Ten Days That Shook the World | Page 8

the Left Socialist Revolutionaries remained in the
Soviet Government, sharing the Cabinet portfolios, especially that of Agriculture. They
withdrew from the Government several times, but always returned. As the peasants left
the ranks of the Essaires in increasing numbers, they joined the _Left Socialist
Revolutionary party,_ which became the great peasant party supporting the Soviet
Government, standing for confiscation without compensation of the great landed estates,
and their disposition by the peasants themselves. Among the leaders: Spiridonova,
Karelin, Kamkov, Kalagayev.
b. Maximalists. An off-shoot of the _Socialist Revolutionary party_ in the Revolution of
1905, when it was a powerful peasant movement, demanding the immediate application
of the maximum Socialist programme. Now an insignificant group of peasant anarchists.
Parliamentary Procedure
Russian meetings and conventions are organised after the continental model rather than
our own. The first action is usually the election of officers and the presidium.
The presidium is a presiding committee, composed of representatives of the groups and
political factions represented in the assembly, in proportion to their numbers. The
presidium arranges the Order of Business, and its members can be called upon by the
President to take the chair pro tem.
Each question (vopros) is stated in a general way and then debated, and at the close of the
debate resolutions are submitted by the different factions, and each one voted on
separately. The Order of Business can be, and usually is, smashed to pieces in the first
half hour. On the plea of "emergency," which the crowd almost always grants, anybody
from the floor can get up and say anything on any subject. The crowd controls the
meeting, practically the only functions of the speaker being to keep order by ringing a

little bell, and to recognise speakers. Almost all the real work of the session is done in
caucuses of the different groups and political factions, which almost always cast their
votes in a body and are represented by floor-leaders. The result is, however, that at every
important new point, or vote, the session takes a recess to enable the different groups and
political factions to hold a caucus.
The crowd is extremely noisy, cheering or heckling speakers, over-riding the plans of the
presidium. Among the customary cries are: "Prosim! Please! Go on!" "Pravilno!" or "Eto
vierno! That's true! Right!" "Do volno! Enough!" "Doloi! Down with him!" "Posor!
Shame!" and "Teesche! Silence! Not so noisy!"
Popular Organisations
1. Soviet. The word soviet means "council." Under the Tsar the Imperial Council of State
was called Gosudarstvennyi Soviet. Since the Revolution, however, the term Soviet has
come to be associated with a certain type of parliament elected by members of
working-class economic organisations-the Soviet of Workers', of Soldiers', or of Peasants'
Deputies. I have therefore limited the word to these bodies, and wherever else it occurs I
have translated it "Council."
Besides the local Soviets, elected in every city, town and village of Russia-and in large
cities, also Ward _(Raionny) Soviets-there are also the oblastne or gubiernsky_ (district
or provincial) Soviets, and the Central Executive Committee of the All-Russian Soviets in
the capital, called from its initials Tsay-ee-kah. (See below, "Central Committees").
Almost everywhere the Soviets of Workers' and of Soldiers' Deputies combined very
soon after the March Revolution. In special matters concerning their peculiar interests,
however, the Workers' and the Soldiers' Sections continued to meet separately. The
Soviets of Peasants' Deputies did not join the other two until after the Bolshevik coup
d'etat. They, too, were organised like the workers and soldiers, with an Executive
Committee of the All-Russian Peasants' Soviets in the capital.
2. Trade Unions. Although mostly industrial in form, the Russian labour unions were still
called Trade Unions, and at the time of the Bolshevik Revolution had from three to four
million members. These Unions were also organised in an All-Russian body, a sort of
Russian Federation of Labour, which had its Central Executive Committee in the capital.
3. Factory-Shop Committees. These were spontaneous organisations created in the
factories by the workers in their attempt to control industry, taking advantage of the
administrative break-down incident upon the Revolution. Their function was by
revolutionary action to take over and run the factories. The Factory-Shop Committees
also had their All-Russian organisation, with a Central Committee at Petrograd, which
co-operated with the Trade Unions.
4. Dumas. The word duma means roughly "deliberative body." The old Imperial Duma,
which persisted six months after the Revolution, in a democratised form, died a natural
death in September, 1917. The City Duma referred to in this book was the reorganised
Municipal Council, often called "Municipal Self-Government." It was elected by direct

and secret ballot, and its only reason for failure to hold the masses during the Bolshevik
Revolution was the general decline in influence of all purely political representation in
the fact of the