A looooooong thread on soviet democracy, the origin of the soviet system, village meetings, city soviets, methods of election, rayons and oblasts, and the systems of democratic organization of the USSR

the stability of the soviet system relied upon its basis: the guaranteed right to vote for all persons by the age of 18, as well as the ability to be elected into any position in the USSR. even foreign workers and ex-criminals were able to vote

a rly interesting thing about soviet democracy is are the categories of the "deprived". here are some of the ppl who could not vote in the USSR:

• those who hire labor for profit
• those who make money off of others
• former officers
• private buisnessmen

so, what were its results? well, the percentage of deprived persons steadily declined - those who wanted to break from the deprived categories had to undergo 5 yrs of socially useful work. enfranchisements and disqualifications in the USSR led to an ever rising electorate

so, what were the governing structures in the USSR? 1st, there was the hierarchy of soviets, from those of the village + the city thru the district (rayon) & province (oblast) and constituent republic congresses or conferences, up to the All Union Congress of Soviets of the USSR,

with its Central Executive Committee (TSIK) and its Council of People’s Commissars (sovnarkom). in this hierarchy of soviets, it was the citizen who was represented. these elections were a direct, complex channel for political communication between the state and its citizens

so, let's discuss the village soviets

those in village soviets were able to discuss any subject of local interest, direct any action to be taken within the village, redistribute holdings of land, alter the conditions of tenure, and much more. and this was before modification!

what the soviets modified in this system didn't take away from anything above, but added onto it. a new and important function (if there were not less than 300 inhabitants) was the triennial election of the village soviet (selosoviet).

more details below

remember those mass meetings mentioned before? here's the described experience of karl borders, an american observer who attended a mass meeting in the soviet union. his words are surprising to say the least

and if a new settlement arose in the USSR?

administrations by village soviets were democratic to say the least - in fact they practiced democracy more than any western country ever has

even more words on the democratic nature of village soviets. even those who are not fans of the USSR should greatly respect this

alright, so now we're onto city soviets. once again, city soviets were democratic, both in organization and processes of election

here's even more proof of the democratic character of these processes:

so, what about workplace democracy? for a lot of people on the radical left, the supposed absence of such democracy is the crux of their critique of the soviet political system. to that, i feel no better example of workplace democracy is the moscow election referenced below

so, what were the purposes of the rayons referenced earlier in this thread? in short, rayons were administrative divisions created in the '20s to reduce the number of territorial divisions inherited from the russian empire and to democratize their bureaucracies

rayons in the cities were also highly democratic. this process wasn't perfect — as we can see below — but they were lightyears ahead of any other democracy on the planet

what about the oblasts i mentioned before? long story short, oblasts of the soviet union were 2nd level administrative units and first-level entities of the republics of the USSR. they were very important organs of power within soviet organization

the next tier of councils, above the oblast/krai where they existed and of the autonomous republics that were around them was that of the seven union or constituent republics of the RSFSR, all of which were directly joined together in federation as the USSR. visual example below

now, if i were to make this thread all encompassing [as in, if i discussed everything from insurance to nat'l defense to banking], we'd be here all day. if you couldn't already tell, this thread is missing a ton on other governing bodies in the USSR, but fear not!

all photos found in this thread are from sidney & beatrice webb's masterwork, "soviet communism: a new civilization?", a book i cannot recommend enough. the authors were initially opposed to the bolsheviks but later decided to seriously research the USSR. it's a gargantuan effort

the result was a detailed account by two non-marxists on just about every major aspect of soviet society

so, while this thread in particular doesn't cover literally everything in the USSR, this book very much so does. in the next tweet, you can find free links to both works

soviet communism: a new civilization? by sidney and beatrice webb:

1: https://archive.org/details/SovietCommunismVolOne

2: https://archive.org/details/SovietCommunismVolTwo

also — here's another thread on soviet democracy i think you should check out by @oktyabrvperedi. check it out if you have time! https://twitter.com/oktyabrvperedi/status/1289239437197574144