Soviet Decree

Decrees (Russian: декреты) were legislative acts of the highest Soviet institutions, primarily of the Council of People's Commissars (the highest executive body) and of the Supreme Soviet or VTsIK (the highest legislative body), ^[1] issued between 1917 and 1924. Such acts issued after 1924 are referred to as Decisions (Russian: постановление) or Ukases in Soviet sources.

Bolshevik Initial Decrees

Decree on Peace title page

The Bolshevik Initial Decrees were announced as soon as the Bolsheviks declared their success in the October Revolution (October 26, 1917). The decrees seemed to conform to the popular Bolshevik slogan "Peace, Bread, and Land", taken up by the masses during the July Days (July 1917), an uprising of workers and military forces. The slogan succinctly articulated the grievances of the Russian peasantry, armed forces and proletariat (the working-class sections of Russian society). As revisionist historian Christopher Read suggests, "The Bolsheviks were successful in uniting the diverse revolutionary movements and directing them towards one goal", namely the establishment of state-socialism. The purpose of the article is not to cover the details of that unification process, but rather general information on the most famous decrees of the Soviet government and council. One should be aware that most of their decrees were already the law projects that were on the discussion during the sessions of the State Duma, but did not obtain majority of votes to become the laws due to disagreements within the Duma.

The Decree on Peace outlined measures for Russia's withdrawal from the First World War without "payment of indemnities or annexations". This decree aimed to secure the support of many soldiers on the disintegrating Russian front. The sincerity of this Bolshevik assurance came under scrutiny when V.L Lenin endorsed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which divested Russia of its Baltic territory.

The Decree on Land outlined measures by which the peasants were to divide up rural land among themselves. It advocated the forceful dissolution of many wealthy estates by peasant forces. Such measures no doubt contributed to an increase in Bolshevik support amongst the peasantry, but were counterproductive in that the Russian war front disintegrated as soldiers (who were formerly peasants) returned to secure land for themselves.

The Workers' Decrees outlined measures for minimum wage, limitations on workers' hours, and the running of factories by elected workers' committees. This consolidated Bolshevik support amongst the working classes in the cities, where they had taken power.

The Bolsheviks also declared approximately 100 other decrees outlining the formal setup of Bolshevik government through the medium of the soviet institutions. Nevertheless, Soviet political sovereignty was to be further challenged by the fact that the Social Revolutionary party attained over 50% of the votes in a democratically elected Assembly in January 1918. (This was promptly shut down by the Bolsheviks on the grounds that the Soviets were a more advanced democratic representation of the Russian people).

The significance of the initial decrees has been the subject of much historical debate. Some Liberal historians see the decrees as policy-making which was designed to secure the support of the population at a time of instability within the regime. According to liberal historians, such as Richard Pipes, this support was then manipulated by key Bolsheviks in search of a totalitarian state. Bearing this perspective in mind, historian Edward Acton states, "the cleavage of the goals of the masses and that of the Bolsheviks was fundamental." Acton believes that at the point of the initial decrees, the masses of people who supported the Bolsheviks were still unaware that their interests were not tied to those of the Bolshevik party. Conversely, revisionist historians have, more recently, interpreted the initial decrees as popular social policies undertaken with a view to precipitating a better quality of life for the Russian people. Under this reading, state-socialism did not necessarily tend towards dictatorship and the Bolshevik party was benevolent. Consequently, a revisionist perspective seems to see the sort of totalitarian state which evolved later on as largely circumstantial. Whatever historical view one ascribes to, it seems to be universally accepted that the initial decrees were an attempt by the Bolsheviks to secure popular support. However, the historiography of this period seems to hinge largely on the intentions of the Bolsheviks in achieving widespread endorsement.

List of Soviet Decrees

1917

1918

1919

1920

1921

1922

1924

References

1. ↑ Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd edition, entry on "Декрет", available online here

• Acton, Edward (1990). Rethinking the Russian Revolution. London: E. Arnold. ISBN 978-0-7131-6609-5. 
• Fiehn, Terry; and Chris Corin (2002). Communist Russia Under Lenin and Stalin. London: John Murray. ISBN 978-0-7195-7488-7.  Cite uses deprecated parameters (help)
• Fitzpatrick, Sheila (1994). The Russian Revolution (2nd ed. ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-289257-7. 
• Pipes, Richard (1990). The Russian Revolution. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-272086-1. 
• Read, Christopher (1996). From Tsar to Soviets: The Russian People and Their Revolution, 1917-21. London: UCL Press. ISBN 978-1-85728-358-7.