The Soviet System of Federalism

The system of soviet federation established by the constitution of 1923 represents a peculiar inversion of the federative idea. The framers of this instrument of government were faced with the solution of a problem of a complex and conflicting nature. The creators of the new Russian government, the leaders of the Communist party, desired to secure, on the one hand, the establishment of the rule of the proletariat; they hoped to build up a government that should develop into “a complete unity of workingmen of various nations” in “one centralized democratic republic.” On the other hand, the former Russian Empire had been made up of numerous nationalities. These distinct nationalities remained under the new Soviet régime and were insistent in their claims to self-government. The creators of the Soviet constitution were, therefore, confronted with the reconciliation of the principle of the rule of the proletariat with the principle of the freedom and self-determination of nationalities. In terms of governmental structure, they attempted to fit together these two incompatible political ideas: the practice of absolutism with the idea of federalism. The bolshevist oligarchs, rabid adepts of centralization, were obliged to acknowledge the rights of the nationalities to a certain amount of independence within the soviet state. The resulting system of soviet federation was written into the constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which was approved by the Central Executive Committee of the Union on July 3, 1923, and which was ratified by the Second Congress of Soviets in January of the next year.