Graham R (Ed.) - Anarchism - A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas Volume One - From Anarchy to Anarchism (300 CE to 1939)

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, Tlie Russian RevoCution
83. Gregory Maksimov: The Soviets (1917)
The Soviets were popular democratic institutions that first emerged in st. Petersburg during
the 1905 Russian Revolution. The original Soviets were assemblies of factory workers, soldiers
and peasants. Inevitably, various political fa ctions sought to control them. When the
Soviets were reconstituted fo llowing the February 1917 Russian Revolution, most of the delegates
were affiliated with one or another of the political parties. The Soviets became a popular
counter-power to the Provisional Government led by the moderate Social Revolutionary,
Alexander Kerensky (1881-1970). Gregory Maksimov (or G. P. Maximoff, 1893- 1 950) was an
anarcho-syndicalist active in St. Petersburg, organizing the first conference of Petro grad Factory
Committees in June 1917. In November 1917 (October on the old Russian calendar,
hence the "October Revolution"), the Bolsheviks seized power in a coup d'etat, proclaiming a
revolutionary Soviet government. Many anarchists took part in the October Revolution, regarding
the Bolsheviks as genuine revolutionaries at the time. The Bolsheviks immediately
began to consolidate their power. As a result, by December 1917, Maksimov was denouncing
the Soviets as tools of reaction, and defending the revolutionary role of the factory committees.
The following selection is taken from his December 1917 article, "The Soviets of
Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, " translated by Paul Avrich in his (out of print) collection
of Russian anarchist writings, The Anarchists in the Russian Revolution (London:
T/wmes & Hudson, 1973), reprinted here with the kind permission of the publisher.
I. BEFORE THE "SECOND OCTOBER REVOLUT[ON" the soviets were political, anarchistic,
class organizations mixed with a classless intelligentsia element.
[I. They served as centres in which the will of the proletariat was crystallized,
without compUlsion or fo rce but by discussion, by the will of the majority without coercing
the will ofthe minority.
Ill. The acts of the soviets before 24 October 1917 had a revolutionary character,
for the soviets had been brought into being by the proletariat spontaneously, by