CHAPTER X
GOVERNMENT INDUSTRY AND AGRICULTURE
THE SOVIET STATE
The All-Russian Congress of Soviets is composed of representatives of urban Soviets, one delegate for 25,000 voters, and of rural Soviets, one delegate for 125,000 inhabitants. This Congress is convoked at least twice a year. There had already been six meetings. The Congress elects an All-Russian Central Executive Committee of not more than two hundred members, which is the supreme power of the republic, in all periods between convocations of the Congress. It directs in a general way the activities of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Government, considers and enacts all measures or proposals introduced by the Soviet of Peoples’ Commissars, convokes the Congress of Soviets, and forms a Council of People’s Commissars. This council in turn is entrusted with the general management of the affairs of the republic and in this capacity issues decrees, resolutions and orders, notifying the Central Executive Committee immediately of all such orders or decrees.
There are seventeen of these Commissars, (1) Foreign Affairs, (2) Army, (3) Navy, (4) Interior, (5) Justice, (6) Labor, (7) Social Welfare, (8) Education, (9) Post and Telegraph, (10) National Affairs, (11) Finances, (12) Ways of Communication, (13) Agriculture, (14) Commerce and Industry, (15) National Supplies, (16) Supreme Soviet of National Economy, (17) Public Health. Each Commissar has a collegium, or committee, the members of which are appointed by the Council of People’s Commissars, of which body Lenin is the president.
These committees act as the administrators of the nation, dealing with ratification and amendments to the constitution; the general interior and foreign policy of the republic; boundaries; the admission or secessions of new members; the establishing or changing of weights, measures, or money denominations; declarations of war or peace treaties; loans, commercial agreements or treaties; taxes; military affairs; legislation and judicial procedure; civil and criminal procedure; and citizenship.
Local affairs are administered by local Soviets, in the following order: Rural Soviets, of ten or less than ten members, send one delegate to the rural congress, which in turn sends one delegate for each ten of its members to the County Soviet Congress. This County Soviet Congress sends one delegate for each 1,000 inhabitants (though not more than three hundred in all may be sent) to the Provincial Soviet Congress, which is made up of representatives of both urban and rural Soviets. The Provincial Soviet Congress sends from its body one representative for 10,000 inhabitants of the rural districts, and one for each 2,000 voters in the city, to the Regional Soviet Congress. This Congress sends one delegate for each 125,000 inhabitants to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets.
All these Congresses of Soviets elect their own executive committees for handling local affairs, but in small rural districts questions are decided at general meetings of the voters whenever possible. The functions of the local Congresses of Soviets and deputies are given thus in the Constitution: To carry out all orders of the respective higher organs of the Soviet Power; to take all steps for raising the cultural and economic standard of the given territory; to decide all questions of local importance within their respective territories; and to coordinate all Soviet activity in their respective territories.
Roughly speaking, the Supreme Council of National Economy, which is established under the Council of the People’s Commissars, deals with the organization and distribution of production. It coordinates the activities of the federal and the local Soviets, and has the right of confiscation, requisition, or compulsory syndication of various branches of industry and commerce; it determines the amount of raw materials and fuel needed, obtains and distributes them, and organizes and supplies the rural economy. It works in close and constant touch with the All-Russian Professional Alliances, and under its direction the latter constantly regulates the wage scales in accordance with the rise and fall of prices of commodities. When I was in Moscow the average wage paid was 3,000 rubles per month, and in Petrograd 3,500. A member of the Council of People’s Commissars received 4,500 per month, out of which he had to pay rent and buy food and clothing. Lenin, as president, received the same amount, which was equivalent to about $180 in American money.
All men and women of the republic belonging to the following classes are allowed to vote after their eighteenth year: Individuals doing productive or useful work; all persons engaged in housekeeping which enables others to do productive work; peasants who employ no help in agricultural labor; soldiers of the army and sailors of the navy; citizens who are incapacited for work; and foreigners who live in and are working for the republic.
Suffrage and candidacy are denied to persons who employ labor in order to obtain profits; persons who live on an income, such as interest from capital, receipts from property, etc.; private merchants, trade or commercial brokers; monks and clergy of all denominations;[[A]] employees and agents of the former police, gendarmes, or secret service; persons under legal guardianship, or who have been declared by law as demented or mentally deficient; and persons who have been deprived of their rights of citizenship by a Soviet, for selfish or dishonorable offences for the term fixed by the Soviet.