SOVIET CIVILIZATION
GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE OF THE U.
GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE OF THE U.
Soviet Union - 1952 - Soviet Civilization
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
"Public enterprises in collective farms and cooperative
organizations, with their livestock and implements, the
products of the collective farms and cooperative organ-
izations, as well as their common buildings, constitute
the common, socialist property of the collective farms
and cooperative organizations. "
Not less than 60 percent of Soviet families own their
own homes today. Within city limits the size of the plot
permitted for a privately owned house is not more than
720 square yards; in the country it may be twice that
size. Persons building a house are entitled to a credit of
10,000 rubles to assist them in the venture. The credit
carries 2 percent interest and is to be paid back in seven
years. The owner-builder's personal investment must
not be less than 30 percent; but -- and this is a novel
feature -- it need not be in the form of cash, since the
labor put in by the builder and members of his family
is counted as part of his investment. Free timber is avail-
able for construction to war invalids and to ex-servicemen
and their families.
Article 11 gives the key, in my opinion, to the rapid
economic development of the Soviet Union and to its
general economic stability in war and peace: "The
economic life of the U. S. S. R. is determined and directed
by the state national economic plan with the aim of in-
creasing the public wealth, of steadily improving the
material conditions of the working people and raising
their cultural level, of consolidating the independence of
the U. S. S. R. and strengthening its defensive capacity. "
Country-wide social-economic planning in Soviet Russia,
upon the socialist foundations already outlined, is an
asset of inestimable value and definitely something new
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOH
undei the sun. I shall later include an entire section on
it. *
In article 12 we find the important statement: "In
the U. S. S. R. work is a duty and a matter of honor for
every able-bodied citizen, in accordance with the prin-
ciple: 'He who does not work, neither shall he eat. '"
This same thought was enunciated in the Bible by St.
Paul in the second book of Thessalonians, third chapter,
tenth verse: "For even when we were with you, this we
commanded you, that if any would not work, neither
shall he eat. " In the Soviet Union the principle of per-
forming useful work amounts to gospel. It naturally
conduces, through ever-increasing production, to the
general welfare and also to individual happiness, since the
average Soviet citizen is absorbed in a socially significant
job that brings meaning into his life.
There is no place for idlers in Soviet Russia. The
new Soviet morality looks upon all forms of socially
useful labor as ethically worth while and praiseworthy.
To win the award of "Hero of Socialist Labor" in the
Soviet Republic is an honor of highest repute. At the
same time the Soviet system makes wide provisions for
economic assistance to workers in case of accident or
illness, and during old age, giving them throughout adult-
hood a sense of security that encourages psychological
stability and devoted public service.
Chapters II-IX of the Soviet Constitution provide
most of the essential information on how the Soviet
state is organized. I shall merely make a few general
remarks on the formal governmental set-up, which is not
difficult to grasp and has many similarities with demo-
* See p. 165.
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATIOH
cratic institutions in the United States and Great Britain.
Like the U. S. A. , the U. S. S. R. is a federal republic. It
is made up of sixteen different Union or Soviet Socialist
Republics, organized on the basis of nationality and each
possessing a large degree of autonomy and "its own Con-
stitution, which takes account of the specific features of
the Republic and is drawn up in full conformity with
the Constitution of the U. S. S. R. " (Article 16). The
formal autonomy of the Union Republics goes further
than that of States in the U. S. A. in that they have "the
right freely to secede from the U. S. S. R. " (Article 17).
It is doubtful, however, whether in the last analysis any
of them would or could put this provision into effect.
In the U. S. S. R. , as in the United States and England,
the highest legislative body, known as the Supreme
Soviet, has two chambers. These are the Soviet of the
Union, with 678 deputies (1950) who are elected on the
basis of one for every 300,000 of the population; and the
Soviet of Nationalities, with 638 representatives (1950)
elected according to nationality from the Union Repub-
lics and from the national divisions of lesser size within
them. * Unlike the comparable American and British
bodies, the two Soviet chambers have equal rights. The
Soviet of Nationalities, a unique institution in the
history of parliamentary development at the time it was
set up, reflects the multi-national character of the Soviet
commonwealth and the particular interests of the various
national groups. The Constitution gives special recog-
nition throughout to the many different ethnic minorities
of the U. S. S. R. This theme is of great importance and
I shall devote the next chapter to it.
* In the national elections of 1946 and 1950 both Soviets added several
extra members, elected by military units serving outside of the country. In
1950 the number of additional Deputies chosen for each chamber was seven.
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOH
The term of office for each house in the Supreme
Soviet is four years. The Supreme Soviet meets twice
annually. It names the Supreme Court of the U. S. S. R.
for a term of five years. It likewise elects a Presidium or
Executive Committee of thirty-three members to carry
on its functions when it is not in session. Foreign corres-
pondents often refer to the Chairman of the Presidium,
at present Nikolai M. Shvernik, former head of the trade
union movement, as the Soviet "President. " He repre-
sents the Soviet Government at many official functions,
his duties and powers conforming in considerable degree
to those of the President of France.
The Supreme Soviet also chooses the Council of Min-
isters of the U. S. S. R. , which has about sixty members.
This Council corresponds to the Cabinet in America and
England and constitutes the Government of the U. S. S. R.
Its Chairman, at present Joseph Stalin, is Premier of the
Soviet Union, and it has more than twelve Deputy Chair-
men. The Council of Ministers is responsible and ac-
countable to the Presidium, which has the power to annul
its decisions and orders "in case they do not conform
to law" (Article 49f). And the Presidium is in its turn
accountable to the Supreme Soviet.
Thus the Soviet Constitution follows the British pat-
tern, in form at least, in setting up direct parliamentary
responsibility for the central government instead of giv-
ing a chief executive the power, as does the American
Constitution, to continue his administration even after
the highest legislative body has repudiated him. Like-
wise it resembles the British model in doing without a
popularly elected chief executive. Again, the Soviet sys-
tem is like the British rather than the American in that
the Supreme Court does not have the power to declare
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
legislation unconstitutional. The final court of authority
on legislation in Soviet Russia is the Supreme Soviet.
Many constitutional experts believe that placing ulti-
mate power in the legislature is, other things being
equal, a more democratic arrangement than the Ameri-
can system of checks and balances.
The immense scope of a socialist government under
which there is public ownership and operation of the
main means of production and distribution becomes
clear in viewing the functions of the Council of Ministers.
Whereas the American Cabinet administers only nine
separate departments, the Soviet is responsible for fifty-
six. The Council of Ministers (Cabinet) includes the
heads of fifty-one Ministries* and the chairmen of five
special bodies of ministerial rank, namely, the Committee
on Arts, the State Planning Committee, the State Com-
mittee for Construction, the State Committee for Food
and Industrial Commodity Supplies and the State Com-
mittee for Material and Technical Supplies to the Na-
tional Economy.
The Cabinet also has direct charge of more than
twenty Chief Administrations, Administrations, Bureaus,
Commissions, Councils or Committees which do not have
ministerial status, but whose chairmen sit in the Cabinet
in a consultative capacity. Examples of such bodies are
the Central Statistical Administration, the Chief Adminis-
tration of Protective Afforestation, the Academy of Sci-
ences of the U. S. S. R. , the Committee on the Affairs of
Physical Culture and Sport, the Council on Affairs of the
Orthodox Church and the State Arbitration Bureau,
which has the duty of ironing out disagreements and dif-
? Until 1946 the official title of Soviet Ministries was People's Commis-
sariats and of Ministers, People's Commissars.
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOH
Acuities between the various Ministries and sub-Min-
istries.
Twenty-nine of the Ministries under the Soviet Cab-
inet are in the Ail-Union category with nation-wide scope
and function. They are as follows (Article 77):
Agricultural Machine-Building Industry
Agricultural Stocks
Armaments
Automobile and Tractor Industry
Aviation Industry
Chemical Industry
Coal Industry
Communications
Communications Equipment Industry
Construction and Road-Building Machinery
Construction of Heavy Industry Enterprises
Construction of Machine-Building Enterprises
Electrical Industry
Electric Power Stations
Ferrous Metallurgy
Foreign Trade
Geology
Heavy Machine-Building Industry
Labor Reserves
Machine-Tool Building Industry
Machine-Building and Instrument-Building
Merchant Marine
Navy
Non-Ferrous Metallurgy
Oil Industry
Railroads
River Fleet
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
Ship-Building Industry
Transport Machine-Building Industry
The central Soviet Government also is in charge of
twenty-one Union-Republican Ministries which, "as a
rule, direct the branches of state administration entrusted
to them through the corresponding Ministries of the
Union Republics" (Article 76). These corresponding
Ministries of each of the sixteen constituent Republics
have a dual responsibility and accountability, being
"subordinate both to the Council of Ministers of the
Union Republic and to the corresponding Union-Repub-
lican Ministries of the U. S. S. R. " (Article 87). The
twenty-two Union-Republican Ministries are (Article
78):
Agriculture
Army
Building Materials Industry
Cinematography
Cotton Growing
Finance
Fishing Industry
Food Industry
Foreign Affairs
Forestry
Higher Education
Internal Affairs
Justice
Light Industry
Meat and Dairy Industry
Paper and Woodworking
Public Health
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? THE SOVIET CONSTITUTION
State Control
State Farms
State Security
Timber Industry-
Trade
The economic, cultural and political affairs assigned
to the Union-Republican Ministries are run jointly by
the federal and the Republican governments. The Union
Republics administer a few Republican Ministries which
are concerned with local affairs and have no opposite
numbers in the federal government. To summarize,
there are altogether four classes of Ministries in the
governments of the U. S. S. R. and the Union Repub-
lics: the exclusively Republican Ministries just men-
tioned, the Republics' Union-Republican Ministries, the
federal Union-Republican Ministries (bearing the same
names as the corresponding Republican departments),
and the All-Union Ministries which are the responsibility
of the federal administration alone.
The governmental structures of the Union Republics,
and of the subdivisions within them called Autonomous
Soviet Socialist Republics, are somewhat less complicated
than those of the federal state, the most important dif-
ference being that their Supreme Soviets are unicameral
instead of bicameral. This means, of course, that they
do not have a separate Chamber of Nationalities. Repre-
sentation in the Supreme Soviets of the Union Republics
varies, according to size of population, from one deputy
for every 5,000 inhabitants to one for every 150,000.
For the Supreme Soviets of the Autonomous Republics
the general rule is one representative for every 3,000 to
5,000 inhabitants.
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SOVIET CIVILIZATION
GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE OF THE U. S. S. R.
SUPREME COURT
OF THE U. S. S. R.
PROCURATOR
OF THE U. S. S. R.
COUNCIL OF MINISTERS
OF THE U. S. S. R.
STALIN, CHAIRMAN (PREMIER)
COMMITTEES
STATE
PLANNING
COMMITTEE
OF THE U. S. S. R.
STATE COMMITTEE
FOR MATERIAL
AND TECHNICAL
SUPPLIES TO THE
NATIONAL
ECONOMY
and Others
ALL-UNION
MINISTRIES
Armsmentj
Automobile and
Tractor Industry
Coal Industry
Communications
Electric Power
Stations
Foreign Trade
Machine-Tool Build-
ing Industry
Merchant Marine
Oil Industry
Railroads
River Fleet
and Others
UNION-REPUBLICAN
MINISTRIES OF THE
U. S. S. R.
Agriculture
Army
Finance
Food Industry
Foreign Affairs
Higher Education
Justice
Light Industry
Public Health
State Security
Timber Industry
and Others
STATE BANK
SAVINGS
BANKS
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOJi
GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE OF A UNION REPUBLIC
STATE PLANNING
COMMITTEE
OF THE U. S. S. R.
SUPREME COURT
OF THE U. S. S. R.
PROCURATOR
OF THE U. S. S. R.
UNION-REPUBLICAN!
MINISTRIES
OF THE U. S. S. R.
SUPREME COURT
OF THE
UNION REPUBLIC
PROCURATOR
OF THE
lUNION REPUBLIC
COUNCIL OF MINISTERS
OF THE UNION REPUBLIC
STATE PLANNING
COMMITTEE
OF THE
UNION REPUBLIC
COMMITTEE
ON CULTURAL
AND EDUCATIONAL
INSTITUTIONS
and Other Committees
VARYING FROM
REPUBLIC TO
REPUBLIC
REPUBLICAN MINISTRIES
EDUCATION
LOCAL INDUSTRY
MUNICIPAL ECONOMY
SOCIAL MAINTENANCE
and OTHERS VARYING
FROM REPUBLIC TO
REPUBLIC
UNION-REPUBLICAN
MINISTRIES OF THE
U. S. S. R.
AGRICULTURE
ARMY
FINANCE
FOOD INDUSTRY
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HIGHER EDUCATION
JUSTICE
LIGHT INDUSTRY
PUBLIC HEALTH
STATE SECURITY
TIMBER INDUSTRY
and OTHERS
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
In Chapter XI the 1936 Constitution outlines an
electoral system which contains five new provisions that
signify a real advance and that show, to my mind, a grad-
ual evolution toward full-fledged democracy in the Soviet
Union. In the first place, the Constitution renders the
ballot universal, giving the franchise to certain groups
and individuals formerly barred from voting because they
were considered too hostile to the Soviet state or too
unreliable. Article 135 reads: "Elections of deputies are
universal: all citizens of the U. S. S. R. who have reached
the age of eighteen, irrespective of race or nationality,
sex, religion, educational and residential qualifications,
social origin, property status or past activities, have the
right to vote in the election of deputies, with the excep-
tion of insane persons and persons who have been con-
victed by a court of law and whose sentences include
deprivation of electoral rights. "
In the second place, the 1936 Constitution asserts the
principle of equal suffrage for all and does not discrimi-
nate against any group or class. The 1924 Constitution
provided for unequal representation of workers and
peasants in the chief elective bodies, one deputy being
elected for every 25,000 city electors as compared with
one for every 125,000 people in the rural districts. The
reason for this disproportion was that the agricultural
population was at the time still predominantly illiterate
and wedded to individualistic methods of farming. Only
with the progress of education among the peasants and
the triumph of collective farming was it deemed wise for
the Socialist Republic to eliminate the weighting of the
ballot in favor of the progressive city workers. In the
United States today the ballot is still unequal in the
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOH
sense of being generally weighted against the urban
population.
In the third place, the 1936 Constitution establishes
secret voting in the election of all the different grades
of Soviet. Previously elections had been conducted by
a show of hands at open meetings, in the fashion of the
old New England town meeting. Again, in the earlier
years of the Soviet Republic there did not exist the cul-
tural prerequisites among the largely illiterate Soviet
people for carrying through efficiently the processes of
the secret ballot. The simple show of hands, however
subject to abuse, was the natural and intelligent pro-
cedure for a considerable period.
In the fourth place, the 1936 Constitution does away
with the old method of indirect voting for. members of
the upper Soviets and replaces it with the method of
direct popular vote. Under the 1924 Constitution the
voters elected directly only the village and city govern-
ments, which sent representatives to the regional and
Union Republic Soviets, which in turn chose the deputies
to the federal All-Union Congress of Soviets. This
hierarchical system was similar to the election of United
States Senators by the State legislatures until 1913. Now
in the Soviet Union the electorate votes separately and
directly for the delegates to each Soviet.
In the fifth place, the direct ballot guaranteed by the
1936 Constitution makes possible the direct recall of
deputies to any Soviet during their term of office, where-
as previously such recall was limited to the lower Soviets.
Article 142 states: "It is the duty of every deputy to
report to his electors on his work and on the work of the
Soviet of Working People's Deputies, and he is liable
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
to be recalled at any time in the manner established by
law upon decision of a majority of the electors. " The
Soviet people hold their deputies up to rigorous stand-
ards of representation, frequently becoming dissatisfied
with them and using the power of recall. This method
of democratic vigilance is highly developed in Soviet
Russia.
Since there is only one legal political party in the
U. S. S. R. , the Communist Party, the regulations for nomi-
nation to the Soviets are of especial importance. Article
141 lays down the rules: "Candidates for election are
nominated according to electoral areas. The right to
nominate candidates is secured to public organizations
and societies of the working people: Communist Party
organizations, trade unions, cooperatives, youth organi-
zations and cultural societies. " The only other mention
of the Communist Party occurs in Article 126 of the Con-
stitution which declares that "the most active and polit-
ically most conscious citizens in the ranks of the working
class and other sections of the working people unite in
the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks),
which is the vanguard of the working people in their
struggle to strengthen and develop the socialist system
and is the leading core of all organizations of the work-
ing people, both public and state. "
The Soviet Constitution has often been denounced
as "a mere fraudulent facade" on the grounds that it
does not adequately describe the pervasive and all-im-
portant role of the Communist Party in Soviet life. How-
ever, since the Constitution explicitly states that the
Communist Party "is the leading core of all organiza-
tions . . . both public and state," I think that it does
indicate the importance of the Communist Party. It is
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? THE SOVIET COHSTiTUTIOH
appropriate to recall that the American Constitution
makes no mention of any political party whatsoever and
does not even hint at a two-party system or at the part
that political parties have played in American democracy.
In fact, the Founding Fathers of the American Republic
did not envisage a two-party or multi-party system and
felt strongly that parties would be a menace to the new
democratic state. Two distinct and separate political
parties did not come into existence for fifteen years after
the Revolution of 1776; and no candidate was nominated
to oppose George Washington in the first two elections
for President.
A one-party system, then, in which the nominations
are the fundamental thing and in which a single slate
is ratified in elections, does not necessarily prevent true
democracy. In the United States today we have many
examples of democratic single-slate voting. Frequently
the Republican and Democratic Parties agree on the
same candidates for judgeships. In Leonia, New Jersey,
a community of 7,000 people, the Leonia Civic Confer-
ence, a non-partisan group, selects the best candidates
for local offices whom it can find, regardless of political
labels, and nominates them. Almost without exception
the single slate it recommends is elected. The Civic Con-
ference is composed of delegates from the local Demo-
cratic and Republican organizations, from the men's and
women's clubs, and from parents' and veterans' groups.
Any organization with fifty members can send a delegate
to the Conference, or any twenty-five citizens who sign
a petition. In America, too, there are a huge number of
non-governmental societies, associations, councils and
committees most of which elect their officers through the
uncontested single-slate method.
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
It is the Soviet and Marxist theory that different polit-
ical parties arise from conflicting property interests on
the part of different economic classes such as workers and
capitalists, landowners and farmers (or peasants), small
businessmen and monopolists; and that as long as such
groupings exist political freedom, in whatever degree it
can be attained under such circumstances, does demand
different political parties. The Marxist idea is that when
these classes have been eliminated, as in the Soviet Union,
then the need for a multiplicity of parties also disappears.
Whether or not this theory is sound, we cannot insist or
expect that the evolution of democracy in the U. S. S. R.
follow the institutional pattern of the decidedly imperfect
democracies with which the world is already acquainted.
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union, number-
ing in 1952 over 6,000,000 out of an adult population
of some 130,000,000, far from trying to keep all govern-
ment posts to itself, makes every effort to draw non-Party
people into elective and other offices. In the highest
legislative body in the land the percentage of non-Party
members has tended to grow larger since the early years
of the Soviet Republic. From 10 percent in 1924 this
ratio rose to 23. 9 percent in the Supreme Soviet elected
in 1937, although it fell to 17 percent in that chosen in
1950. The percentage of non-Party deputies noticeably
increases in the lower Soviets, rising in 1939 to 47. 4
percent in the city Soviets, to 53. 2 in the town Soviets
and to 76. 9 in the village Soviets. In the elections held
in 1947-48 for all Soviets, including regional and pro-
vincial, below the level of the Union Republic Soviets,
the figure for non-Party representatives was 62. 6 per-
cent.
In any of the Soviets, however, whatever the Com-
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOH
munist Party supports in the way of legislation practically
always goes through; and whatever it opposes is practic-
ally always lost. The Central Committee of the Party,
with its more than seventy members, meets every four
months. It elects an executive committee called the
Political Bureau (Politburo) ,* composed of ten members
and four alternates. The Politburo, on which Premier
Stalin, General Secretary of the Communist Party since
1922, and his closest associates sit, is far and away the
most powerful political unit in Soviet Russia at present,
overshadowing the Government itself. The power of the
Communist Party nationally and locally does not imply
that the governmental and administrative machinery out-
lined by the Constitution is a meaningless shell; for what-
ever the power of the Party, it is this constitutional
machinery which it and the people as a whole use to carry
on the political and economic affairs of the country.
And there is wide popular participation in government
through the Soviets, with the population maintaining
close contact with their deputies in the Soviets at all
levels.
Of democratic significance are the relatively large
number of elective positions in the U. S. S. R. "Ten times
as many Soviet citizens hold elective posts as are chosen
by the American people. . . . Moscow has 1,200 members
in its Council, whereas New York has twenty-seven. . . .
Each neighborhood of about a quarter of a million people
has its own governing council, with considerable author-
ity in local school, housing, police, retailing and civil serv-
* In August, 1952, the Central Committee announced that under a new
statute to be voted on at the Nineteenth Congress of the Soviet Communist
Party in October, 1952, a Presidium takes the place of the Politburo and is
"to guide the work of the Central Committee between plenary sessions. " For
the complete text of the statute see The New York Times, August 21, 1952.
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
ice affairs. Delegates are elected on the basis of one to
every thousand people, or about 250 families. In terms
of New York that means about one elected representative
for each side of each city block. Certainly, government
could hardly get closer to the people than that. "3
It seems to me that there is in the Soviet Union a
mixed governmental system in which dictatorship is con-
joined with strong and growing elements of democracy.
The function of the Communist Party, exercising what
Sidney and Beatrice Webb called its "vocation of leader-
ship," is to act as guide and educator of the people until
sthey are fully versed in the intricacies of self-government.
? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
"Public enterprises in collective farms and cooperative
organizations, with their livestock and implements, the
products of the collective farms and cooperative organ-
izations, as well as their common buildings, constitute
the common, socialist property of the collective farms
and cooperative organizations. "
Not less than 60 percent of Soviet families own their
own homes today. Within city limits the size of the plot
permitted for a privately owned house is not more than
720 square yards; in the country it may be twice that
size. Persons building a house are entitled to a credit of
10,000 rubles to assist them in the venture. The credit
carries 2 percent interest and is to be paid back in seven
years. The owner-builder's personal investment must
not be less than 30 percent; but -- and this is a novel
feature -- it need not be in the form of cash, since the
labor put in by the builder and members of his family
is counted as part of his investment. Free timber is avail-
able for construction to war invalids and to ex-servicemen
and their families.
Article 11 gives the key, in my opinion, to the rapid
economic development of the Soviet Union and to its
general economic stability in war and peace: "The
economic life of the U. S. S. R. is determined and directed
by the state national economic plan with the aim of in-
creasing the public wealth, of steadily improving the
material conditions of the working people and raising
their cultural level, of consolidating the independence of
the U. S. S. R. and strengthening its defensive capacity. "
Country-wide social-economic planning in Soviet Russia,
upon the socialist foundations already outlined, is an
asset of inestimable value and definitely something new
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOH
undei the sun. I shall later include an entire section on
it. *
In article 12 we find the important statement: "In
the U. S. S. R. work is a duty and a matter of honor for
every able-bodied citizen, in accordance with the prin-
ciple: 'He who does not work, neither shall he eat. '"
This same thought was enunciated in the Bible by St.
Paul in the second book of Thessalonians, third chapter,
tenth verse: "For even when we were with you, this we
commanded you, that if any would not work, neither
shall he eat. " In the Soviet Union the principle of per-
forming useful work amounts to gospel. It naturally
conduces, through ever-increasing production, to the
general welfare and also to individual happiness, since the
average Soviet citizen is absorbed in a socially significant
job that brings meaning into his life.
There is no place for idlers in Soviet Russia. The
new Soviet morality looks upon all forms of socially
useful labor as ethically worth while and praiseworthy.
To win the award of "Hero of Socialist Labor" in the
Soviet Republic is an honor of highest repute. At the
same time the Soviet system makes wide provisions for
economic assistance to workers in case of accident or
illness, and during old age, giving them throughout adult-
hood a sense of security that encourages psychological
stability and devoted public service.
Chapters II-IX of the Soviet Constitution provide
most of the essential information on how the Soviet
state is organized. I shall merely make a few general
remarks on the formal governmental set-up, which is not
difficult to grasp and has many similarities with demo-
* See p. 165.
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATIOH
cratic institutions in the United States and Great Britain.
Like the U. S. A. , the U. S. S. R. is a federal republic. It
is made up of sixteen different Union or Soviet Socialist
Republics, organized on the basis of nationality and each
possessing a large degree of autonomy and "its own Con-
stitution, which takes account of the specific features of
the Republic and is drawn up in full conformity with
the Constitution of the U. S. S. R. " (Article 16). The
formal autonomy of the Union Republics goes further
than that of States in the U. S. A. in that they have "the
right freely to secede from the U. S. S. R. " (Article 17).
It is doubtful, however, whether in the last analysis any
of them would or could put this provision into effect.
In the U. S. S. R. , as in the United States and England,
the highest legislative body, known as the Supreme
Soviet, has two chambers. These are the Soviet of the
Union, with 678 deputies (1950) who are elected on the
basis of one for every 300,000 of the population; and the
Soviet of Nationalities, with 638 representatives (1950)
elected according to nationality from the Union Repub-
lics and from the national divisions of lesser size within
them. * Unlike the comparable American and British
bodies, the two Soviet chambers have equal rights. The
Soviet of Nationalities, a unique institution in the
history of parliamentary development at the time it was
set up, reflects the multi-national character of the Soviet
commonwealth and the particular interests of the various
national groups. The Constitution gives special recog-
nition throughout to the many different ethnic minorities
of the U. S. S. R. This theme is of great importance and
I shall devote the next chapter to it.
* In the national elections of 1946 and 1950 both Soviets added several
extra members, elected by military units serving outside of the country. In
1950 the number of additional Deputies chosen for each chamber was seven.
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOH
The term of office for each house in the Supreme
Soviet is four years. The Supreme Soviet meets twice
annually. It names the Supreme Court of the U. S. S. R.
for a term of five years. It likewise elects a Presidium or
Executive Committee of thirty-three members to carry
on its functions when it is not in session. Foreign corres-
pondents often refer to the Chairman of the Presidium,
at present Nikolai M. Shvernik, former head of the trade
union movement, as the Soviet "President. " He repre-
sents the Soviet Government at many official functions,
his duties and powers conforming in considerable degree
to those of the President of France.
The Supreme Soviet also chooses the Council of Min-
isters of the U. S. S. R. , which has about sixty members.
This Council corresponds to the Cabinet in America and
England and constitutes the Government of the U. S. S. R.
Its Chairman, at present Joseph Stalin, is Premier of the
Soviet Union, and it has more than twelve Deputy Chair-
men. The Council of Ministers is responsible and ac-
countable to the Presidium, which has the power to annul
its decisions and orders "in case they do not conform
to law" (Article 49f). And the Presidium is in its turn
accountable to the Supreme Soviet.
Thus the Soviet Constitution follows the British pat-
tern, in form at least, in setting up direct parliamentary
responsibility for the central government instead of giv-
ing a chief executive the power, as does the American
Constitution, to continue his administration even after
the highest legislative body has repudiated him. Like-
wise it resembles the British model in doing without a
popularly elected chief executive. Again, the Soviet sys-
tem is like the British rather than the American in that
the Supreme Court does not have the power to declare
59
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
legislation unconstitutional. The final court of authority
on legislation in Soviet Russia is the Supreme Soviet.
Many constitutional experts believe that placing ulti-
mate power in the legislature is, other things being
equal, a more democratic arrangement than the Ameri-
can system of checks and balances.
The immense scope of a socialist government under
which there is public ownership and operation of the
main means of production and distribution becomes
clear in viewing the functions of the Council of Ministers.
Whereas the American Cabinet administers only nine
separate departments, the Soviet is responsible for fifty-
six. The Council of Ministers (Cabinet) includes the
heads of fifty-one Ministries* and the chairmen of five
special bodies of ministerial rank, namely, the Committee
on Arts, the State Planning Committee, the State Com-
mittee for Construction, the State Committee for Food
and Industrial Commodity Supplies and the State Com-
mittee for Material and Technical Supplies to the Na-
tional Economy.
The Cabinet also has direct charge of more than
twenty Chief Administrations, Administrations, Bureaus,
Commissions, Councils or Committees which do not have
ministerial status, but whose chairmen sit in the Cabinet
in a consultative capacity. Examples of such bodies are
the Central Statistical Administration, the Chief Adminis-
tration of Protective Afforestation, the Academy of Sci-
ences of the U. S. S. R. , the Committee on the Affairs of
Physical Culture and Sport, the Council on Affairs of the
Orthodox Church and the State Arbitration Bureau,
which has the duty of ironing out disagreements and dif-
? Until 1946 the official title of Soviet Ministries was People's Commis-
sariats and of Ministers, People's Commissars.
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOH
Acuities between the various Ministries and sub-Min-
istries.
Twenty-nine of the Ministries under the Soviet Cab-
inet are in the Ail-Union category with nation-wide scope
and function. They are as follows (Article 77):
Agricultural Machine-Building Industry
Agricultural Stocks
Armaments
Automobile and Tractor Industry
Aviation Industry
Chemical Industry
Coal Industry
Communications
Communications Equipment Industry
Construction and Road-Building Machinery
Construction of Heavy Industry Enterprises
Construction of Machine-Building Enterprises
Electrical Industry
Electric Power Stations
Ferrous Metallurgy
Foreign Trade
Geology
Heavy Machine-Building Industry
Labor Reserves
Machine-Tool Building Industry
Machine-Building and Instrument-Building
Merchant Marine
Navy
Non-Ferrous Metallurgy
Oil Industry
Railroads
River Fleet
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
Ship-Building Industry
Transport Machine-Building Industry
The central Soviet Government also is in charge of
twenty-one Union-Republican Ministries which, "as a
rule, direct the branches of state administration entrusted
to them through the corresponding Ministries of the
Union Republics" (Article 76). These corresponding
Ministries of each of the sixteen constituent Republics
have a dual responsibility and accountability, being
"subordinate both to the Council of Ministers of the
Union Republic and to the corresponding Union-Repub-
lican Ministries of the U. S. S. R. " (Article 87). The
twenty-two Union-Republican Ministries are (Article
78):
Agriculture
Army
Building Materials Industry
Cinematography
Cotton Growing
Finance
Fishing Industry
Food Industry
Foreign Affairs
Forestry
Higher Education
Internal Affairs
Justice
Light Industry
Meat and Dairy Industry
Paper and Woodworking
Public Health
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? THE SOVIET CONSTITUTION
State Control
State Farms
State Security
Timber Industry-
Trade
The economic, cultural and political affairs assigned
to the Union-Republican Ministries are run jointly by
the federal and the Republican governments. The Union
Republics administer a few Republican Ministries which
are concerned with local affairs and have no opposite
numbers in the federal government. To summarize,
there are altogether four classes of Ministries in the
governments of the U. S. S. R. and the Union Repub-
lics: the exclusively Republican Ministries just men-
tioned, the Republics' Union-Republican Ministries, the
federal Union-Republican Ministries (bearing the same
names as the corresponding Republican departments),
and the All-Union Ministries which are the responsibility
of the federal administration alone.
The governmental structures of the Union Republics,
and of the subdivisions within them called Autonomous
Soviet Socialist Republics, are somewhat less complicated
than those of the federal state, the most important dif-
ference being that their Supreme Soviets are unicameral
instead of bicameral. This means, of course, that they
do not have a separate Chamber of Nationalities. Repre-
sentation in the Supreme Soviets of the Union Republics
varies, according to size of population, from one deputy
for every 5,000 inhabitants to one for every 150,000.
For the Supreme Soviets of the Autonomous Republics
the general rule is one representative for every 3,000 to
5,000 inhabitants.
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?
SOVIET CIVILIZATION
GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE OF THE U. S. S. R.
SUPREME COURT
OF THE U. S. S. R.
PROCURATOR
OF THE U. S. S. R.
COUNCIL OF MINISTERS
OF THE U. S. S. R.
STALIN, CHAIRMAN (PREMIER)
COMMITTEES
STATE
PLANNING
COMMITTEE
OF THE U. S. S. R.
STATE COMMITTEE
FOR MATERIAL
AND TECHNICAL
SUPPLIES TO THE
NATIONAL
ECONOMY
and Others
ALL-UNION
MINISTRIES
Armsmentj
Automobile and
Tractor Industry
Coal Industry
Communications
Electric Power
Stations
Foreign Trade
Machine-Tool Build-
ing Industry
Merchant Marine
Oil Industry
Railroads
River Fleet
and Others
UNION-REPUBLICAN
MINISTRIES OF THE
U. S. S. R.
Agriculture
Army
Finance
Food Industry
Foreign Affairs
Higher Education
Justice
Light Industry
Public Health
State Security
Timber Industry
and Others
STATE BANK
SAVINGS
BANKS
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOJi
GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE OF A UNION REPUBLIC
STATE PLANNING
COMMITTEE
OF THE U. S. S. R.
SUPREME COURT
OF THE U. S. S. R.
PROCURATOR
OF THE U. S. S. R.
UNION-REPUBLICAN!
MINISTRIES
OF THE U. S. S. R.
SUPREME COURT
OF THE
UNION REPUBLIC
PROCURATOR
OF THE
lUNION REPUBLIC
COUNCIL OF MINISTERS
OF THE UNION REPUBLIC
STATE PLANNING
COMMITTEE
OF THE
UNION REPUBLIC
COMMITTEE
ON CULTURAL
AND EDUCATIONAL
INSTITUTIONS
and Other Committees
VARYING FROM
REPUBLIC TO
REPUBLIC
REPUBLICAN MINISTRIES
EDUCATION
LOCAL INDUSTRY
MUNICIPAL ECONOMY
SOCIAL MAINTENANCE
and OTHERS VARYING
FROM REPUBLIC TO
REPUBLIC
UNION-REPUBLICAN
MINISTRIES OF THE
U. S. S. R.
AGRICULTURE
ARMY
FINANCE
FOOD INDUSTRY
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HIGHER EDUCATION
JUSTICE
LIGHT INDUSTRY
PUBLIC HEALTH
STATE SECURITY
TIMBER INDUSTRY
and OTHERS
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
In Chapter XI the 1936 Constitution outlines an
electoral system which contains five new provisions that
signify a real advance and that show, to my mind, a grad-
ual evolution toward full-fledged democracy in the Soviet
Union. In the first place, the Constitution renders the
ballot universal, giving the franchise to certain groups
and individuals formerly barred from voting because they
were considered too hostile to the Soviet state or too
unreliable. Article 135 reads: "Elections of deputies are
universal: all citizens of the U. S. S. R. who have reached
the age of eighteen, irrespective of race or nationality,
sex, religion, educational and residential qualifications,
social origin, property status or past activities, have the
right to vote in the election of deputies, with the excep-
tion of insane persons and persons who have been con-
victed by a court of law and whose sentences include
deprivation of electoral rights. "
In the second place, the 1936 Constitution asserts the
principle of equal suffrage for all and does not discrimi-
nate against any group or class. The 1924 Constitution
provided for unequal representation of workers and
peasants in the chief elective bodies, one deputy being
elected for every 25,000 city electors as compared with
one for every 125,000 people in the rural districts. The
reason for this disproportion was that the agricultural
population was at the time still predominantly illiterate
and wedded to individualistic methods of farming. Only
with the progress of education among the peasants and
the triumph of collective farming was it deemed wise for
the Socialist Republic to eliminate the weighting of the
ballot in favor of the progressive city workers. In the
United States today the ballot is still unequal in the
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOH
sense of being generally weighted against the urban
population.
In the third place, the 1936 Constitution establishes
secret voting in the election of all the different grades
of Soviet. Previously elections had been conducted by
a show of hands at open meetings, in the fashion of the
old New England town meeting. Again, in the earlier
years of the Soviet Republic there did not exist the cul-
tural prerequisites among the largely illiterate Soviet
people for carrying through efficiently the processes of
the secret ballot. The simple show of hands, however
subject to abuse, was the natural and intelligent pro-
cedure for a considerable period.
In the fourth place, the 1936 Constitution does away
with the old method of indirect voting for. members of
the upper Soviets and replaces it with the method of
direct popular vote. Under the 1924 Constitution the
voters elected directly only the village and city govern-
ments, which sent representatives to the regional and
Union Republic Soviets, which in turn chose the deputies
to the federal All-Union Congress of Soviets. This
hierarchical system was similar to the election of United
States Senators by the State legislatures until 1913. Now
in the Soviet Union the electorate votes separately and
directly for the delegates to each Soviet.
In the fifth place, the direct ballot guaranteed by the
1936 Constitution makes possible the direct recall of
deputies to any Soviet during their term of office, where-
as previously such recall was limited to the lower Soviets.
Article 142 states: "It is the duty of every deputy to
report to his electors on his work and on the work of the
Soviet of Working People's Deputies, and he is liable
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
to be recalled at any time in the manner established by
law upon decision of a majority of the electors. " The
Soviet people hold their deputies up to rigorous stand-
ards of representation, frequently becoming dissatisfied
with them and using the power of recall. This method
of democratic vigilance is highly developed in Soviet
Russia.
Since there is only one legal political party in the
U. S. S. R. , the Communist Party, the regulations for nomi-
nation to the Soviets are of especial importance. Article
141 lays down the rules: "Candidates for election are
nominated according to electoral areas. The right to
nominate candidates is secured to public organizations
and societies of the working people: Communist Party
organizations, trade unions, cooperatives, youth organi-
zations and cultural societies. " The only other mention
of the Communist Party occurs in Article 126 of the Con-
stitution which declares that "the most active and polit-
ically most conscious citizens in the ranks of the working
class and other sections of the working people unite in
the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks),
which is the vanguard of the working people in their
struggle to strengthen and develop the socialist system
and is the leading core of all organizations of the work-
ing people, both public and state. "
The Soviet Constitution has often been denounced
as "a mere fraudulent facade" on the grounds that it
does not adequately describe the pervasive and all-im-
portant role of the Communist Party in Soviet life. How-
ever, since the Constitution explicitly states that the
Communist Party "is the leading core of all organiza-
tions . . . both public and state," I think that it does
indicate the importance of the Communist Party. It is
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? THE SOVIET COHSTiTUTIOH
appropriate to recall that the American Constitution
makes no mention of any political party whatsoever and
does not even hint at a two-party system or at the part
that political parties have played in American democracy.
In fact, the Founding Fathers of the American Republic
did not envisage a two-party or multi-party system and
felt strongly that parties would be a menace to the new
democratic state. Two distinct and separate political
parties did not come into existence for fifteen years after
the Revolution of 1776; and no candidate was nominated
to oppose George Washington in the first two elections
for President.
A one-party system, then, in which the nominations
are the fundamental thing and in which a single slate
is ratified in elections, does not necessarily prevent true
democracy. In the United States today we have many
examples of democratic single-slate voting. Frequently
the Republican and Democratic Parties agree on the
same candidates for judgeships. In Leonia, New Jersey,
a community of 7,000 people, the Leonia Civic Confer-
ence, a non-partisan group, selects the best candidates
for local offices whom it can find, regardless of political
labels, and nominates them. Almost without exception
the single slate it recommends is elected. The Civic Con-
ference is composed of delegates from the local Demo-
cratic and Republican organizations, from the men's and
women's clubs, and from parents' and veterans' groups.
Any organization with fifty members can send a delegate
to the Conference, or any twenty-five citizens who sign
a petition. In America, too, there are a huge number of
non-governmental societies, associations, councils and
committees most of which elect their officers through the
uncontested single-slate method.
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
It is the Soviet and Marxist theory that different polit-
ical parties arise from conflicting property interests on
the part of different economic classes such as workers and
capitalists, landowners and farmers (or peasants), small
businessmen and monopolists; and that as long as such
groupings exist political freedom, in whatever degree it
can be attained under such circumstances, does demand
different political parties. The Marxist idea is that when
these classes have been eliminated, as in the Soviet Union,
then the need for a multiplicity of parties also disappears.
Whether or not this theory is sound, we cannot insist or
expect that the evolution of democracy in the U. S. S. R.
follow the institutional pattern of the decidedly imperfect
democracies with which the world is already acquainted.
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union, number-
ing in 1952 over 6,000,000 out of an adult population
of some 130,000,000, far from trying to keep all govern-
ment posts to itself, makes every effort to draw non-Party
people into elective and other offices. In the highest
legislative body in the land the percentage of non-Party
members has tended to grow larger since the early years
of the Soviet Republic. From 10 percent in 1924 this
ratio rose to 23. 9 percent in the Supreme Soviet elected
in 1937, although it fell to 17 percent in that chosen in
1950. The percentage of non-Party deputies noticeably
increases in the lower Soviets, rising in 1939 to 47. 4
percent in the city Soviets, to 53. 2 in the town Soviets
and to 76. 9 in the village Soviets. In the elections held
in 1947-48 for all Soviets, including regional and pro-
vincial, below the level of the Union Republic Soviets,
the figure for non-Party representatives was 62. 6 per-
cent.
In any of the Soviets, however, whatever the Com-
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOH
munist Party supports in the way of legislation practically
always goes through; and whatever it opposes is practic-
ally always lost. The Central Committee of the Party,
with its more than seventy members, meets every four
months. It elects an executive committee called the
Political Bureau (Politburo) ,* composed of ten members
and four alternates. The Politburo, on which Premier
Stalin, General Secretary of the Communist Party since
1922, and his closest associates sit, is far and away the
most powerful political unit in Soviet Russia at present,
overshadowing the Government itself. The power of the
Communist Party nationally and locally does not imply
that the governmental and administrative machinery out-
lined by the Constitution is a meaningless shell; for what-
ever the power of the Party, it is this constitutional
machinery which it and the people as a whole use to carry
on the political and economic affairs of the country.
And there is wide popular participation in government
through the Soviets, with the population maintaining
close contact with their deputies in the Soviets at all
levels.
Of democratic significance are the relatively large
number of elective positions in the U. S. S. R. "Ten times
as many Soviet citizens hold elective posts as are chosen
by the American people. . . . Moscow has 1,200 members
in its Council, whereas New York has twenty-seven. . . .
Each neighborhood of about a quarter of a million people
has its own governing council, with considerable author-
ity in local school, housing, police, retailing and civil serv-
* In August, 1952, the Central Committee announced that under a new
statute to be voted on at the Nineteenth Congress of the Soviet Communist
Party in October, 1952, a Presidium takes the place of the Politburo and is
"to guide the work of the Central Committee between plenary sessions. " For
the complete text of the statute see The New York Times, August 21, 1952.
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
ice affairs. Delegates are elected on the basis of one to
every thousand people, or about 250 families. In terms
of New York that means about one elected representative
for each side of each city block. Certainly, government
could hardly get closer to the people than that. "3
It seems to me that there is in the Soviet Union a
mixed governmental system in which dictatorship is con-
joined with strong and growing elements of democracy.
The function of the Communist Party, exercising what
Sidney and Beatrice Webb called its "vocation of leader-
ship," is to act as guide and educator of the people until
sthey are fully versed in the intricacies of self-government.
