Party as the “leading core” of organizations of the working people, including state organizations.<ref name=":1" />

==Post-Communist Russia==
Although English speakers perceive the term as connoting the defunct [[Soviet Union]], the same word is used in Russian for the [[Federation Council (Russia)|Federation Council]] of the post-communist [[Federal Assembly (Russia)|Russian Federal Assembly]]. Its untranslated name is Сове́т Федера́ции (Sovyet Federatsii).{{Citation needed|date=November 2025}}

==Outside Russia==
===Poland===
[[File:Poznan 1918 meeting.jpg|right|thumb|Polish soldiers and workers electing a council in [[Poznań]], November 1918]]
{{Main|Workers' Councils in Poland}}
Workers' councils, known as ''rady delegatów robotniczych'' (councils of workers' delegates) or simply ''rady robotnicze'' (workers' councils), were formed in [[Poland]] at various times throughout the 20th century. The first known examples occurred during the [[Revolution in the Kingdom of Poland (1905–1907)]], part of the [[1905 Russian Revolution]], wherein workers in [[Congress Poland]] took control of factories and sometimes even entire towns until tsarist authorities quelled the rebellion using police and military forces; alongside [[Central Russia]] and [[Latvia]], Congress Poland was one of the most active centres of the 1905 of revolution.<ref>{{cite book|last=Tych|first=Feliks|date=2018|editor-last=Wielgosz|editor-first=Przemysław|title=O rewolucji: 1905, 1917|publisher=Instytut Wydawniczy „Książka i Prasa”|pages=7–29|chapter=Przedmowa|isbn=9788365304599}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Luksemburg|first=Róża|date=2018|editor-last=Wielgosz|editor-first=Przemysław|title=O rewolucji: 1905, 1917|publisher=Instytut Wydawniczy „Książka i Prasa”|isbn=9788365304599}}</ref>

In 1918, soviets began popping up all around Poland, which was regaining independence after [[Partitions of Poland|123 years of colonial rule]]. Over 100 workers' councils operated there in the years 1918–1919, assembling around 500,000 workers and peasants.<ref name="onet">{{cite web|url=http://portalwiedzy.onet.pl/69429,,,,rady_delegatow_robotniczych_w_polsce,haslo.html|title=Rady Delegatów Robotniczych w Polsce|publisher=Portal Wiedzy w Onet|access-date=July 30, 2015}}</ref> The most numerous and radical councils were located in [[Kraśnik]], [[Lublin]], [[Płock]], [[Warsaw]], [[Zamość]], and [[Zagłębie Dąbrowskie]].<ref name="onet" /> Although some of the ''rady'' managed to form self-defence units, the councils were dismantled by July 1919 – mostly due to suppression by the Polish government and withdrawal of support from the reformist [[Polish Socialist Party]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Kuhn|first=Rick |title=Henryk Grossman and the Recovery of Marxism|year=2007|page=97}}</ref>

The ''rady robotnicze'' also appeared in the aftermath of [[Second World War|World War II]] 1944–1947,<ref>{{cite book |last=Kenney|first=Padraic |title=Rebuilding Poland: Workers and Communists, 1945–1950|year=1997}}</ref> in the [[Polish People's Republic]] during the [[Poznań protests of 1956]] and [[Polish October]], in 1970, as well as the strike committees and [[History of Solidarity|councils of 1980–1981]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ours to Master and to Own: Workers' Control from the Commune to the Present|last=Ness|first=Immanuel|year=2010}}</ref>

===Germany===
In the wake of World War I, the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democrats]] took power in [[Bavaria]], setting up the [[People's State of Bavaria]] under the leadership of [[Kurt Eisner]], a popular Jewish writer. Eisner, an eccentric and well known figure in [[Munich]], succeeded in carrying out a bloodless coup with a few hundred men on 7 November 1918, occupying the seat of parliament and government, and proclaiming a republic. He was assassinated three months after, whereupon a [[Bavarian Soviet Republic|short-lived soviet republic]] was established by the Bavarian workers.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich - A History of Nazi Germany|last=William L.|first=Shirer|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=1960|pages=30–32}}</ref>

On 1 May 1919, the [[German Army (German Empire)|German Army]], along with local Bavarian [[Freikorps]], overthrew the nascent republic, massacring several hundred persons in the process, including many non-Communist. A Social Democratic government was thereupon restored, however, political power passed to the Bavarian right.<ref name=":0" />

The political turmoil of post-war Bavaria was also the political springboard of Hitler's political career. Hitler, having returned to Munich in late November 1918, detested the soviet state (he elaborated on his aversion to it in his autobiographical work, ''[[Mein Kampf]]'', where he also claimed he once narrowly avoided arrest by the state). After the fall of the soviet administration in Bavaria, Hitler began his "first more or less political activity", informing a military commission regarding those involved in the short-lived soviet state. This work might have been what ensured his future employment with the ''[[Reichswehr]]'' in Munich as an "educational officer" whose task was combating "dangerous" ideas like communism, pacifism, and democracy among the army's ranks (many soldiers had taken part in the [[German Revolution of 1918–1919|German Revolution]]; in fact it was sparked by [[Kiel mutiny|mutinous German sailors]]).<ref name=":0" />

===China===
{{main|Revolutionary base area}}
After the [[Nanchang uprising]], the term was also used by the [[Chinese Communist Party|Chinese Communists]] in the 1920s taking control in [[Communist-controlled China (1927–1949)|some parts of the country]], which were later declared as the [[Chinese Soviet Republic]] in 1931. The CSR was China's first communist government in a structure that would later evolve into the People's Republic of China. The Chinese Soviet Republic was dissolved on 22 September 1937 when the Chinese Communist Party issued, in the Second United Front, its manifesto on unity with the Kuomintang.<ref name="Cultural">{{cite web |title = Chinese Soviet Republic |url = http://history.cultural-china.com/en/34History7366.html |work = Cultural China |publisher = cultural-china.com |access-date = 21 September 2012 |year = 2007–2010 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121025134115/http://history.cultural-china.com/en/34History7366.html |archive-date = 25 October 2012 }}</ref>

In 1929, [[Deng Xiaoping]] led a short-lived soviet in [[Bama Yao Autonomous County|Bama County]].<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Lary |first=Diana |url= |title=China's grandmothers : gender, family, and aging from late Qing to twenty-first century |date=2022 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-009-06478-1 |edition= |location=Cambridge, United Kingdom |pages=204 |oclc=1292532755}}</ref>

===Elsewhere===
The term soon came to be used outside the former Russian Empire following 1917. The [[Limerick Soviet]] was formed in [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland#Ireland|Ireland]] in 1919 at the beginning of the [[Irish War of Independence]], and sprung up alongside a number of [[Irish soviets|soviets in Ireland]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://robertnielsen21.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/1919-limerick-soviet/ |title=1919 Limerick Soviet &#124; Robert Nielsen |publisher=Robertnielsen21.wordpress.com |date=6 October 2012 |access-date=8 February 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Dorney |first=John |date=6 June 2013 |title=The General Strike and Irish independence – The Irish Story |url=https://www.theirishstory.com/2013/06/06/the-general-strike-and-irish-independence/ |access-date=2025-02-05 |language=en-GB}}</ref> In 1920, the ''[[Workers' Dreadnought]]'' published "A Constitution for British Soviets" in preparation for the launch of the [[Communist Party (British Section of the Third International)]].<ref>"[http://libcom.org/library/constitution-british-soviets-points-communist-programme-sylvia-pankhurst A Constitution for British Soviets]," ''Workers' Dreadnought'', Vol VII No.13 19 June 1919</ref> Here the focus was on "household" soviets "[i]n order that mothers and those who are organisers of the family life of the community may be adequately represented."

==Translations==
{{Reflist|group=trans}}

==See also==
{{Wiktionary|soviet}}
* [[Alsace Soviet Republic]]
* [[Arbeitsrat für Kunst]]
* [[Bavarian Soviet Republic]]
* [[Cellular democracy]]
* [[Council communism]]
* [[Federation Council (Russia)]], which translates as Сове́т Федера́ции (''Soviet Federatsii'')
* [[Free soviets]]
* [[German Revolution]]
* [[Irish soviets]]
* [[Jiangxi–Fujian Soviet]]
* [[Participatory democracy]]
* [[Soviet democracy]]
* [[Thing (assembly)]]
* [[Workers' control]] 
* [[Workers' council]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=note}}
*[http://www.cleveland.com/world/index.ssf/2009/10/stalin_put_on_trial_loses_russ.html cleveland.com - Stalin put on trial, loses: Russian court rejects 'bloodthirsty cannibal' libel suit by grandson]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{Commons category|Soviets}}
* Edward Acton, ''Rethinking the Russian Revolution'' (1990), Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|0-7131-6530-8}}.
* [[Tony Cliff]], ''[http://www.marxists.org/archive/cliff/works/1976/lenin2/index.htm Lenin: All Power to the Soviets]'' (1976), Pluto Press.
* [[Voline]], ''The Unknown Revolution'', Black Rose Books.
* Rex A. Wade, ''The Russian Revolution, 1917'' (2005), Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|0-521-84155-0}}.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soviet (Council)}}
[[Category:Communism]]
[[Category:Politics of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Soviet phraseology]]
[[Category:Workers' rights organizations]]
[[Category:Soviets (councils)|  ]]