Return To The Soviets: Utopia Or Historical Necessity

Abstract

The article substantiates the incompatibility of the Western institution of political parties with the Russian civilization, its own democratic traditions of public administration and self-organization of people’s life. This is manifested in the current negative attitude of the population towards the institution of political parties, as well as in the critical attitude towards it from the most diverse ideological trends in Russian socio-political and scientific thought. Its criticism can be found in the works of V.O. Klyuchevsky and D.M. Mendeleev, V.I. Lenin and N.A. Berdyaev. Such a critical attitude is quite understandable. In the traditions of Russia, as a Eurasian state, there were its own democratic forms of state self-organization, dating back to the nomadic Kurultai, then Zemstvo councils and, finally, to the Soviet government, which were based on the territorial-corporate principle of the representation of the people in the Authorities. The absolute advantages of the Soviet system of democracy in comparison with the current party system are shown, especially in times of crisis in the life of society, requiring the mobilization of human and material resources. It is concluded that the old slogan “all power to the Soviets” is again becoming very relevant in connection with the prospects for the end of the conflict in Ukraine.

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