Saint Petersburg Soviet

St. Petersburg Soviet of Worker's Delegates was a workers' council, or soviet in St. Petersburg in 1905. It should not be confused with the Petrograd Soviet of 1917.

Origins

The idea of a Soviet as an organ to coordinate workers' strike activities arose during the January-February 1905 meetings of workers at the apartment of Voline (later a famous anarchist) during the abortive revolution of 1905. Voline, "Unknown Revolution", [http://www.ditext.com/voline/89.html Chapter 2: The Birth of the "Soviets"] ] Accordine to Voline's book, its first chairman was a paralegal Khrustalyov-Nosar (Georgy Nosar, alias Pyotr Khrustalyov, Хрусталев Петр Алексеевич (Носарь Георгий Степанович) (1877-1918)). The Soviet held regular meetings and printed leaflets, "Notices of the Soviet of Workers' Delegates" (Известия Со­вета рабочих делегатов). However, its activities were quickly ceased due to governmental repression.

Voline claims that due to political reasons the Bolsheviks, beginning with Trotsky, falsified the history of the soviet, shifting the date of the first establishment of a Soviet in St. Petersburg to the period of the October Strike (General Strike of October 1905), when Trotsky took an active part in its work and attributed the initiative of its creation to one of Social Democrat groups.

Trotsky claims, in his book "1905", that the first meeting "of what was to become the Soviet was held on the evening of the thirteenth [ October 13, 1905 ] , in the Technological Institute. Not more than thirty to forty delegates attended." [Trotsky, Leon, "1905", p 123, Penguin Books, (1971) ( [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1907/1905/index.htm English version online] )] The name of this Soviet was however slightly different: "Soviet of Workers' Deputies" rather than Voline's "Soviet of Workers' Delegates". Khrustalyov-Nosar was the first chairman of this soviet also.

Achievements of the Soviet

The Soviet of Workers' Deputies soon had between 400-500 members (elected by around 200,000 workers), representing five trade unions and 96 factories around St. Petersburg. Initially, its members were largely local politically conscious workers but it was rapidly dominated by established radical groups. The Mensheviks were most influential, while members from the Bolsheviks and Esers remained a minority. During the 1905 revolution, Leon Trotsky returned from exile to became Nosar's deputy in the Soviet. After the arrest of Nosar, Trotsky became chairman and swiftly altered the party's agenda. Under his more pragmatic leadership, the general strike was called off because it was feared that it would provide the imperial government with an excuse for greater oppression.

Its work consisted of the organisation and coordination of strike action and supplies for the workers. In practice, the Soviet's policies remained moderate, with its most extreme actions being an appeal for its supporters to refuse to pay taxes and to withdraw their bank deposits. Its influence within St. Petersburg was arguably greater than that of the imperial government during the revolution, but its effectiveness has been questioned. The general strike of October 1905 occurred spontaneously without the Soviet's intervention, and its attempts to call a second general strike in November failed.

The St. Petersburg Soviet ceased to exist on December 3, 1905, when its leaders (including Trotsky, Parvus and others) were arrested by government troops and charged with supporting an armed rebellion.

Aftermath

The Bolsheviks, including Lenin in his articles and Bukharin in his book "The ABC of Communism" ("Азбука коммунизма"), wrote that the first soviets were "spontaneously created by workers", without any attribution to party affiliation. This interpretation was also given in the "Great Soviet Encyclopedia", article "Soviets of Workers' Deputies" ("Советы депутатов трудящихся"), which also mentions that the Ivanovo Soviet (created in May 1905) to be one of the first Soviets in the history.

References

*Robert Wolfson, "Years of Change", Edward Arnold, 1978 ISBN 0340775262
*David Warnes, "Chronicle of the Russian Tsars: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial Russia", Thames & Hudson, 1999, 224 pages ISBN 0500050937