The creation of the Soviet Socialist State, the construction of a new state apparatus, was one of the "most serious and most difficult tasks facing the victorious proletariat."1 Without the apparatus of its political domination, the working class could not carry out the most important socio-economic transformations and build a socialist society. The fate of the socialist revolution depended on the ability of the class that won power to create and control a new State apparatus.

The history of the construction of the socialist state in our country in the first years after the Great October Revolution has always attracted the attention of researchers .2 The leading role of the working class in shaping the system of central and local government bodies is being studied. The article reveals the share of workers in the management of industry - collective boards at factories and in the Supreme Council of National Economy 3, traces the development of creative initiative of workers during the creation of management bodies for enterprises and industry as a whole, in determining the structure and functions of these bodies 4, considers the forms and methods of attracting workers to state activities,

1 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 34, p. 302.

2 Morozov B. M. Creation and consolidation of the Soviet state apparatus (November 1917-March 1919), Moscow, 1957; Gimpelson E. G. Iz istorii stroitel'stva Sovetov (November 1917-July 1918), Moscow, 1958; Gorodetsky E. N. Rozhdenie Sovetskogo gosudarstva. 1917-1918. M. 1965; Iroshnikov M. P. Creation of the Soviet central state apparatus. M.-L. 1966; Soviets in the first year of the proletarian dictatorship. M. 1967; Hesin S. S. Formation of the proletarian dictatorship in Russia. M. 1975; Dispersal of A. I. VTSIK Soviets in the first months of the dictatorship of the proletariat. M. 1977; et al.

3 Krutsko I. E. The promotion of workers to the industrial management apparatus (1917-1920). - Collection of scientific works of the Volgograd Pedagogical Institute, 1964, vol. 1; Pavlycheva K. N. Nizhny Novgorod Party organization in the struggle for attracting popular masses to production management (November 1917-1920). In the collection: From October to the Construction of Communism, Moscow, 1967.

4 Drobizhev V. Z. The role of the working class in the formation of cadres of socialist industry (1917-1936). - Istoriya SSSR, 1961, N 4; his. Statistical data on the role of the working class in the formation of industrial management bodies (1917-1922). In the collection: From the history of the working class of the USSR. L. 1962; Baevsky D. A. The working class in the first years of Soviet power (1917-1921). M. 1975; Gimpelson E. G. The working class in industrial management in the first years Soviet power (November 1917-1920). - History of the USSR, 1977, N 2.

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in the creation of various state institutions, such as people's commissariats, the court, and the police .5
A serious gap, however, remains the lack of research on the participation of workers in the creation of the local state power and management apparatus. Only a few papers provide some facts about this .6 Insufficient attention is paid to studying the role of creative initiative of local workers in the formation of the system of state administration bodies, identifying the proportion of proletarians in the composition of senior employees of local government bodies, and describing the social appearance of workers who held elected state positions in them in the first year of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The study of these subjects seems all the more relevant because bourgeois historians try to argue that the Russian proletariat did not have sufficient forces to provide personnel for the administrative apparatus of the new state, to effectively lead it, especially in non-industrial areas of the country, in the countryside.

This article aims to investigate the forms in which the influence of the proletariat was manifested on the principles of creation, structure and functions of local state bodies, its role in providing local executive and administrative bodies with cadres of managers, to determine the most active layer of the proletariat in this regard, its social appearance, and to show the participation of workers in state construction in the countryside. It is important to study these problems precisely during the period of the most active development of the state-building process - in the first year of the dictatorship of the proletariat, when the political power of the working class was established, and a stable structure of the administrative apparatus was created. In the following years, the task of strengthening and improving it came to the fore. The geographical scope of the study is limited to those areas where Soviet power existed by the end of 1918.

There are few sources that can be used to solve this problem. The author was interested in those that contain direct references to the participation of individual workers ' and proletarian organizations in the creation of the Soviet state apparatus in the field, their leadership in this process, and the initiative of the working class in the field of state construction. These are published and archival documents about the activities of local councils, factory committees, memoirs of active fighters for the victory of Soviet power and its strengthening. To identify the social composition of employees of the executive committees of local Councils, we used documents from the fund of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, one of the main functions of which at that time was the management of Soviet construction in the country7 . The fund keeps the autobiographies of executive committee members

6 Gorodetsky E. N. The struggle of the People's Masses for the Creation of Soviet state bodies (1917-1918). - Voprosy istorii, 1955, N 8; Tokarev Yu. S. K istorii narodnogo pravotvorchestva v period podgotovki i provedeniya Velikoi Oktyabrskoy sotsialisticheskoi revolyutsii (mart 1917 - fevral 1918 g.) [On the History of national law-making during the preparation and conduct of the Great October Socialist Revolution (March 1917-February 1918)]. In: Istoricheskie zapiski, vol. 52; Shipulina A.V. Uchastie ivanov-voznesenskikh rabochikh v stroitelstve sovetskogo gosudarstvennogo apparata (1917 - 1919). - Scientific Notes of the Ivanovo Pedagogical Institute, 1967, vol. 47; Sivokhina T. A. The leading role of the working class in state construction (October 1917-June 1918). - Bulletin of Moscow University, 1979, series 9, history, N 2; Trukan G. A. The role of the working class in the creation of Soviet authorities. Voprosy istorii, 1973, No. 11; Gimpelson E. G. Rabochy klass v upravlenii Sovetskom gosudarstve [The working Class in the management of the Soviet State]. November 1917-1920, Moscow, 1982.

6 See Soviet Historiography of the Great October Socialist Revolution, Moscow, 1981, p. 94.

7 See Report on the activities of the NKVD for the first half of 1918-Historical Archive, 1956, No. 5, p. 68.

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provincial, city, and county councils sent to Moscow by order of the NKVD collegium 8 . Autobiographies were written in late 1918-early 1919, they include information about the composition of the executive committees of 23 provincial, 33 uyezd, 15 city Soviets, 9 they represent all the regions of Soviet Russia in the autumn of 1918 - the northern, north-western, western provinces, the Volga region, the central regions, the South of the country and can serve as a fairly reliable source for studies of the appearance of the management staff of the local councils 'apparatus, since they are a kind of natural selection of data on members of the executive committees of industrial and non-industrial provinces' councils.

If we take into account that the earliest generalizing data on the social composition of the executive committees of local councils available to researchers date back to the end of 1919.10, then the materials used in this article can be considered unique. This is the first attempt at statistical processing of autobiographies containing information about the professions, age, party affiliation, social origin, and education of members of the executive committees of local councils.

The state creativity of the Russian proletariat began long before the victory of the socialist Revolution. By October 1917, the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants ' deputies had spread over the entire country in a dense network. This allowed V. I. Lenin, on the eve of the October Armed Uprising, to assert that the working class already had the apparatus to seize power. 11 However, in order to transform the Soviets into full-fledged working bodies, it was necessary to create their administrative apparatus, fundamentally new in its basis, designed to manage state affairs in the interests of the working masses, to break down and radically rebuild the existing system of bourgeois state institutions, to subordinate to the Soviets those links that could be used by the dictatorship of the proletariat, to find tens of thousands of employees this device. The working class had to carry out this most difficult mission, having neither experience of state work, nor ready-made samples.

The influence of the proletariat on the activity of the Soviets, its leading role in the construction of the Soviet State, was manifested in various forms. The most revealing is the position of industrial workers in the local council elections. It determined the party composition of the Soviets and their executive committees. Success in building the apparatus of proletarian power largely depended on the personal qualities, political positions, and social activity of those elected to the Soviets.

Historians do not have comprehensive data on the results of elections to local councils in factories and factories in the first months of Soviet power. We were able to identify the results of voting in October-December 1917 at 23 of the largest metalworking enterprises .12 On average, each of them accounted for about 7 thousand ra-

8 TsGAOR USSR, f. 393, op. 11, dd. 97, 98, 183-210. The leadership of the NKVD intended to publish a book for distribution abroad with brief biographical information and photographs of the leading workers of the Soviets (ibid., d. 98, l. 187).

9 By October 1918, Soviets were active in 30 provinces, 121 cities, and 286 uyezds (see Power of the Soviets, 1919, No. 1, p. 11). It should be borne in mind that the events of the civil war constantly changed the number of Soviets.

10 Published in: Vladimirsky M. F. Soviets, executive committees and Congresses of Soviets (Materials for studying the structure and activity of local government bodies). Vol. 1-2. [M]. 1920-1921.

11 See Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 34, p. 241.

12 Admiralteysky, Baltiysky, Izhorsky, Kabelny, Metallichesky, Patronny, Semyannikovsky, Trubochny, Arsenal, Promet, Putilovsky, Rosenkranza, Stary Parviainen (Petrograd), Sestroretsky Oruzheyny, Guzhon and Dynamo (Moscow), Ostrogozhsky Railway Workshops (Voronezh), VEK and Steam locomotive building (Kharkiv), " Russian Society "(Ekaterinoslav province), Pipe

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bothikh. A total of 262 deputies were elected at these factories, of which 73.8% were members of the Bolshevik Party, 7.3% were left SRS, 13.8% were SRS (without specifying a faction), 2.3% were Mensheviks, and 2.8% were non-party members .13 The absolute predominance in the lists of deputies of the Bolsheviks and the left Social Revolutionaries who collaborated with them at that time testified to the persistent desire of the working class to provide the Soviets with Bolshevik leadership, to make every district, village, and city Council a reliable guide to the life of Lenin's ideas.

At subsequent elections, the workers again demonstrated their insistence on sending members of the RCP(b) to the Soviets. In June 1918, 120 Bolsheviks and their sympathizers, 28 left Social Revolutionaries, 27 right Social Revolutionaries, 18 Mensheviks, 23 non-party deputies were elected to the Petrograd Soviet from 128 factories and plants; 91 Bolsheviks, 8 Mensheviks, 2 Social Revolutionaries, and 1 non-party deputy were delegated from the workers ' trade unions .14 In the face of famine, industrial closures, and rising unemployment, the working class consistently fought for the Soviets to implement Bolshevik policies .15 Lenin noted that, despite the disasters and hardships that the St. Petersburg proletariat had to endure, the elections held there in the summer of 1918 showed an increase in its loyalty to the revolution, organization and cohesion. 16
The emerging principles of local Soviets were also aimed at increasing the participation of workers in monitoring the activities of their deputies and the Council as a whole. Deputies had to systematically report to the voters on their work, on the activities of the Council, its commissions and departments. Some Councils initiated the establishment of even closer bilateral contacts with voters. Members of the Council of the Second City District of Petrograd (mostly workers of the Admiralty Shipbuilding and Franco-Russian factories) at one of the meetings decided that, in addition to systematic reports of deputies at the enterprises of the district, open meetings of the Council should be practiced .17 Plenums were convened quite frequently: the Simonovsky District Council of Moscow met 7 times in October and November 1917, 5 monthly meetings were held in the first half of 1918, and 4 meetings were held in the second half .18
(Samara), Gorobogdatsky mountain district and Alapaevsky plant (Ural). At these enterprises, about 200 thousand workers participated in the voting (approximately 1/5 of all workers in the industry).

13 Calculated from: Payalin N. P. Lenin Factory, Moscow-L. 1933, p. 400; Potekhin M. P. The First Soviet of the Proletarian Dictatorship, L. 1966, p. 38; Chernomaz I. Sh. The struggle of the working class of Ukraine for control over production. Kharkov, 1958, p. 98; Bolshevik organizations of Ukraine during the establishment and strengthening of Soviet power. Sat. doc. and m-lov. Kiev, 1962, p. 143; Struggle for Soviet Power in the Voronezh Province. The dock. and m-ly. Voronezh. 1957, p. 192; Correspondence of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) with local party organizations, vol. 2. Moscow, 1957, p. 57, 332; Struggle for Soviet Power in the Samara Province. Sat. doc. and m-lov. Kuibyshev, 1957, p. 89; The working class of Soviet Russia in the first year of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Sat. doc. and m-lov. M. 1964, p. 15; Uralsky rabochy, 6, 11. I. 1918; TSGAORL, f. 7384, op. 1, d. 6, ll. 26, 49, 57, 72; op. 7, d. 17, ll. 5, 26, 29, 30; f. 171, op. 5, d. 1, ll. 42, 54; f. 101, op. 1, d. 30, ll. 62-95; GAORSS of Moscow, f. 100, op. 7, d. 2, l. 79; TsGAOR of the USSR, f. 7952, op. 3, d. 275, l. 62.

14 Calculated from: The Working class of Soviet Russia in the first year of the dictatorship of the proletariat, pp. 44-51.

15 In the future, this trend developed. In December 1918, the workers of five branches of industry in Petrograd elected 373 deputies to the city Council, of whom 90.7% were Bolsheviks and sympathizers, 6.2% were representatives of petty - bourgeois parties, and 3.1% were non-party members.

16 See Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 36, pp. 467-468.

17 Creativity of the revolutionary workers of the Second City district. Pg. 1918, p. 22.

18 Ukhanov K., Borisov N. From the life and activities of the Soviet of Workers ' and Red Army Deputies of the Rogozhsko-Simonovsky district of Moscow (March 1917-January 1921). Moscow, 1921, p. 36.

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The plenums of Soviets and executive committees regularly heard reports from deputies on the state of affairs at enterprises, closely monitored the mood of workers, and took into account the opinion of voters when making decisions. Many executive committees conducted their activities in such a way that most of the resolutions, especially those related to the organization of the local administrative apparatus, were discussed at enterprises before being adopted by the Council and its Executive Committee. The Council of the Simonovsky district of Moscow, after discussing and approving instructions on the organization of the executive body at all factories, convened in December 1917 a conference of representatives of the Council, trade unions, factory committees and other organizations to decide on the division of functions between the departments of the executive committee and only then began to create a management apparatus .19
Such initiatives, which were born, as a rule, in industrial areas, gradually became common knowledge. The leadership of the central Soviet organs closely followed the improvement and strengthening of the Soviet apparatus in the field, supported and disseminated positive experience. The magazine Vlast Sovetov, an organ of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, did a lot of work in this direction. In particular, the practice of the Oryol District Council of Vyatka Province, which has developed an interesting form of involving deputies in active work in departments, was approved and recommended to others on its pages. Deputies were assigned to sections attached to departments, they drew up work plans, monitored their implementation, and made sure that employees responded to the demands and needs of the population in a timely manner .20
In the first months of Soviet power, the creativity of workers was of paramount importance for the creation of the state apparatus .21 The first legislative documents of the government set tasks for the Soviets, without naming specific organizational forms for their solution. The new government relied and focused primarily on the class sense of the proletarian vanguard, which led the processes of socialist construction in the country. The first measure to be taken by the Soviets when they took power was most clearly formulated by Lenin in a speech at a meeting of the Petrograd Soviet together with front-line representatives on November 4, 1917: "Let the Soviets divide into detachments and take up the task of governing." 22 This phrase clearly indicated the need to create departments under the Soviets that would take over the management of various areas of public life.

The activity of local Councils in organizing their apparatus combined the initiative "from below" and the leadership "from above". Some departments of the executive committees were created by direct order of the government; in the construction of other links, the places were ahead of the directives of the center. Thus, work on the formation of the workers 'and peasants' militia apparatus began after the publication of the government's decision on the creation of this body for the protection of public order on October 28, 191723 . The leading role of the local initiative in the formation of individual sections of the Soviet apparatus was most clearly shown in the process of creating the revolutionary People's Court.

The Peterhof District Council appealed to the Petrograd City Council with a proposal to take measures to organize strict supervision as soon as possible.

19 Ibid., pp. 36, 44.

20 Power of the Soviets, 1919, No. 2, pp. 20-21.

21 See Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 35, p. 198.

22 Ibid., p. 63.

23 For more information, see: Gimpelson E. G. From the History of Soviet Construction (November 1917-July 1918), p. 35.

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the revolutionary court on October 27, the second day after the victory of the armed uprising on October 24 . Members of the Vyborg District Council of the capital, without waiting for instructions from higher authorities, gathered a meeting on the organization of the court, invited lawyers to it, singled out three people as people's judges, and developed their own"law on the court"25 . The first court session was held on November 4, 1917, under the chairmanship of I. V. Chakin, a turner at the Novy Lessner plant, and V. R. Shashlov, a worker .26 On the same day, the decision to create a proletarian court in their district was made by deputies of the Peterhof Council. The first judges here were I. Gensler, V. Alekseev, F. Lemeshev, and G. Samodedev from Putilov . By November 24, 1917, when the Decree on the Court was issued, proletarian justice bodies had already been established in 6 districts of the capital .28
As a rule, the composition of the court was determined by elections held in the Council and public organizations. In the Petrogradsky district, according to the decision of the plenum of the Soviet, representatives of the Soviet of Workers ' Deputies, Trade Union Councils, factory and house committees were elected as members of the court .29 The Executive Committee of the Vyborg Soviet of Petrograd appealed to all factory committees of the district to allocate three people from each enterprise from "well-literate comrades who stand on the platform of Soviet power and are able to understand judicial proceedings" 30 . Factory envoys became people's judges, people's assessors, secretaries, and bailiffs. During the election of people's assessors in Moscow in June 1918, about 60 people were elected from the Goujon factory alone .31
The new courts were faced with important and complex tasks: it was necessary to consider a lot of cases left over from the old courts, new cases were received. At the same time, it was necessary to develop and improve the structure of judicial bodies, forms of judicial proceedings, and create the foundations of Soviet law. 32 Despite all the difficulties, the Proletarian courts successfully coped with the tasks assigned to them.

During the creation of other departments of the Soviets, workers showed the same high level of activity and ability for state activities. In the Peterhof district of Petrograd, already on November 10, 1917, at a meeting of the Council, whose deputies were mainly workers of the Putilovsky plant, it was decided: without waiting for instructions from the center, to take the initiative to develop the structure of the executive committee in accordance with its new functions. The deputies found it expedient to organize 11 commissariats headed by Bolshevik workers of the Putilov factory .33 The executive committee of the Kolpino Soviet, about 70% of the deputies, also took up the task with the same determination

24 TSGAORL, f. 101, op. 1, 21, l. 15.

25 Triumphal march of the Soviet government. The dock. i m-ly. T. I. M. 1963, p. 156; Vyborg side. Collection of Articles and memoirs, L. 1957, p. 135.

26 Izvestiya, 7. XI. 1918.

27 Mitelman M. et al. Istoriya Putilovskogo zavoda [History of the Putilov Factory], Moscow, 1939, p. 38.

28 Gorodetsky E. N. Rozhdenie Sovetskogo gosudarstva [The Birth of the Soviet State], p. 323.

29 The first people's revolutionary judges in Petrograd. - Historical Archive, 1957, N 1, p. 121.

30 TSGAORL, f. 151, op. 1, d. 1, l. 43.

31 TsGAOR USSR, f. 7952, op. 3, d. 215, l. 128.

32 See: Creativity of the revolutionary workers of the Second Urban District, pp. 44-45; In the Struggle for Soviet Power. Memoirs of participants in the struggle for Soviet power in Karelia. Petrozavodsk. 1957, p. 44; From February to October (From the Memoirs of participants in the Great October Socialist Revolution), Moscow, 1957, p. 11-12.

33 The Triumphal Procession of Soviet Power, vol. I, p. 171; Mitelman M. 1917 at the Putilov factory. L. 1939, pp. 204-205; History of the Kirov plant. 1917-1945. Moscow, 1966, p. 39-42.

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who worked at the Izhora plant 34 . It was decided that " the executive committee should direct work both in industry and in the countryside, and conduct political, economic, and agricultural work in the uyezd." For this purpose, 8 departments were created 35 . The workers tried to ensure that the organs of the Soviet apparatus should cover all areas of the life of a district or city.

The process of organizing the Soviet apparatus was more difficult in non-industrial areas, where the proletariat's strength was small and there were not enough organizers and managers. Local party organizations constantly appealed to the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) with requests to send people. But the Central Committee's capabilities in this regard were limited - almost all party assets were busy creating various central institutions, and local party organizations were invited to find reserves at home. 36 Insufficient and not always timely information about the events that took place in the center, the severity of the class struggle, the alignment of political forces, and other circumstances gave rise to a variety of forms of the administrative apparatus on the periphery and different rates of its creation. 37
The practical experience gained locally in organizing the administrative apparatus of the Soviets allowed the central bodies to generalize it and develop instructions adopted by the NKVD board in January 1918, in which 11 departments were named as mandatory for each Soviet. 38 But even after the publication of these instructions, many executive committees approached the definition of the structure of the management apparatus, the number and functions of departments, in accordance with their local needs and capabilities. 39 In the regions where the counter-revolution organized armed resistance to Soviet power, military departments were established under the Soviets as early as February 1918, 40 special departments were established under the provincial executive committees to direct Soviet construction in villages and volosts (instructors 'and nonresident ones), 41 and in areas with a multinational population - commissariats for peoples' affairs (the commissariat for Muslim Affairs , etc.). on Chuvash affairs, etc.) 42 .

A common feature of all executive committees and their departments was the leading role of the working class in the creation of these bodies. Most of the deputies of the Soviets were elected by the workers from among themselves, and many of the senior employees - members of the executive committees, heads of departments-were still standing at the machine yesterday. The election of members of executive committees and heads of departments from among the workers ' deputies ensured that the proletariat directed the construction of the state apparatus on the ground and helped the workers to develop their capabilities in carrying out complex state work.

The specific weight of workers in the composition of the executive committees of provincial, city and county councils can be judged from the materials of the upomi already-

34 Calculated from: TSGAORL, f. 148, op. 1, d. 40.

35 The Triumphal March of Soviet Power, vol. I, p. 365.

36 Correspondence of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) with local party organizations. Vol. 2, pp. 3, 12, 29, 50, etc.

37 See: Gerasimenko G., Rashitov F. Soviets of the Lower Volga region in the October Revolution. Saratov. 1972, p. 178; For the power of the Soviets. Memoirs of participants in the revolutionary events in the Tver province. Kalinin. 1957, pp. 185-186; TsGAOR USSR, f. 393, op. 11, d. 197, l. 42.

38 The Triumphal March of Soviet Power, vol. 1, pp. 146-147.

39 Gerasimenko G., Rashitov F. Uk. soch., pp. 179-184; Alekseenko A. G. Gorod Soviets Ukrainskoy SSR (1917-1920 gg.). Kiev, 1960, p. 66.

40 The struggle for Soviet power in the Southern Urals. Sat. doc. and m-lov. Chelyabinsk. 1957, p. 289.

41 The Triumphal Procession of Soviet Power, vol. I, pp. 300-301; Power of the Soviets, 1919, No. 11, p. 14.

42 Zakharov N. S. The October Revolution and Soviet Construction in the Middle Volga Region (October 1917-March 1918). Kazan. 1970, p. 100.

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collected autobiographies of responsible employees of local councils. Workers made up 62.7% of all members in the executive committees of the city Soviets , 42.1% in the uyezd soviets, and 39.2% in the gubernia Soviets .44 The next largest group of members of executive committees were employees - in city councils - 30%, in county councils - 37.9%, in provincial councils-45.5%. The executive committees of provincial Soviets performed more complex functions that required both a high level of education and experience in political activity. These organs were composed of proletarians who had long revolutionary and party experience, professional party workers, and employees who had taken an active part in the working - class movement before the revolution-the best cadres of the victorious proletariat.

The city Councils were the most well-provided with proletarian cadres. So, in the executive committee of the Kaluga City Council, all 14 members were Communists, 9 of them were workers, 5 were employees. N. G. Almazov, a printer, was elected chairman, and V. P. Akimov, a worker, was elected a comrade chairman. The workers headed the commissariat of food, municipal and medical-sanitary departments, city self-government, employees-commissariats of militia and labor, departments of administration and public education .45 Of the 18 members of the Executive Committee of the Vologda City Council, 11 were workers, including heads of departments of management, fuel, housing, finance, public catering, 2 teachers, 4 employees, 1 non-commissioned officer (from peasants)46 . Of the 15 members of the executive Committee of the Petrozavodsk City Council, 7 were workers of the local Alexander shell factory 47 .

In the apparatuses of the Uyezd Soviets, representatives of the working class also formed the backbone of the leading cadres, a strong and numerous group that was able to exert decisive influence on the activities of the executive committees. The executive committee of the Yegoryevsky Uyezd Council of the Ryazan Province consisted of 22 members, all Bolsheviks. The executive committee was headed by K. A. Antipov, a worker-weaver with 14 years of party experience, the chairman's comrade was a worker, a Bolshevik since 1903, I. I. Gorshkov, the workers were in charge of 9 departments 48 . In the executive committee of the Ustyuzha Uyezd Soviet of Cherepovets province, the chairman was a metal worker, Bolshevik since 1912 I. F. Kedrov, workers

43 The calculations include materials on executive committees that have submitted autobiographies of more than half of their members, i.e., those that provide the most representative data. These are 10 executive committees of city councils: Vitebsk, Vologda, Voronezh, Vyatka, Ivanovo-Voznesensky, Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod, Petrozavodsk, Saratov, Tver (125 autobiographies); 33 executive committees of county councils of 12 provinces: Glazovsky, Kotelnichsky, Orlovsky, Slobodskaya - Vyatka; Sviyazhsky, Cheboksary-Kazan; Likhvinsky, Medynsky, Meshchovsky Mrsalsky, Tarussky - Kaluga; Lupolovsky-Mogilev; Zvenigorodsky-Moscow; Gorodishchensky, Insarsky, Kerensky. Krasnoslobodsk, Narovchatsky, Nizhne-Lomovsky, Mokshansky, Ruzaevsky, Saransky, Chembarsky-Penza; Yegoryevsky - Ryazan; Yaransky-Severo-Dvinskaya; Krasninsky, Sychevsky, Yukhnovsky - Smolensk; Ostashkovsky - Tver; Tikhvin and Ustyuzhensky - Cherepovets; Lyubimov and Uglich - Yaroslavl (458 autobiographies); 13 executive committees of provincial councils: Vologda, Vyatka, Ivanovo-Voznesensky, Kaluga, Kostroma, Kursk, Petrogradsky. Pskov, Ryazan, Saratov, Smolensk, Tambov, Yaroslavl (200 autobiographies).

44 Hereafter, the percentage of various indicators was calculated from the number of autobiographies that contain the necessary information (in this case, information about the profession).

45 TsGAOR USSR, f. 393, op. 11, d. 98, ll. 2-27.

46 Ibid., d. 184, l. 15; d. 185, ll. 12, 14; d. 186, ll. 20, 31; d. 190, l. 35; d. 192, ll. 8, 64; d. 194, l. 57; d. 195, l. 6; d. 198, ll. 34-40; d. 199, l. 59; d. 201, l. 4a; d. 206, ll. 17, 35.

47 The struggle for the establishment and consolidation of Soviet power in Karelia. and m-lov. Petrozavodsk. 1957, p. 161.

48 TsGAOR USSR, f. 393, op. 11, d. 98, l. 40.

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they were in charge of 7 departments. The same number of departments were headed by workers in the executive committee of the Sloboda Uyezd Council of the Vyatka Governorate .49
The workers elected to the executive committees of the Soviets were mostly young people (91.1% were under the age of 40, more than half were between the ages of 30 and 40), who had a fairly long experience of working in industry and participating in the labor movement, and who had passed the test of the revolution of 1905 - 1907. The length of time spent working in factories and factories was important for the Russian proletarians, since many of them came from the peasants, first-generation workers, and their long stay in the "factory cauldron" helped turn them into conscious fighters for the proletarian cause. Among the members of the executive committees, 67.3% of the workers in the provincial councils were peasants, 59.3% in the city councils, 77.6% in the uyezd councils, and an average of 70.1%. But the share of hereditary workers was still significant, especially in the executive committees of city and provincial Soviets (37% and 30.8%, respectively), and in the uyezds it was much lower - 13.3%. In fact, the share of hereditary workers was somewhat higher, since some of their social origin was determined by the initial class belonging of their parents, indicating in the column origin "from peasants", "from philistines", and then it was written that "the father worked in a factory" (at the factory).

The materials of autobiographies show that the vast majority of workers who held elected government positions (71%) had primary education, 50 2% of workers who were members of executive committees had incomplete secondary or higher education (they usually took exams as an external student), 16% completed various courses, including evening and craft schools 11% completed their knowledge through self-education. As a rule, among the latter there were many workers who joined the revolutionary movement early. Participation in social - democratic circles and intimacy with professional revolutionaries from the intelligentsia were both a form of self-education and at the same time a serious incentive to it.

Many members of the executive committees passed through prison and exiled "universities" - active members of underground party organizations, they were repeatedly subjected to repression by the tsarist government. Of all the workers who indicated party experience, 32% joined the party before 1917, including members of provincial and city executive committees, 51% and 37.3%, respectively. Workers who had long experience in the party, as a rule, were already well-established political and state figures. They played a leading role in the executive committees along with professional revolutionaries. A. I. Medvedev, a member of the Ostashkovsky Uyezd executive Committee, came from a peasant background, graduated from a rural school, worked in Petrograd from the age of 11, joined the underground party organization of the Narva district in 1908, was exiled to Siberia for participating in the revolutionary movement, participated in the revolutionary events in Petrograd in 1917, and left for the countryside in 1918, was elected by the peasants to the uyezd Council 51 .

A. I. Medvedev's biography is typical of an advanced Russian worker. There were many such people among the leading employees of the Soviets. Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Lupolovsky Uyezd Council of Mogilev province R. Ya. Tolmats worked in the mechanical workshops of the Putilovsky plant, in 1912 he joined the RSDLP (b), because of persecution

49 Ibid., d. 184, l. 23; d. 98, l. 179.

50-25% of all members of the executive committees of various levels had incomplete secondary, secondary and higher education, including higher and incomplete higher education - about 8%.

51 TsGAOR USSR, f. 393, op. 11, d. 194, l. 28.

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After the February Revolution, he became one of the organizers of the city Council of Workers ' Deputies in Berdyansk, a member of its executive committee, and in March 1918, he was sent by the Central Committee of the party to work in Mogilev province 52 .

In the executive committee of the Nizhny Novgorod City Council, 5 out of 12 workers had extensive experience in revolutionary work. P. V. Gordeev, a member of the executive committee, joined the party in 1901, was repeatedly arrested and expelled, met the February Revolution in Krasnoyarsk, and was elected a member of the Soviet there. N. M. Fadeev, a member of the board of the Food Committee, joined the party in 1900 and headed the illegal organization of the Bolsheviks of the Nizhny Novgorod Shell Factory; K. A. Mironov, head of the Department of Public Utilities, joined the RSDLP in 1903 in St. Petersburg, participated in the revolution of 1905-1907, and was exiled to Nizhny Novgorod; M. D. Tsarev, secretary of the Nizhny Novgorod Soviet, joined the In 1912, in 1917, he was a member of the Petrograd Soviet, and actively collaborated in Bolshevik newspapers .53
The executive committee of the Vologda City Council consisted of 11 workers, all with pre-revolutionary party experience. Head of the fuel Department A. P. Ukraintsev became a Bolshevik in 1916. in the army, V. A. Vasiliev, head of the housing department, joined the party in 1905, head of the Management Department P. A. Kozyrev participated in the social-democratic movement from 1901, in 1903 became a Bolshevik, in 1905 was elected a deputy of the Tver Soviet; member of the Board of Directors of the Party of N. V. Nechaev joined the party organization of the Langenzippen factory in 191554 . Many similar examples can be cited, and all of them will bear witness to one thing: participation in the working-class movement, in the activities of illegal party organizations, was a serious school in the preparation of proletarians for state activity.

The most active group of workers in State construction was the metalworkers. They made up the majority of the workers who were members of the executive committees. In the executive committees of the city Councils there were 63.8% of metal workers, in the provincial councils-62.4%, in the uyezd councils-29.9%. The next group of textile workers accounted for 10.1%, 8.1%, and 2.8%, respectively. The metalworkers were the reliable support of the party in the revolutionary movement, in the struggle for the socialist revolution. During the construction of the Soviet State, they became one of the main sources of personnel for the new state apparatus .55
The members of the Executive Committees assumed the main responsibility for creating the local administration apparatus. Sabotage of specialists, former employees complicated the process of formation of many departments 56, for the organization of which special knowledge was needed. But that is precisely why the administrative apparatus has become a "pure product" of the proletariat's creativity. The mobilization of workers in the Soviet apparatus was systematic - all workers were registered in the factories

52 Ibid., 200, l. 16.

53 Ibid. f. 393, op. 11, d. 186, l. 26; d. 202, l. 1; d. 194, l. 51; d. 204, l. 1.

54 Ibid., d. 185, l. 14; d. 192, l. 64; d. 195, l. 16; d. 201, l. 4a.

55 For more information, see: Skvortsova A. Y. Metalworkers: social image and leading role in the victory of October. In: Sotsial'no-klassovye otnosheniya v sovetskom obshchestve [Social and Class relations in the Soviet Society], Moscow, 1984, pp. 4-15.

56 The documents preserved evidence of the difficulties faced by the leadership of the Soviets in connection with the shortage of personnel not only in the agrarian regions, but also in the industrial provinces (see, in particular: materials of the V Congress of Soviets of the Petrograd Province. - Severnaya Kommuna, 23. VIII. 1918; Minutes of the meeting of the Nizhny Novgorod Soviet of November 21, 1917. In: Victory of the October Socialist Revolution in the Nizhny Novgorod Province. Sat. doc. Gorky, 1957, p. 366).

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those who were literate were sent to replace striking officials; those who were more capable were appointed commissars to banks, police, Soviet departments, the Cheka, and other organizations. Six workers were sent to the Tver Soviet from the Car Factory, two from the Berg factory, and several people were sent from the former Morozov manufactory, from equipment workshops, and from other enterprises. Nine workers from the Baranovsky plant were delegated to the Vyborg District Council of Petrograd, and the head of the Moscow Guzhon plant, in response to the request of the new district Council, allocated 20 census takers. Dozens of reliable workers were sent to local councils by workers from Sormovsky, Motovilikhinsky, and many other factories .57
The core of the administrative staff was made up of Soviet deputies who had pre-October experience in these bodies. Members of executive committees, heads of departments, heads of sub-departments and sections, and responsible employees were selected from among them. In November 1918, 43 deputies worked and received salaries in the departments of the Executive Committee of the Second City District of Petrograd .58 At the end of 1918, 20% of the members of the executive committees of local Soviets were elected deputies until October 1917. In the executive committees of the provincial Soviets, about 50% of such workers were employed, in the city councils - about 40%, in the uyezd councils-16.6%59 . But even for politically literate workers, active participants in the revolutionary movement, who had some political and organizational experience, working as heads of state institutions was fraught with difficulties. There was a lack of general education, special knowledge, and often basic literacy .60 However, the proletarians were ready for difficulties, tried to overcome them, justify the trust placed in them, and enthusiastically fulfilled the tasks assigned to them.

It was essential to ensure the rhythmic work of departments that they were formed, as a rule, with the participation of various public organizations, and all issues were resolved in them collectively. In the Second City District of Petrograd, the economic department of the Executive Committee of the Soviet was formed with the participation of the district boards of the Union of Metalworkers and the Council of Factory Committees. For the creation of the labor department under the executive committee of the Ostrogozhsky District Council of the Voronezh Province, "the full board of all trade unions, representatives of workshops that were not included in the unions, representatives of factories, mills, and other industrial enterprises were invited." The main principle of the department's activity was declared by its management (commissars - workers P. Kryukov and P. Chumachenko, engineer I. Ryazanov) to be "the solution of all issues of working life by the workers themselves, represented by a meeting of representatives from trade unions and workers 'shops" 61 . The Executive Committee of the Voronezh Provincial Council took into account, approved and disseminated the experience of Ostrogozhtsy, indicating in the "Regulations on County and Volost Commissariats of Labor of the Voronezh Province" that under the co-

57 Il'ina T. A. Ustanovlenie sovetskoi vlasti v Tverskoy gubernii [Establishing Soviet Power in the Tver Province]. In: Tver Province in the First Years of Soviet Power. Kalinin, 1961, p. 10; Maslov K. P. From the history of the struggle of the working class for the power of the Soviets. Gorky, 1964, p. 166; From February to October, p. 50, 55; TsGAOR of the USSR, f. 7952, op. 3, d. 215, l. 64; TSGAORL, f. 148, op. 1, d. 21, ll. 39-47.

58 Creativity of the revolutionary workers of the Second City district, p. 47.

59 Calculated according to: TsGAOR USSR, f. 393, op. 11, dd. 97, 98, 183-210.

60 See, for example, the memoirs of the workers G. S. Baranov and V. Ya. Skultin, deputy heads of the land and public education departments of the Simbirsk Gubernia Executive Committee (The struggle for Soviet power in the Simbirsk province. Collection of memoirs of participants in the struggle for the establishment of Soviet power. Ulyanovsk. 1957, pp. 128-130; For the power of the Soviets. Memoirs of participants of the October Revolution in Simbirsk province. Saratov, 1967, p. 83).

61 Creativity of the revolutionary workers of the Second City District, p. 22; Struggle for Soviet power in the Voronezh Province. Sat. doc. and m-lov. Voronezh. 1957, p. 223.

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The missariats of Labor form boards of representatives of workers ' organizations 62 . Participation in the activities of the administrative apparatus of the Soviets of Workers ' Organizations, and thus of the broad working masses, was the main condition for the success of Soviet State-building.

Employees of housing departments began their activities by taking into account vacant apartments and workers in need of housing. We applied to the head committees and boards of trade unions with requests to provide assistance in this matter. T. S. Chudin, head of the housing department of the Executive Committee of the Alekseyevo-Rostokinsky district of Moscow, a mechanic at the Mikhelson plant, P. Kulikov and P. Malkov, employees of the housing department of the Executive Committee of the Tver Soviet, and their colleagues from other executive committees had to make a lot of effort to find vacant apartments and convince workers to move into them without fear of returning to their former owners .63
The main obstacle in the organization of social security departments was the financial issue. Benefits and pensions were paid out irregularly by the institutions of the Provisional Government, and there was a large debt. The workers sent to the social security departments began their activities by examining the material situation of the population, identifying those in urgent need of assistance, overcoming the sabotage of financial institution officials, achieving timely payment of money, and receiving it at the expense of contributions imposed on the local bourgeoisie. Workers of the Izhora factory, who came to the social security department of the Kolpino Council, created a home for the elderly, worker A. K. Gaydamak, head of the sobiesom in Karsun district of Simbirsk province, initiated the creation of an orphanage 64.

The activities of the cultural and educational departments fully reflected the workers ' desire for education and knowledge. In the Peterhof district of Petrograd, under the leadership of the Putilov worker S. I. Afanasyev, the Department of Public Education organized clubs and libraries in a short time, and 4-month "Soviet Courses" were opened for workers, where general education subjects, medicine, and music were taught .65 At the cultural and educational department of the Executive Committee of the Tver Soviet, under the leadership of the head of the department of workers S. P. Veselov, a printing house was created that printed leaflets, orders, decrees of the Soviet government, the department also organized amateur performances, created a theater, people's house 66 .

The materials of the Congress of commissars of the departments of labor of the executive committees of city, provincial and county councils held in Moscow in May 1918 allow us to most fully identify the share of workers among employees of the departments of local councils. Participants of the congress were asked to fill out questionnaires that were preserved in the fund of the People's Commissariat of Labor 67 . The congress was attended by deputies of Soviets and employees of their departments, trade union workers, 2/3 of its participants are managers

62 The Struggle for Soviet Power in the Voronezh Province, p. 289.

63 On October days. From the Memoirs of participants in the October Revolution in the Shcherbakovsky district of Moscow, Moscow, 1957, p. 19; For the power of the Soviets. Memoirs of participants in the revolutionary events in the Tver province, p. 98.

64 In the struggle for the power of the Soviets. Memoirs of Communists who participated in the October Revolution and the Civil War in the Urals. Sverdlovsk. 1957, p. 171; For the power of the Soviets. Memoirs of participants in the October Revolution in the Simbirsk province, pp. 233-234; For the power of the Soviets (Participants in the struggle for Soviet power in the Nizhny Novgorod Province recall). Gorky, 1967, p. 88; Pozdnyakov O. Izhortsy, L. 1960, p. 76.

65 Istoriya Kirovskogo zavoda, p. 40-42; TsGAOR SSSR, f. 7952, op. 4, 64, l. 21.

66 Veselov S. P. On cultural and educational work. In: For the Power of the Soviets. Memoirs of participants in the revolutionary events in Tver province, from 865.

67 TsGAOR OF the USSR, f. 382, op. 1, d. 23. 77 questionnaires were postponed in the case, on the basis of which calculations were made. No information was found on the total number of delegates to the congress.

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and employees of labor departments. Workers accounted for 61% of all delegates, 63.6% of all those who attended the congress and filled out questionnaires of managers, and 61.1% of employees of labor departments. 80% of the delegate workers were members of the Communist Party, and the largest group of workers at the congress were metalworkers (40%). The activities of the labor departments were to monitor the actions of entrepreneurs, prevent unjustified factory closures, and register and employ the unemployed .68 No one could carry out this work as well as the proletarians themselves. It was they who were sent to the labor departments. Among the commissars of these departments attached to the executive committees of the provincial Soviets in the first half of 1918, workers accounted for 80% .69
As the departments ' apparatus expanded and employees were attracted to work in the Soviet organs, the proportion of workers in them decreased. Thus, the Mstislavsky Uyezd Food Committee of Mogilev province had 29 employees at the end of 1918. Of the 25 who indicated their previous profession, 5 were Bolshevik workers, the rest were civil servants, and 7 of them were members of the party or sympathized with its program .70 In the land department of the Bykhovsky District Council, out of 15 employees, there were 4 workers (2 of them were Communists, 2 were sympathizers), the rest were employees (all were Bolsheviks and sympathizers).71 . At the end of 1918, the Council of National Economy of the Orsha Uyezd had 40 employees, and only two-the chairman and the deputy chairman - were Bolshevik workers .72
In the agrarian regions of the country, in the uyezds and volosts, the construction of the Soviet apparatus was associated with difficulties caused by the acute shortage of local proletarian forces. Thousands of workers and soldiers were sent from the center to remote areas of the country to lead the process of taking power by the Soviets, carry out the first socialist transformations, and promote the policies of the Communist Party and the Soviet State. The proletarians considered their propaganda and organizational work in the countryside extremely necessary. Hundreds of workers came to the Petrogradsky VRK, who expressed a desire to go as expositors and agitators to different parts of the country. Already in the first month after the victory of the October armed Uprising, the VRK sent 644 agitators to 41 provinces of the country .73 According to V. M. Selunskaya, about 50 thousand workers - agitators, instructors, organizers, and commissars-were sent from the industrial centers from October 1917 to June 1918 .74
Some of them returned to their enterprises after completing their tasks, while many remained to work in the provinces - they were elected members of the executive committees of volost, rural, and county councils, they created departments and became their employees. A. Noskov, a construction worker, was sent to Tver Province as an agitator for the construction industry. -

68 Chernyshev V. D. The working class and industry of Tver in 1917-1918. In: Tver Province in the first years of Soviet Power, p. 57; Ukhanov K., Borisov N. Uk. soch., p. 20; Struggle for Soviet power in the Voronezh Province, p. 223.

69 Kiselev A. F. People's Commissariat of Labor and trade unions in the first months of Soviet power. Author's abstract of the cand. diss. M. 1979, p. 11.

70 TsGAOR USSR, f. 393, op. 11, d. 183, ll. 7, 30; d. 184, ll. 7, 10, 47; d. 187, ll. 14, 25; d. 188, ll. 6, 8; d. 190, l. 14; d. 191, l. 11; d. 192, ll. 40, 86, 88; d. 193, l. 14; d. 194, l. 41; d. 195, l. 35; d. 196, l. 4; d. 197, ll. 6, 7, 22; d. 198, l. 28; d. 199, ll. 25, 46; d. 200, l. 9; d. 203, l. 3; d. 205, l. 6; d. 207, l. 2. Calculations of the author.

71 Ibid., d. 183, l. 31; d. 185, l. 39; d. 186, l. 10; d. 190, ll. 7, 34; d. 192, ll. 43, 139, 160; d. 193, l. 12; d. 195, l. 20; d. 197, ll. 11, 21, 31; d. 198, l. 45; d. 20, ll. 6, 18; d. 203, l. 14. Calculations of the author.

72 Ibid., d. 98, l. 119ob.

73 October armed Uprising. 1917 in Petrograd. Book 2. L. 1967, p. 546.

74 Selunskaya V. M. Rabochy klass i Oktyabr v derevke [Working class and October in the village]. Moscow, 1968, p. 68.

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The peasants elected him chairman of the Kiselevsky Volost Council of Ostashkovsky Uyezd, and in the autumn of 1918-a member of the uyezd executive committee. A worker of the Shlisselburg powder factory, a Bolshevik since 1906, Mr. E. Strelkov, was sent to Sychevsky Uyezd of the Smolensk Province as an agitator. In December 1917, he was elected to the county executive committee, appointed head of the land department 75 . To the number of workers and soldiers sent to the countryside were added those who were forced to leave the cities due to the closure of factories, the demobilization of the army and other reasons. They also brought information about the events in the center to the peasant community, shared their experience of social and political work, and used it to organize a new life in the countryside.

Proletarians who were actively involved in the social life of the countryside quickly gained authority among the peasants. After arriving in the village, I. Zuev, a worker at the Baltic Factory, began to cooperate in the volost land department. In January 1918, he was appointed commissar of the district zemstvo, comrade of the chairman of the district executive committee, commissar of agriculture and public education, and in March he was elected chairman of the executive committee of the district Council. In March 1918, he was elected a member of the Gordeyevsky volispolkom. At the first meeting, he was assigned to fill the posts of military commissar, head of the departments of public education, social security, health and road construction .

The administrative departments attached to the executive committees of the uyezd and provincial Soviets greatly assisted the peasants in organizing the apparatus of Soviet power. Head of the Department of Administration of the Nizhne-Lomovsky Uyezd Council of the Penza province, chairman of the ukom of the party V. Kerdensky wrote in his autobiography that the work of the department "takes place in explaining decrees and orders, in monitoring their implementation by the volost Councils"77 . At the end of 1918, workers by profession accounted for almost half of the provincial and county instructors, employees of management departments and information and instructional centers .

The most important indicator of the role that the workers played in building Soviets in rural areas is the fact that many peasant Soviets elected workers as their representatives to the Third All-Russian Congress of Peasant Soviets (January 1918). They made up more than 20% of the delegates to the congress, 16% were employees, the rest were peasants and soldiers (among the latter, probably, there were also many workers). 60.6% of the workers ' delegates to the Congress are members of the RSDLP(b) or sympathizers of this party 79 . The proletarians were invested with the confidence of the peasants not only because they were better informed, literate, and able to conduct organizational work, but mainly because they actively promoted the program of the Bolshevik Party and the ideals of socialism in the countryside, led the struggle for the consolidation of Soviet power in the countryside, and engaged the peasants in this struggle.

A new significant influx of proletarian forces into the countryside began in the summer of 1918, when, by the decision of the Council of People's Commissars and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, food detachments began to be created at the country's industrial enterprises, and in the villages-

75 TsGAOR USSR, f. 393, op. 11, d. 195, l. 33; d. 199, l. 87.

76 For the power of the Soviets (Participants in the struggle for Soviet power in the Nizhny Novgorod province recall), p. 88; TsGAOR USSR, f. 393, op. 11, d. 190, l. 42.

77 TsGAOR USSR, f. 393, op. 11, d. 192, ll. 27ob., 113ob.; d. 187, l. 4; d. 191, l. 18.

78 Selunskaya V. M. Uk. soch., p. 252.

79 Calculated from personal questionnaires of delegates to the Congress: TSAOR USSR, f. 1235, op. 2, dd. 52-56.

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poor people's committees. The food-detachment workers not only prepared grain, but also carried out great political work in the countryside aimed at strengthening Soviet power, and fought to change the balance of party forces in the uyezd and especially volost Soviets in favor of the Bolsheviks. Thousands of workers were sent to the countryside to organize committees of the poor, which played an important role in strengthening the position of the proletariat in the countryside, the union of the proletariat and the poorest peasantry, in changing the social composition of deputies to volost and uyezd Soviets, and in activating their activities. The head committee of the Moscow Guzhona factory allocated 20 workers to work on organizing kombeds, which were sent to the Kursk, Oryol, and Moscow governorates. 80 In the Oryol region, the workers of the Mikhelson factory became the organizers of the poor people's committees, and St. Petersburg residents created them in Tambov, Penza, Novgorod, Vyatka, Olonets and other governorates .81
The proletarians formed the backbone of the kombeds, supporting and directing the forces of the poor in the course of the class struggle in the countryside. Workers occupied 22.7% of the seats in rural councils and village councils of Tambov Province, and 17.5% in volost councils. The proportion of workers in the poor committees of the Penza, Orel, and Kursk governorates was approximately the same .82 Among the chairmen of the poor workers ' committees, there were between 20% and 25%83 . In their activity in the countryside, the party saw one of the most important means of strengthening the dictatorship of the proletariat, and Lenin later wrote that through the uyezd congresses of Soviets, "as well as through the constant business trips of class-conscious workers to all sorts of positions in the countryside, the leading role of the proletariat in relation to the peasantry is realized, the dictatorship of the urban proletariat is

By the end of 1918, when the kombeds had fulfilled their functions, many workers from these bodies had transferred to local councils. Their approximate share in the mass of members of the executive committees of county councils was shown above based on the materials of autobiographies - 42%. We also have materials about members of the executive committees of parish councils at our disposal. Of the 76 members of the 14 volispolkoms of Yegoryevsky Uyezd, Ryazan Province, 36.9% had previously worked in industrial enterprises, 36.8% were peasants, and 26.3% were employees .85 Many workers became chairmen of volispolkoms. The volosts of Ryazan Province, where we identified the composition of the executive committees, were remote from the industrial centers, and yet about 40% of the members of the local executive committees were given to them by the working class, providing the most important posts with Bolshevik cadres.

The working class played a leading role in building the Soviet State apparatus locally. All the most important questions facing the Soviets, including questions of state construction, were resolved at plenums, where a significant part of the members were workers, or at joint meetings of the Soviets and representatives of public proletarian organizations-trade unions, factory committees, etc. The workers were given the casting vote at meetings of the executive committees of local Soviets, in which they held about half of the seats. The share of workers in the elected state bodies was significantly higher than their share in the entire population, which indicates a higher proportion of workers than in the rest of the population.-

80 Ibid., f. 7952, op. 3, d. 212, l. 253; d. 275, ll. 32, 57, 64.

81 The Working Class of Soviet Russia in the First Year of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, p. 62; Consolidation of Soviet power in the Tula Province. Sat. doc. and m-lov. Tula. 1961, p. 22; TsGAOR USSR, f. 9503, op. 1, d. 44, l. 110; d. 46, l. 177.

82 Soviets in the first year of the dictatorship of the proletariat, p. 357.

83 Selunskaya V. M. Uk. soch., p. 205.

84 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 41, p. 32.

85 TsGAOR USSR, f. 393, op. 11, d. 98, ll. 41-55. Author's calculations.

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It was the members of the executive committees who created departments, often defined the range of functions of these departments, recruited employees in them, drew up action plans and organized their implementation.

The proletarians were most active in building the administrative apparatus of the Soviets in the cities, where they made up 2/3 of the members of the executive committees, and in the industrial districts. Initiatives of deputies of the Soviets of Proletarian cities and districts, related to the most rational organization of the structure and the appropriate distribution of functions by departments, gradually spread throughout the country. Despite all the difficulties associated with the lack of professional personnel and its own education, the proletariat managed to provide leadership of Soviet construction not only in cities and towns, but also in the agricultural regions of the country. The proletarians led the executive committees and departments of the volost and uyezd Soviets, where they made up about 2/5 of the members, and involved the peasants in state work. The strength of the proletariat was increased by a significant party stratum in its ranks, consisting of people with long party experience, experience in the revolutionary struggle and work in the Soviets before the October Revolution.

The role of the working class in local State-building cannot, however, be reduced only to direct forms of participation in this process, an area of activity that is undoubtedly important, but not the only one. The workers exerted a decisive influence on the composition of the cadres of Soviet institutions : they elected most of the deputies of the Soviets, systematically controlled their activities, delegated proletarians to various positions in the organs of the state apparatus, and thereby exerted an immeasurable influence on the course of creating the state apparatus. The facts refute the claims of bourgeois falsifiers that the proletariat of Russia was not strong enough, did not reach the level of social and political maturity to become the leading force of society. On the contrary, the Russian working class had reached three stages of development at which it no longer needed a numerical preponderance in the country's population in order to rally all the working people around it and lead them to fight for the establishment of Soviet power. The proletariat of Russia had sufficient forces to build a new type of state and use it as a tool for creating a new social system. His powerful energy, creative activity, and dedication to the ideals of socialism ensured the success of Soviet State-building in the center and in the regions.

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