The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-07-23
By WILLIAM FOSTER Federated Press Staff Writer.
Copyright 1921, by The Federated Press)

body of the Russian Republic. 1t meets
approximately every six months. Be-
tween congresses business is con-
Quoted by the Central Executive COM
mittee, which is composed of $50
members elected from among the gen.
eral delegation of the All-Russian
Congress of Soviets.
The Central Executive Committee,
in turn, elects from its ranks the
Council of Peoples Commissioners to
actually superintend the carrying on
of the business of the country. There
are eighteen of these commissioners,
to correspond to the following de-
partments; Foreign Affairs, War,
Marine, Interior, Justice, Labor, So
cial Insurance, Education, Posts and
Telegraph, Nationality Affairs (the
Russian republic is federation of
many nationalities), Finances, Tran
sportation, Agriculture, Commerce
and Industry, Provisioning, Control
of the Government (supervision), Su-
preme Economic Council, Public Hy-
giene. The work of the Council of
Peoples Commissioners is subject to
the veto of the Central Exeuctive
Committee, which, together with the
Council of Peoples Commissioners,
and all other government bodies, is
responsible to the All-Russian Con-
gress of Soviets.
In the United States we see the
ridiculous spectacle of thousands of
legislators making laws all over the
country, and handful of old fogies
in the Supreme Court calling them
unconstitutional. There is no. such
nonsense in Russia. Once the workers
government has spoken that settles
the matter.
There being no other government
based upon the same lines as that of
Russia, it is therefore difficult, with,
out considerable elaboration, to con-
vey an idea of the powers of the
respective superior organizations and
officials. 1t may be said, however,
that the chairman of the Central Exc
cutive Committee (Kalenine) occupies
approximately the same position in
the Russian government as the Presi.
dent does in the French government
In fact, he is often called the Presi
dent Of Russia.
The Council of Peoples Commits
sioners is equivalent to cabinet, anc
the chairman Of this cabinet (Lenine)
may be denominated the Prime Min
lister of Russia. And, as in France ant
many other countries, so in Russia
the Prime Minister, being closel,
identified with and highly responsible
for the policies of the government, i
a bigger figure than the President o
the country.
Many writers have sought to con
vey the impression that the Soviet
are structures peculiarly Russian il
character. But this is not the case
The fact is that there was very littl
understanding of them or propaganda
made for them before they sprang u
almost spontaneously during the BIZ
revolutionary upheaval of 1905. The
are very different organizations fror
the village "mir," which has bee
pointed out as their progenitor. The
develop naturally in a revolutionar
situation, just as central labor cour
ellis do in every capitalist country
even though the men forming ther
1 have little or no knowledge of eac
others experiences.
j For working-class which has bee
broken with capitalism, and whic
finds itself on the road to power, it
a perfectly logical, if not inevitabl
j procedure to discard the old state ma
chinery, to cast off all parasitic ele
ments and to select its governments
representatives directly from N
workshops, fields and barracks. Tha
the workers in other countries hav
not got the Soviet idea stronger
due chiefly to the fact that, unlike tn
Russian workers, they have not W
been faced by real revolutionary cri,