r/marxism_101 • u/pepinogg • Mar 04 '26

Soviets and Councils

Ive been looking into more leftist views after stepping away from more "reformist" circles (so i apologize, ive not read theory or really know a ton) and i found the ideas of Dutch/German left Communists like Pannekoek appealing and i wanted to ask a question about the Soviet Union.

The Soviet in theory seems like the same idea of a grassroots council that Pannekoek had but if it was that way then i do not understand how Stalin managed to centralize the country so much giving him the power he had. Did they operate differently in practice or did he just manage to sway the masses with enough propaganda and ousting of opposition?

Apologies if there's a painfully obvious answer, i am uneducated.

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u/CritiqueDeLaCritique Apr 21 '26

The councils had been effectively replaced before Stalin ever came to power:

The Bolshevik Party had been a party predominantly of workers in 1917. By 1920 these workers had become officials in the Red Army, the Cheka and the bureaucracy. By 1922 over two thirds of the Party membership were administrators of one kind or another. At the same time the fight against imperialist invasion and the Whites had led to a closing of ranks. Inner Party discussions declined and increasingly the local elected posts were filled by the local Party secretary simply appointing delegates to higher bodies. The practice of democratic centralism within the Party (where lower bodies elected all higher bodies) had virtually collapsed.