CHAPTER 6

Communist Controls

The instruments of control in Russia are the State, the Party, the bureaucratic Apparatus, the Secret Police, and the Army. For the purposes of our study, probably of least consequence is the machinery of the State. To a large extent it is an elaborate façade. The real ruling force is the Party, or rather the small group of elite which dominates the Party. Most intimately connected and concerned with the execution of Party directives is the Apparatus of the bureaucracy. The Secret Police infiltrate the whole fabric of Soviet society and constitute an essential part of it. Back of all stands the Army, an extension of the Party's will.

Some stress is laid, in the sections below, on the Secret Police and the Army. But indispensible as these are, the Apparatus and the guiding work of the Party are given greatest emphasis, particularly the former since its nature and function are least understood by the average American.

The sections on the State, Party, and Secret Police are from Merle Fainsod's HOW RUSSIA IS RULED. That on the bureaucratic Apparatus is from the previously cited work of Barrington Moore, SOVIET POLITICS—THE DILEMMA OF POWER. The concluding section, on the Army, is from Julian Towster's POLITICAL POWER IN THE U.S.S.R.

Dr. Fainsod, working with his colleagues at the Russian Research Center at Harvard University, has produced, in HOW RUSSIA IS RULED, a valuable and extremely detailed analysis of the power structure of the Soviet Union. It is a work which will probably be consulted for many years. Still, the

editor has mixed feelings in presenting excerpts from it. One of the basic criteria used in assembling this volume is the avoidance, as far as possible, of loaded language. Dr. Fainsod, it is felt, does not escape so freely from such a charge as could be wished. The reader is urged, therefore, to watch for the prejudicial adjective, the slanted phrase.

Professor Towster is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He brings to his work, in the words of Professor Quincy Wright, "a broad knowledge of Russian history, detailed examination of Soviet official documents and official pronouncements of the Communist Party, and an understanding of Marxist-Leninist ideology based upon study of the original sources in the Russian language."

Immediately following is Fainsod's description of the structure of the Soviet State.

FROM

Merle Fainsod

HOW RUSSIA IS RULED

THE Constitution of 1936, although amended in detail over the years, remains in effect today. Its plan can be briefly summarized. Chapter One, entitled the Organization of Society, proclaims the USSR as a "socialist state of workers and peasants" and outlines the role of state, collective farm, and private property. Particularly notable in terms of its intended appeal to the West is the declaration in Article 10 that "the right of citizens to personal ownership of their incomes from work and of their savings, of their dwelling houses and subsidiary household economy, their household furniture and utensils and articles of personal use and convenience, as well as the right of inheritance of personal property of citizens, is protected by law.”

The next eight chapters of the Constitution lay down the political structure of the state. After reiterating that the USSR is a federal state and that each union republic reserves the "right freely to secede," the powers of the central governmental organs

are specified in such all-embracing scope as largely to negate the federal pattern on which the government is allegedly constructed. The highest organ of state authority is declared to be the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The Supreme Soviet is divided into two chambers: the Soviet of the Union, which is directly elected on the basis of one deputy for every three hundred thousand inhabitants, and the Soviet of Nationalities, which is also directly elected on the basis of twenty-five deputies from each union republic, eleven deputies from each autonomous republic, five deputies from each autonomous region, and one deputy from each national area. Both chambers serve for a term of four years and have equal rights in initiating and enacting legislation. In case they disagree and their disagreements cannot be reconciled (an eventuality that is hardly likely to occur under a system of one-party rule), the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet has the authority to dissolve the Supreme Soviet and order new elections.

The Presidium is elected at a joint session of both chambers. As originally established in 1936, it consisted of a chairman, eleven vice-chairmen, a secretary, and twenty-four members. Its membership has since been reorganized to provide for a chairman, sixteen vice-chairmen, a secretary, and fifteen members. The Presidium functions as a collegial presidency. It performs the ornamental functions of head of state, convenes and dissolves sessions of the Supreme Soviet, and appoints and relieves cabinet ministers on the recommendation of the Council of Ministers and subject to subsequent confirmation by the Supreme Soviet. It has the power to annul decisions of the Council of Ministers (before 1946 called Council of People's Commissars) in case they do not conform to law. It interprets laws of the USSR, issues decrees, exercises the right of pardon, ratifies and denounces treaties, proclaims martial law, issues mobilization orders, is authorized to declare war in the intervals between sessions of the Supreme Soviet, and performs a number of other functions of lesser significance.

Executive and administrative authority is vested in a Council of Ministers whose appointment requires the confirmation of the Supreme Soviet. Theoretically the Council of Ministers is re

sponsible to the Supreme Soviet, and its Presidium: members of the Supreme Soviet may address questions to the ministers who are required to “give a verbal or written reply in the respective chamber within a period not exceeding three days." The stenographic reports of the sessions of the Supreme Soviet give no indication that this "right of interpellation" is exercised.

The 1936 Constitution, like its predecessor, provides for three types of ministries: all-union, union-republic, and republic. Since 1936, there has been a considerable expansion in the number of all-union and union-republic ministries with heavy industry largely reserved for all-union jurisdiction while light industry, agriculture, and trade are entrusted to the union-republic ministries. The decentralization of operative functions in the latter case is combined with continued centralization of planning and direction. Decisions and orders of the Council of Ministers of the USSR are binding on all lower organs.

The government of the union republics consists of a Supreme Soviet of one chamber, its Presidium, and a Council of Ministers composed of union-republic and republic ministries. The unionrepublic ministries are subordinated to the council of ministries of the union republic and its supreme soviet as well as to their counterpart ministries at the center. The republic ministries are directly subordinate to the union republic's council of ministers and its supreme soviet. Autonomous republics also possess their own supreme soviets, presidiums, and councils of ministers.

The local organs of state authority (territories, regions, districts, cities, rural localities, etc.) include soviets elected for a two-year term and the executive committees or ispolkoms which are formally responsible to the soviets and selected by them.

The Constitution also provides for a judicial system consisting of a Supreme Court of the USSR, supreme courts of the union republics, territorial and regional courts, courts of the autonomous republics and autonomous regions, area courts, special courts of the USSR established by the Supreme Soviet, and people's courts. People's courts are popularly elected for three-year terms; the members of other courts are selected by their corresponding soviets for five-year terms. Cases are heard in public "unless otherwise provided by law." The accused "is guaranteed the

right to be defended by counsel,” a right which many survivors of the Great Purge testify was suspended in their cases despite the explicit phraseology of the Constitution. According to Article 112 of the Constitution, "judges are independent and subject only to the law." A recent commentary by a Soviet jurist, N. N. Polyansky, sheds light on the meaning of this formula.

The independence of the judges referred to in Article 112 of the Stalin Constitution does not and cannot signify their independence of politics. The judges are subject only to the law-this provision expresses the subordination of the judges to the policy of the Soviet regime, which finds its expression in the law.

The demand that the work of the judge be subject to the law and the demand that it be subject to the policy of the Communist Party cannot be in contradiction in our country.

The utilization of the soviets as an instrument of governance has its own supporting rationalization. In the authoritative words of Stalin, the Soviets are a "transmission belt" linking the Party with the masses, “organizations which rally the labouring masses .. under the leadership of the Party." They are also, according to Stalin, "the most democratic and therefore the most authoritative organizations of the masses, which facilitate to the utmost their participation in the work of building up the new state and its administration, and which bring into full play the revolutionary energy, initiative and creative abilities of the masses in the struggle for the destruction of the old order, in the struggle for the new, proletarian order."

Stripped of their rhetorical flourishes, these statements point to the important role the soviets play in the Communist system of political controls. The soviets themselves are Party-dominated. Responsibility for selection of the membership of the soviets and for direction of their activity remains with the Party. In each soviet, the inner board of control is invariably the Communist fraction. At the same time, the Party leadership seeks to utilize the mechanism of the soviets to broaden its influence with the masses, to enlist sympathetic non-Party elements in the tasks of administration and government, and to reward outstand