Les transformations sociales soviétiques (fin 1917­ début 1918)

Abstract

After the October Coup in Petrograd the Soviet power was established in Russia and the first reforms were undertaken . However , there was nothing socialist about the first decrees of the Soviet government aiming at the tasks set by more radical than Bolshevik right­wing parties – the SRs and the Mensheviks . According to the Marxist theory , the Bolsheviks ­ just like the Anarchists ­ hoped that Factory committees , Workers ’ Control bodies , labor union , and the Soviets would work on a single plan . The fields of competence of different levels of economic management were not clearly defined , which led to the conflicts between self­managing bodies and regional administration and resulted in the economic chaos . The choice was inevitable – self­organization , self­management and lower strata democracy or construction from above of a new regime and economy , controlled from a single center and operating on a strict compulsion to decisions of the state center . The Soviet self­organization was a tool for Lenin and the goal was communism . He made his choice and aimed at strengthening the centralization of power . He proposed to end the “ Red Guards ’ attack on capitalism ” and to replace it with systematic nationalization .