The Union of Socialist Soviet Republics deliberately erased the word "Russian" from its official title because it is regarded as a Socialist League of Nations, the nucleus of a world-wide federa tion. To the Union are reserved five departments: (I) foreign affairs, (2) defence, (3) foreign trade, (4) transport, (5) posts and telegraphs. Next come rive departments over which the Union exercises control, and lays down general principles, while it leaves to the component republics the detailed administration and some initiative in legislation. These are (I) labour, (2) finance, (3) workers' and peasants' inspection (a department of audit), (4) internal trade, and (5) the Supreme Council of Public Economy. Finally, there are six departments in which the Republics enjoy complete autonomy : agriculture, (2) home affairs, (3) justice, (4) education, (5) health, (6) social welfare.
The administration of each of these departments, alike in the Union and in the Republics, is placed under a "Commissariat," which differs little from the Western conception of a Ministry. The commissar is, however, usually the chairman of a small board, or "collegium," which meets daily and takes its decisions in com mon. The Council of Commissars acts as a cabinet, and has, in the intervals between the sittings of the executive of the Congress of Soviets, the right to issue emergency decrees and legislation. Of these commissariats the most important in a socialized State is, of course, the Supreme Council of Public Economy, which co ordinates the relations of the productive "trusts" (i.e., the nation alized industries), the distributive "syndicates" (which sell their product), fixes the level of prices, and, in the last resort, deter mines what proportion of the profit shall be set aside as new capital, and what proportion shall be assigned to raise wages. But the most characteristic institution is the central planning depart ment (Gosplan) which collects statistics, estimates output, and works out schemes for the expansion of industry, the exploitation of raw materials, and the development of electric power.
Lastly, it should be explained that the sovereign body of the Union, which must finally pass or ratify legislation, is a two chambered institution. On the Council of Nationalities, in effect a Senate, each autonomous republic and territory has a single representative, and little Tatary counts for as much as Great Russia. It deals with the cultural rights of the nationalities. To the other chamber, known as the Central Executive Committee, the cabinet (Council of Commissars) is responsible, and is elected by it. The assent of both chambers is theoretically required for legislation. No provision exists for conflicts between them, since both are equally emanations of the ruling Communist Party.
It is not easy to determine how much this soviet system, re garded as a constitutional experiment, contributes to the stability of the Communist regime. It rests on the support of the urban working-class, which feels itself the privileged ruler of the State. It has, that is to say, the assent of that part of the population which is strategically important, for the industrial area is the centre of Russia, and of its network of communications.
The peasants are, passively acquiescent, preferring Communist rule to any visible alternative, since it has given them the land. Though real wages are low (with an index figure of 5o as against Ioo in London and 4o in Warsaw) and housing conditions bad, the workers unquestionably have the sense that their whole environ ment is ordered for their good. No privileged class stands above them. Every career, including the professions and the officers' corps of the Red army, stands wide open to them. The entire edu cational system is devised for their benefit. The clubs, schools, creches and playing fields grouped round every factory, offer them an active social life, which they themselves direct. Of all this the soviets are the natural political expression. They are based on the factory itself. The immense majority in every soviet, and even in their executive committees, is composed of manual workers.
The indirect method by which the higher soviets are chosen is, on the other hand, open to grave criticism. It would give the rank-and-file of the electorate only a weak and diluted influence over the larger issues of public policy, even if elections were free. As things stand to-day, the only guarantee that the will, even of the urban masses, shall prevail, lies in the anxiety of the Com munist Party to keep their support. Though it retains its dictator ship, its attitude has perceptibly changed since the early years.
It has its ear to the ground. It talks of itself as the mouthpiece of the masses. It has developed an elaborate system by which it receives a continuous stream of reports from every factory and village in Russia, on the trend of popular opinion, on grievances large and small, and on the defects of legislative drafts under the consideration of the soviets. The absence of individual liberty and civil rights is not resented by the workers, as it would be in the West, partly because Russia has had no experience of freedom, and partly because the dictatorship is exercised by workers for the workers' benefit. The gravest evil of the actual system—that it tolerates no opposition, and permits the criticism only of per sons and of details—is inherent rather in the Communist dictator ship than in the soviet idea. That idea undoubtedly appeals to Russians as a native growth, a product of their own experience and history. Its obvious merits, in the first stages of election, are patent to the simplest citizen. Its graver defects, in the later stages, do not come under his observation. He accepts it as a racy and original form of democracy, while only the "intelligentsia" has the knowledge to contrast it with Western practice and theory. (H. N. BR.) BIBLIOGRAPHY.-An ample technical literature in the Russian lan guage expounds the rapidly developing Soviet constitution. For the non-Russian reader, the clearest and frankest statement of the ideas that underlie it is Bukharin's ABC of Communism. A useful account of its provisions in its earlier phase is Andrew Rothstein's The Soviet Constitution. How the Soviets Work (Vanguard Press) by H. N. Brailsford is an attempt to describe the working of the system.