Drawing upon recent Western and Soviet research, this paper reevaluates workers' control during and after the Russian Revolution. The old dichotomies of anarchic organization from below and authoritarian centralization from above are much too simplistic to capture the complex dynamic that characterized the movement and the tasks of institution-building. Workers' control, while hardly ideal, displayed many very positive characteristics of organization, co-ordination, discipline, maintaining production, as well as democratic control, representation, bargaining and dignity. In addition, although the conditions of revolution and civil war limited democratic possibilities, the potential of workers' control for medium-term development were considerably greater than recognized by Bolshevik ideology, and presented one element in a realistic nonStalinist industrialization strategy in the 1920s and beyond.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Avrich, P. (1961), 'The Russian Revolution and the Factory Committees'. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Columbia University.
2.
Avrich, P.
(1963a), 'The Bolshevik Revolution and Workers' Control in Russian Industry'. Slavic Review, 27, 47-63.
3.
Avrich, P. (1963b), 'Russian Factory Committees in 1917'. Jahrbucher fur Geschichte Osteuropas, 11, 161-182.
4.
Avrich, P.
(1970), Kronstadt 1921. New York: Norton.
5.
Baevskii, D.A. (1959), 'Rol' sovnarkhozov i profsoiuzov v organizatsii sotsialisticheskogo promyshlennogo proizvodstva v 1917-1920 gg'. Istoricheskie Zapiski, 64, 3 -46.
6.
Bahro, R.
(1978), The Alternative in Eastern Europe. Trans. David Fernbach. London: Verso/NLB.
7.
Bailes, K.
(1978), Technology and Society under Lenin and Stalin. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
8.
Berliner, J.
(1983), 'Managing the USSR Economy: Alternative Models'. Problems of Communism, 32, 40-56.
9.
Bettelheim, C.
(1976), Class Struggles in the USSR, First Period: 1917-1923. Trans. Brian Pearce. New York: Monthly Review.
10.
Bettelheim, C.
(1978), Class Struggles in the USSR, Second Period. 1923 -1930. Trans. Brian Pearce. New York: Monthly Review.
11.
Brinton, M.
(1970), The Bolsheviks and Workers' Control. London: Solidarity.
12.
Brilgmann, U. (1972), Die russischen Gewerkschaften in Revolution und B1irgerkrieg, 1917-1919. Frankfurt am Main: Europaische Verlagsanstalt.
13.
Buchanan, H. (1972), 'Soviet Economic Policy for the Transition Period: the Supreme Council of the National Economy, 1917-1920'. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Indiana University.
14.
Bunyan, J.
(ed.) (1967), The Origin of Forced Labor in the Soviet State, 1917-1921. Sirianni: Workers'Control in the Russian Revolution Documents and Materials. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
15.
Carr, E.H.
(1969), The Interregnum, 1923-1924. Baltimore: Penguin.
16.
Carr, E.H.
(1970) Socialism in One Country, 1924-1926, 2 vols. Baltimore: Penguin.
17.
Carr, E.H.
and Davies, R.W. (1974), Foundations of a Planned Economy, 1926-1929, Vol. 1. Baltimore: Penguin.
18.
Chase, W.
(forthcoming), 'The Dialectics of Production Meetings, 1923-1929'. Russian History/Histoire Russe.
19.
Chauvier, J.-M. (1973), 'Contr6le ouvrier et "autogestion sauvage" en Russie, 1917 -1921'. Revue des Pays de l'Est, 14, 71 -100.
20.
Chitarin, A. (1973), Lenin e il controllo operaio. Roma: Savelli.
21.
Cohen, S.
(1971), Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution. New York: Vintage.
22.
Cohen, S.
(1977), 'Bolshevism and Stalinism', in Tucker, R. (ed.), Stalinism. New York: Norton.
23.
Claudin-Urondo, C. (1975), Lenine et la reolution culturelle. Paris: Mouton.
24.
Comisso, E.
(1979), Workers' Control Under Plan and Market. New Haven: Yale University Press.
25.
Corrigan, P.
, Ramsay, H. and Sayer, D. (1978), Socialist Construction and Marxist Theory. New York: Monthly Review.
26.
Devlin, R. (1976), 'Petrograd Workers and Workers' Factory Committees in 1917: An Aspect of the Social History of the Russian Revolution'. Unpublished PhD dissertation, State University of New York at Binghamton.
27.
Doring, F. (1970), Organizationsprobleme der russischen Wirtschaft in Revolution und Burgerkrieg (1918-1920). Hanover: Verlag fur Literatur und Zeitgeschehen.
Ferro, M.
(1972), The Russian Revolution of 1917. Trans. J.L.Richards. Engelwood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.
30.
Ferro, M. (1976), La Revolution de 1917: Octobre, Naissance d'une societe. Paris: Aubier Montaigne.
31.
Fitzpatrick, S.
(ed.) (1978), Cultural Revolution in Russia, 1928-1931. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
32.
Fleron, F.
(ed.) (1977), Technology and Communist Culture. New York: Praeger.
33.
Fraser, S.
(1983), "'The New Unionism" and the "New Economic Policy"', in Cronin, J. and Sirianni, C. (eds) Work, Community and Power. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Getzler, I.
(1983), Kronstadt 1917-1921. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
36.
Gladkov, I. (1954), Natsionalizatsiiapromyshlennosti v SSSR. Sbornik dokumentov i materialov, 1917-1920 gg. Moscow: Gospolitizdat.
37.
Goodey, C.
(1974), 'Factory Committees and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat'. Critique, 3, 27-47.
38.
Groh, Dieter (1973), Kritische Geschichtswissenschaft in emanzipatorischer A bsicht. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.
39.
Haimson, L.
(1971), 'The Russian Workers Movement on the Eve of the First World War'. Paper delivered at the annual meetings of the American Historical Association: New York.
40.
Haumann, H. (1973), 'Die russische Revolution und ihre ersten Versuche sozialistischer Wirtschaftspolitik'. Das Argument, 15, 768-803.
Itkin, M.L. (1980), 'Tsentral'nii Sovet fabrichno-zavodskikh komitetov', Oktiabr'skoe vooruzhennoe vostanie v Petrograde. Moscow.
43.
Kaplan, F.
(1968), Bolshevik Ideology and the Ethics of Soviet Labor. New York: Philosophical Library.
44.
Keep, J.
(1976), The Russian Revolution: A Study on Mass Mobilization. New York: Norton.
45.
Koenker, D.
(1981), Moscow Workers and the 1917 Revolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
46.
Kool, F. and Oberlander, E. (eds) (1969), Arbeiterdemokratie oder Parteidiktatur.Olten und Freiburg im Breisgau: Walter Verlag.
47.
Lenin, V.I.
(1965), Collected Works. London: Lawrence and Wishart.
48.
Lewin, M.
(1974), Political Undercurrents in Soviet Economic Debates. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
49.
Lewin, M.
(1968), Russian Peasants and Soviet Power. New York: Norton.
50.
Lewin, M.
(1977),'The Social Background of Stalinism', in Tucker, R. (ed.), Stalinism. New York: Norton.
51.
Lewin, M.
(1978), 'Society, State and Ideology during the First Five-Year Plan', in Fitzpatrick, S. (ed.), Cultural Revolution in Russia. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press.
52.
Lomov, A. (1919), Die Produktivitat der Arbeit in Sowjet-Russland. Berlin: Freie Jugend.
53.
Lorenz, R. (1965), Anfange der bolschewistischen Industriepolitik. Koln: Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik.
54.
Lorenz, R. (1967), 'Wirtschaftspolitische Alternativen der Sowjetmacht im Fruhjahr und Sommer 1918', Jahrbucher fur Geschichte Osteuropas 15, 209-236.
55.
Mandel, M. (1978), 'The Development of Revolutionary Consciousness among the Industrial Workers of Petrograd between February and November 1917'. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Columbia University.
56.
Manning, R.
(1984), 'Change is Under Way in the USSR', in These Times, April 4, 17-17.
57.
Narkiewicz, O.
(1970), The Making of the Soviet State Apparatus. Manchester: University of Manchester Press.
58.
Norr, H.
(forthcoming), 'Self-Management and the Politics of Solidarity', in Sirianni, C. (ed.) Comparative Studies in Worker Participation. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
59.
Oktiabr'skaia revoliutsiia i fabzavkomy. Materialy po istorii fabrichnozavodskikh komitetov (1927), 3 vols. Moscow.
60.
Pankratova, A. (1923), Fabzavkomy Rossii v bor'be za sotsialisticheskuiu fabriku. Moscow: Krasnaia nov'.
61.
Pankratova, A. (1967), 'Les comites d'usines en Russie a l'epoque de la Revolution (1917-1918)'. Autogestion 4, 3-63.
62.
Pethybridge, R.
(1971), 'The Bolsheviks and Technical Disorder, 19171918'. Slavonic and East European Review, 49, 410-424.
63.
Potel, J-Y.
(1982), 'The Experience of Solidarity: Solidarity and Self-Management'. Labor Focus on Eastern Europe, 5, 23-28.
64.
Pravda, A.
(1977), 'Workers' Participation in Czechoslovakia, 1968-1969'. California Slavonic Papers, 19, 312-334.
65.
Rassweiler, A.
(1983), 'Soviet Labor History of the 1920s and 1930s'. Journal of Social History, 16, 147-158.
66.
Remington, T.
(1982), 'Institution Building in Bolshevik Russia: The Case of "State Kontrol". Slavic Review, 41, 91-103.
67.
Rosenberg, W.
(1977), 'Workers' Control on the Railroads and Some Suggestions Concerning Social Aspects of Labor Politics in the Russian Revolution'. Journal of Modern History, supplement, 49,D1181-1219.
68.
Rosenberg, W.
(1978), 'Workers and Workers' Control in the Russian Revolution'. History Workshop Journal, 5, 89-97.
69.
Rosenberg, W.
(1982), 'Russian Labor and Bolshevik Power after October'. Working paper prepared for the Berkeley Conference on Russian Labor.
70.
Rosenberg, W.
(1983), 'The Democratization of Russia's Railroads in 1917', in Cronin, J. and Sirianni, C. (eds), Work, Community and Power. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
71.
Rusinow, D.
(1977), The Yugoslav Experiment. Berkeley: University of California Press.
72.
Selitskii, V. la. (1971), Massy v bor'be za rabochii kontrol (mart-iiul 1917g.). Moscow: 'Mysl'.
73.
Sirianni, C.
(1982), Workers' Control and Socialist Democracy: the Soviet Experience. London: Verso/NLB.
74.
Sirianni, C.
(1983a), 'Workers' Control in Europe: A Comparative Sociological Analysis', in Cronin, J. and Sirianni, C. (eds), Work, Community and Power. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
75.
Sirianni, C.
(1983b), 'Councils and Parliaments: The Problems of Dual Power and Democracy in Comparative Perspective', Politics and Society, 12, 83-123.
76.
Skocpol, T.
(1979), States and SocialRevolutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
77.
Slater, P.
(ed.) (1980), Outlines of a Critique of Technology. Atlantic Highlands: Humanities Press.
78.
Smith, S.
(1983), Red Petrograd. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
79.
Smith, S.
(1981), 'Craft Consciousness, Class Consciousness: Petrograd 1917'. History Workshop Journal, 11, 33-56.
80.
Tilly, C.
(1978), From Mobilization to Revolution. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.
81.
Tucker, R.
(ed.) (1977), Stalinism. New York: Norton.
82.
Venediktov, A.V. (1957), Organizatsiia gosudarstvennoi promyshlennosti v SSSR, Tom I (1917 -1920). Leningrad: Leningrad University Press.
83.
Ward, B.
(1964), 'Wild Socialism in Russia: the Origins'. California Slavonic Studies, 3, 127-148.
84.
Zald, M.
and McCarthy, J. (eds) (1979), The Dynamics of Social Movements, Cambridge, Mass.: Winthrop.
85.
Zald, M.
and McCarthy, J. (eds) (1977), 'Resource Mobilization and Social Movements: A Partial Theory'. American Journal of Sociology, 82, 1212-1241.
