Local Government in the Early Soviet Society: Evolution and Characteristics of Territorial Organization

Abstract

The paper discusses the factors that determined the structure and competence levels of local governmental bodies in Soviet Russia between 1918 and the early 1930s and the major trends in their evolution. It is demonstrated that the utopian ideas of the Bolshevik leaders gradually lost their relevance and were replaced by more pragmatic, bureaucratic decision-making aimed at solving practical problems. The government had to address several issues at once – establish political control over the vast territory of the country, ensure economic development of the regions, and realize the principle of national self-determination. Therefore, the process in which the administrative-territorial infrastructure evolved was riddled with contradictions and comprised three main stages. The conclusion is drawn that it was the logic of the country’s previous development and the specific nature of the Soviets as bodies of government that led to the authoritarian administrative principle taking precedence over the economic and national paradigms.