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94-612: In 1929, Bama County was part of a short-lived soviet led by Deng Xiaoping . The county is famous for its large number of centenarians . Longevity in Bama County has been associated with cleanliness of the air and water, simplicity of life, and the lack of meat in the typical diet. Bama County, like the province it is a part of, is a historically poor county. It is now becoming a major destination for health tourism within China, resulting in increasing economic opportunities. There

188-510: A social science ; hence many applications of statistical mathematics were curtailed, particularly during the Stalin era. Under central planning , nothing could occur by accident. The law of large numbers or the idea of random deviation were decried as "false theories". Statistical journals were closed; world-renowned statisticians like Andrey Kolmogorov and Eugen Slutsky abandoned statistical research. As with all Soviet historiography,

282-580: A vanguard party was required to lead the working class in the revolution that would overthrow capitalism and replace it with socialism. Soviet historiography interpreted this theory to mean that the creation of the Soviet Union was the most important turning event in human history, since the USSR was considered to be the first socialist society. Furthermore, the Communist Party —considered to be

376-491: A "culturological" tendency emerged. Soviet-era historiography was deeply influenced by Marxism. Marxism maintains that the moving forces of history are determined by material production and the rise of different socioeconomic formations. Applying this perspective to socioeconomic formations such as slavery and feudalism is a major methodological principle of Marxist historiography. Based on this principle, historiography predicts that there will be an abolition of capitalism by

470-730: A Commune (Town Council) on the basis of the most democratic voting, without limitations for the bourgeoisie. These elections, being boycotted by the bourgeoisie parties, gave us a crushing majority. The democratically elected Council voluntarily submitted to the Petrograd Soviet... the Soviet Government placed no obstacle in the way of the bourgeois parties; and if the Cadets, the SRs and the Mensheviks, who had their press which

564-571: A Viking ship into its logo. Soviet historians trace the origin of feudalism in Russia to the 11th century, after the founding of the Russian state. The class struggle in medieval times is emphasized because of the hardships of feudal relations. For example, Soviet historians argue that uprisings in Kiev in 1068–69 were a reflection of the class struggle. There was a constant struggle between the powers of

658-553: A barely credible scale, in every sphere. Real facts, real statistics, disappeared into the realm of fantasy. History, including the history of the Communist Party , or rather especially the history of the Communist Party, was rewritten. Unpersons disappeared from the official record. A new past, as well as new present, was imposed on the captive minds of the Soviet population, as was, of course, admitted when truth emerged in

752-657: A field of Marxism-Leninism ", in which were given "official and verified by the Central Committee interpretation of basic issues of history of the All-Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and Marxism-Leninism and without allowing any other arbitrary interpretations". While the triumph of Stalinist history was being imposed, different modes of history began to emerge. These included BA Romanov's People and Morals in Ancient Rus' (1947),

846-606: A military commission regarding those involved in the short-lived soviet state. This work might have been what ensured his future employment with the Reichswehr in Munich as an "educational officer" whose task was combating "dangerous" ideas like communism, pacifism, and democracy among the army's ranks (many soldiers had taken part in the German Revolution ; in fact it was sparked by mutinous German sailors ). After

940-474: A number of important post war historiographical movements, which have antecedents in the 1920s and 1930s. Surprisingly these include culturally and psychologically focused history. In the late 1920s Stalinists began limiting individualist approaches to history, culminating in the publication of Stalin and other's "Short Course" History of the Soviet Communist Party (1938). This crystallised

1034-417: A program called "soviet government". The soviet system was described as "a higher type of state" and "a higher form of democracy" which would "arouse the masses of the exploited toilers to the task of making new history". Furthermore, it offered "to the oppressed toiling masses the opportunity to participate actively in the free construction of a new society". According to Lenin, soviet rule "is nothing else than

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1128-587: A recent opinion poll in Russia that gave Stalin an approval rating of 47%, and states that "The Soviet Union was not a democracy, but it was an example for millions of people around the world of the best and fairest society." The Economist contends that the book is inspired by Soviet historiography in its treatment of the Cold War , as it claims that the Cold War was started by the United States , that

1222-528: A republic. He was assassinated three months after, whereupon a short-lived soviet republic was established by the Bavarian workers. On 1 May 1919, the German Army , along with local Bavarian Freikorps , overthrew the nascent republic, massacring several hundred persons in the process, including many non-Communist. A Social Democratic government was thereupon restored, however, political power passed to

1316-689: A short-lived soviet in Bama County . The term soon came to be used outside the former Russian Empire following 1917. The Limerick Soviet was formed in Ireland in 1919 at the beginning of the Irish War of Independence . A soviet republic was established in Bavaria on 7 April 1919. In 1920, the Workers' Dreadnought published "A Constitution for British Soviets" in preparation for the launch of

1410-581: A socialist revolution made by the working class. Soviet historians believed that Marxist–Leninist theory permitted the application of categories of dialectical and historical materialism in the study of historical events. Marx and Engels' ideas of the importance of class struggle in history, the destiny of the working class, and the role of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the revolutionary party are of major importance in Marxist methodology. Marxist–Leninist historiography has several aspects. It explains

1504-655: A study of mentalités at the height of the Zhdanovshchina . However, it was not until the 20th Congress of the CPSU that different schools of history emerged from the Stalinist freeze. Firstly, a "new direction" within Leninist materialism emerged, as an effectively loyal opposition to Stalinist dialectical materialism, secondly a social psychology of history emerged through a reading of Leninist psychology, thirdly

1598-603: Is 3 town and 7 townships in the county: Bama ( 巴马镇 ), Jiazhuan ( 甲篆镇 ), Yandong ( 燕洞镇 ) Nashe Township ( 那社乡 ), Suolue Township ( 所略乡 ), Xishan Township ( 西山乡 ), Dongshan Township ( 东山乡 ), Fenghuang Township ( 凤凰乡 ), Bailin Township ( 百林乡 ), Natao Township ( 那桃乡 ) The Yao people of Bama County consist of the following three subgroups. Soviet (council) A soviet ( Russian : совет , romanized :  sovet , IPA: [sɐˈvʲet] , lit.   ' council ' )

1692-774: Is a workers' council that follows a socialist ideology, particularly in the context of the Russian Revolution . Soviets were the main form of government in the Russian SFSR and the Makhnovshchina . The first soviets were established during the 1905 Revolution in the late Russian Empire . In 1917, following the February Revolution , a state of dual power emerged between the Russian Provisional Government and

1786-468: Is also argued that by bearing the full weight of the Mongolian invasions, Russia helped to save Western Europe from outside domination. The struggle against foreign domination and the heroism of its participants is a recurring theme in Soviet historiography. Soviet historians have an upbeat assessment of Alexander Nevsky , characterized as one of the greatest military leaders of his time for defeating

1880-429: Is inevitable. All research had to be based on those assumptions and could not diverge in its findings. In 1956, Soviet academician Anna Pankratova said that "the problems of Soviet historiography are the problems of our Communist ideology." Soviet historians have also been criticized for a Marxist bias in the interpretation of other historical events, unrelated to the Soviet Union. Thus, for example, they assigned to

1974-512: Is the translation of a widely cited article ( "Lukavaia Tsifra" ) by journalist Vasilii Seliunin and economist Grigorii Khanin , in Novyi Mir, February 1987, #2: 181–202 Various Sovietologists have raised the issue of the quality (accuracy and reliability ) of data published in the Soviet Union and used in historical research. The Marxist theoreticians of the Party regarded statistics as

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2068-538: The Communist Party (British Section of the Third International) . Here the focus was on "household" soviets "[i]n order that mothers and those who are organisers of the family life of the community may be adequately represented." Soviet historiography Soviet historiography is the methodology of history studies by historians in the Soviet Union (USSR). In the USSR, the study of history

2162-640: The German knights' invasions of Russia in the 13th century . Much importance is attached to the Battle of Kulikovo (1380), which marked the beginning of the end of the Mongol domination of Russia. Dmitry Donskoi , for his leadership in the struggle against the Mongols, is credited for being an outstanding military commander and contributing significantly to the unity of the Russian lands. "The deceptive figure". This

2256-533: The Katyn massacre was carried out by Germans rather than by Soviets. Yet another example is related to the case of Soviet reprisals against former Soviet POWs returning from Germany ; some of them were treated as traitors and imprisoned in Gulags for many years, yet that policy was denied or minimized by Soviet historians for decades and modern Western scholars have noted that "In the past, Soviet historians engaged for

2350-745: The Nanchang uprising , the term was also used by the Chinese Communists in the 1920s taking control in some parts of the country , which were later declared as the Chinese Soviet Republic in 1931. The CSR was China's first communist government in a structure that would later evolve into the People's Republic of China, but was ultimately wiped out by the Chinese Nationalist forces. In 1929, Deng Xiaoping led

2444-726: The Socialist Revolutionary Party , and even the Mensheviks had a larger share of the elected representatives than the Bolsheviks . As World War I continued and the Russians met defeat after defeat, and the provisional government proved inadequate at establishing industrial peace, the Bolsheviks began to grow in support. By degrees, the Bolsheviks dominated with a leadership which demanded "all power to

2538-679: The Winter War , the occupation of the Baltic states , the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina , Allied assistance to the Soviet Union during the war, many other Western Allies' efforts, the Soviet leadership's mistakes and failures, criticism of the Soviet Union and other content were censored out . The official version of Soviet history was dramatically changed after every major governmental shake-up. Previous leaders were denounced as "enemies", whereas current leaders usually became

2632-633: The official historiography of the Soviet Union , the first workers' council (soviet) formed in May 1905 in Ivanovo (north-east of Moscow ) during the 1905 Russian Revolution ( Ivanovsky Soviet ). However, in his memoirs, the Russian anarchist Volin claims that he witnessed the beginnings of the St Petersburg Soviet in January 1905. The Russian workers were largely organized at the turn of

2726-533: The piatichlenka or five official periods of history in terms of vulgar dialectical materialism : primitive-communism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism and socialism. Following publication of the "Short course", on 14 November 1938 the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union issued a special statement that the course and its chapter "About dialectic and historical materialism" were declared as "encyclopedia of philosophical knowledge in

2820-577: The rady managed to form self-defence units, the councils were dismantled by July 1919 – mostly due to suppression by the Polish government and withdrawal of support from the reformist Polish Socialist Party . The rady robotnicze also appeared in the aftermath of World War II 1944–1947, in the Polish People's Republic during the Poznań protests of 1956 and Polish October , in 1970, as well as

2914-506: The tamizdat authors, Solzhenitsyn was the most famous, publishing The Gulag Archipelago in the West in 1973. Medvedev's Let History Judge: The Origins and Consequences of Stalinism was published in 1971 in the West. Neither could publish in the Soviet Union until the advent of Perestroika and Glasnost . The 2006 Russian book, A Modern History of Russia: 1945–2006: A Manual for History Teachers has received significant attention as it

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3008-632: The " Soviet of People's Commissaries " – the Ministry. Beginning with a minimum of three and maximum of 50 members for smaller communities, the maximum for town soviets was fixed at 1,000 members. The soviet system was seen as an alternative to parliamentary systems for administering republican governments. As outlined in the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of

3102-463: The 1905 of revolution. In 1918, soviets began popping up all around Poland, which was regaining independence after 123 years of colonial rule . Over 100 workers' councils operated there in the years 1918–1919, assembling around 500,000 workers and peasants. The most numerous and radical councils were located in Kraśnik , Lublin , Płock , Warsaw , Zamość , and Zagłębie Dąbrowskie . Although some of

3196-507: The 20th century, leading to a government-sponsored trade-union leadership . In 1905, as the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) increased the strain on Russian industrial production, the workers began to strike and rebel. The soviets represented an autonomous workers' movement, one that broke free from the government's oversight of workers' unions and played a major role in the 1905 Russian Revolution. Soviets sprang up throughout

3290-601: The 20th century. The first known examples occurred during the Revolution in the Kingdom of Poland (1905–1907) , part of the 1905 Russian Revolution , wherein workers in Congress Poland took control of factories and sometimes even entire towns until tsarist authorities quelled the rebellion using police and military forces; alongside Central Russia and Latvia , Congress Poland was one of the most active centres of

3384-540: The Bavarian right. The political turmoil of post-war Bavaria was also the political springboard of Hitler's political career. Hitler, having returned to Munich in late November 1918, detested the soviet state (he elaborated on his aversion to it in his autobiographical work, Mein Kampf , where he also claimed he once narrowly avoided arrest by the state). After the fall of the soviet administration in Bavaria, Hitler began his "first more or less political activity", informing

3478-402: The Bolsheviks, who long before October put forward the slogan of proletarian dictatorship, did not say anything in advance about disenfranchising the exploiters. This aspect of the dictatorship did not make its appearance 'according to the plan' of any particular party; it emerged of itself in the course of the struggle ... even when the Mensheviks (who compromised with the bourgeoisie) still ruled

3572-683: The Council in good time, as at a certain moment did the bourgeois members of the Paris Commune ." Vladimir Lenin wrote that the soviets were originally politically open and inclusive entities, writing in The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky (1918) that, "the disenfranchisement of the bourgeoisie is not a necessary and indispensable feature of the dictatorship of the proletariat. And in Russia,

3666-489: The Creation of the USSR , and successively the 1924 Constitution of the Soviet Union and 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union , the Soviets were the basis of government in the USSR. Factory and village Soviets would send delegates to town Soviets, and in turn the town Soviet would send delegates to the regional Soviet, town and regional Soviets elected delegates to the provincial Soviet, provincial Soviets sent delegates to

3760-639: The Russian word "soviet" plus the Russian suffix -ник denoting an occupation. A number of organizations in Russian were called "council" ( Russian : сове́т ). For example, in Imperial Russia , the State Council , which functioned from 1810 to 1917, was referred to as a Council of Ministers. The Polish and Ukrainian word is respectively rada and рада , 'council, advice', from Middle High German rāt . See Rada . According to

3854-791: The Slavic roots in the foundation of the Russian state in contrast to the Normanist theory of the Vikings conquering the Slavs and founding the Kievan Rus' . There was an outright ban of the theory about the Varangian origin of Kievan Rus in the Soviet Union for ideological reasons. "Anti-Normanists" accused Normanist theory proponents of distorting history by depicting the Slavs as undeveloped primitives. In contrast, Soviet historians stated that

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3948-431: The Slavs laid the foundations of their statehood long before the Norman/Viking raids, while the Norman/Viking invasions only served to hinder the historical development of the Slavs. They argued that Rus' composition was Slavic and that Rurik and Oleg' success was rooted in their support from within the local Slavic aristocracy. After the dissolution of the USSR , Novgorod acknowledged its Viking history by incorporating

4042-406: The Soviet Union and Russia. Its status as "scholarly" at all has been questioned, and it has often been dismissed as ideology and pseudoscience . Robert Conquest concluded that "All in all, unprecedented terror must seem necessary to ideologically motivated attempts to transform society massively and speedily, against its natural possibilities. The accompanying falsifications took place, and on

4136-399: The Soviet Union was acting in self-defense, and that the USSR did not lose the Cold War but rather voluntarily ended it. According to The Economist , "rabid anti-Westernism is the leitmotif of [the book's] ideology." In 2009, president Dmitri Medvedev created the Historical Truth Commission , against the perceived anti-Soviet and anti-Russian slander. Officially, the Commission's mission

4230-447: The Soviet Union, this school "thought that signs of dissent merely represented a misreading of commands from above." For Enteen the other school of writing on Soviet historiography is the social-history school which draws attention to "important initiative from historians at odds with the dominant powers in the field." Enteen is unable to decide between these different approaches based on current literature. In Markwick's view there are

4324-499: The Soviet leadership and historians, unlike their Western colleagues, had denied the existence of a secret protocol to the Soviet-German Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, and as a result the Soviet approach to the study of the Soviet-German relations before 1941 and the origins of World War II were remarkably flawed. In another example, the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 as well as the Polish-Soviet War of 1919–1920 were censored out or minimized in most publications, and research

4418-408: The Soviet of the constituent republic, and the Soviets of the Union Republics sent delegates to the Congress of Soviets of the U.S.S.R. As of 1936, the election of delegates up the pyramid became direct with the creation of the Supreme Soviets . Elections of delegates were made by a show of hands in open factory and village meetings, or in meetings of the rank and file of the army. Any candidate

4512-466: The Stalinist faction routinely distorted political events, forged a theoretical basis for irreconcilable concepts such as the notion of " Socialism in One Country " and misrepresented the views of opponents. He also argued that the Stalinist regime employed an array of professional historians as well as economists to justify policy manoeuvering and safeguarding its own set of material interests. Not all areas of Soviet historiography were equally affected by

4606-467: The administrative level, customarily abbreviated: gorsoviet ( gorodskoy sovyet : city council), raysoviet / raisoviet' ( rayonny sovyet : raion council), selsoviet ( sel'sky sovyet : rural council), possoviet ( poselkovy sovyet : settlement council). In practice deputies in a soviet often worked in standing committees and carried out functions with the help of unpaid volunteers (the aktiv - Russian : актив ). Although English speakers perceive

4700-443: The bourgeoisie organised and demanded representation in the Soviets, they would have been given it. For example, during the regime of the Provisional Government there was bourgeois representation in the Petrograd Soviet – a delegate of the Union of Professional Men which comprised doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc." Similarly, Leon Trotsky wrote in Terrorism and Communism (1920) that "In Petrograd, in November 1917, we also elected

4794-465: The day-to-day running of the government. In the 1940s, it was estimated that at any given time there were over a million people participating in the running of the Soviets. Each Soviet has a variety of committees, parallel to the government departments in the USSR as a whole- public employees aided, advised and ran their relevant committees- for example, teachers would be on education sections, and doctors on healthcare sections: One major factor making

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4888-556: The delegate; and it was equally easy for him to report back to his electors. Local constituents within the factory and village soviet would compile a list of what they want the government to do, and the role of the elected delegates was to carry out the given tasks. Unsatisfactory delegates are liable to recall by majority decision of the electorate: in the 30s, fifteen delegates were so recalled within four years in Moscow alone. There were very few full time administrative workers or state functionaries; instead, many citizens would take part in

4982-433: The deliberate distortions and omissions. Yet part of Soviet historiography produced a large body of significant scholarship which continues to be used in the modern research. Mikhail Pokrovsky (1862–1932) was held in the highest regard as a historian in the Soviet Union and was elected to the Soviet Academy of Sciences in 1929. He emphasized Marxist theory, downplaying the role of personality in favour of economics as

5076-414: The driving force of history. However posthumously Pokrovsky was accused of "vulgar sociologism", and his books were banned. After Stalin's death, and the subsequent renouncement of his policies during the Khrushchev Thaw , Pokrovsky's work regained some influence. When Eduard Burdzhalov , then the deputy editor of the foremost Soviet journal on history, in spring of 1956 published a bold article examining

5170-413: The ideological demands of the government; additionally, the intensity of these demands varied over time. The impact of ideological demands also varied based on the field of history. The areas most affected by ideological demands were 19th and 20th century history, especially Russian and Soviet history. Part of the Soviet historiography was affected by extreme ideological bias, and potentially compromised by

5264-457: The ideology of the Soviet Union. "Soviet" is derived from a Russian word meaning council, assembly, advice, harmony, or concord, and all ultimately deriving from the Proto-Slavic verbal stem of *vět-iti "to inform", related to the Slavic "věst" ("news"), English "wise", the root in "ad-vis-or" (which came to English through French), or the Dutch "weten" ('to know'; cf. "wetenschap" 'science'). The word "sovietnik" means "councillor", from

5358-413: The industrial centers of Russia , usually organizing meetings at the factory level. These soviets disappeared after the revolution of 1905, but re-emerged under socialist leadership during the revolutions of 1917 . Soviets emerged as inclusive bodies to lead workers, and to organize strikes and to politically and militarily fight the government of Russian empire mainly through direct action , with

5452-427: The instruments through which the Party governed the country. Thus the organs of the Communist Party (the highest being the Central Committee ) made decisions on state policy, while the soviets acted as a system for public approval of implementing the Party's programme. Later, in the USSR, republics were also called soviets and local-government bodies were named soviet ( sovyet : council) with an adjective indicating

5546-412: The international historiography of the period. Translations of foreign historiography were produced (if at all) in a truncated form, accompanied by extensive censorship and "corrective" footnotes. For example, in the Russian 1976 translation of Basil Liddell Hart 's History of the Second World War pre-war purges of Red Army officers , the secret protocol to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , many details of

5640-440: The late 1980s." That criticism stems from the fact that in the Soviet Union, science was far from independent. Since the late 1930s, Soviet historiography treated the party line and reality as one and the same. As such, if it was a science, it was a science in service of a specific political and ideological agenda, commonly employing historical revisionism . In the 1930s, historical archives were closed and original research

5734-402: The most part in a disinformation campaign about the extent of the prisoner-of-war problem." The Soviet interpretation of Marxism predetermined much of the research done by historians. Research by scholars in the USSR was limited to a large extent due to this predetermination. Some Soviet historians could not offer non-Marxist theoretical explanations for their interpretation of sources. This

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5828-503: The national policy. More than half of the Union Republic's income went towards local grants, and local Soviets were largely allowed to determine how their budget was spent. Based on the Bolshevik view of the state, the word soviet extended its meaning to any overarching body that obtained the authority of a group of soviets. In this sense, individual soviets became part of a federal structure - Communist government bodies at local level and republic level were called "soviets", and at

5922-423: The old police services and members of the Romanov dynasty ; lunatics and criminals." With village and factory soviets as a base, there arose a vast pyramid of district, cantonal, county and regional soviets, each with its executive soviet. Over and above these stood the " All-Russian Soviet Congress ", which appointed an " All-Russian Central Executive Committee " of not more than 200 members, which in turn chooses

6016-454: The oppressed; the fight, the unscrupulous, self-seeking and sordid fight, the bourgeoisie waged against the soviets; and, lastly, the overt participation of the bourgeoisie (from the Cadets to the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, from Pavel Milyukov to Alexander Kerensky ) in the Kornilov mutiny  – all this paved the way for the formal exclusion of the bourgeoisie from the Soviets." The Bolsheviks and their allies came out with

6110-462: The organized form of the dictatorship of the proletariat". A code of rules governing elections to the soviets was framed in March 1918, but the following classes were disqualified to vote: "Those who employ others for profit; those who live on incomes not derived from their own work – interest on capital, industrial enterprises or landed property; private business men, agents, middlemen; monks and priests of all denominations; ex-employees of

6204-460: The primary actors being socialist revolutionaries and anarchists , as Lenin 's party was a minority. During this time they established minor worker cooperatives , though the operations were minor due to Russian crackdown on leftist organizations. The popular organizations which came into existence during the February Revolution were called "Councils of Workmen's and Soldiers' Deputies". These bodies were supposed to hold things together under

6298-436: The princes and those of the feudal aristocracy, known as the boyars . In regions like Novgorod, the boyar aristocracy was able to limit the prince's power by making the office and the head of church elective. The Mongol conquests in the 13th century had significant consequences for Russia. Soviet historians emphasize the cruelty of Genghis Khan and the suffering and devastation that Russia endured. Soviet historians attribute

6392-407: The provisional government until the election of a constituent assembly could take place; in a sense, they were vigilance committees designed to guard against counter-revolution . The Petrograd Soviet of 4,000 members was the most important of these, on account of its position in the capital and its influence over the garrison. At the beginning of the Revolution, these soviets were under control of

6486-436: The rebellions in the Roman Empire the characteristics of the social revolution . Often, the Marxist bias and propaganda demands came into conflict: hence the peasant rebellions against the early Soviet rule, such as the Tambov Rebellion of 1920–21, were simply ignored as inconvenient politically and contradicting the official interpretation of the Marxist theories. Soviet and earlier Slavophile historians emphasized

6580-482: The reliability of Soviet statistical data varied from period to period. The first revolutionary decade and the period of Stalin's dictatorship both appear highly problematic with regard to statistical reliability; very few statistical data were published from 1936 to 1956. Notably, the 1937 census ' organizers were executed and results destroyed altogether, and no further censuses were conducted until 1959. The reliability of data improved after 1956 when some missing data

6674-558: The role of Bolsheviks in 1917 and demonstrated that Stalin had been an ally of Kamenev—who had been executed as a traitor in 1936—and that Lenin had been a close associate of Zinoviev—who had been executed as a traitor in 1936—Burdzhalov was moved to an uninfluential post. The Brezhnev Era was the time of samizdat (circulating unofficial manuscripts within the USSR) and tamizdat (illegal publication of work abroad). The three most prominent Soviet dissidents of that era were Alexandr Solzhenitsyn , Andrei Sakharov and Roy Medvedev . Of

6768-436: The social basis of historical knowledge, determines the social functions of historical knowledge and the means by which these functions are carried out, and emphasizes the need to study concepts in connection with the social and political life of the period in which these concepts were developed. It studies the theoretical and methodological features in every school of historical thought. Marxist–Leninist historiography analyzes

6862-404: The source-study basis of a historical work, the nature of the use of sources, and specific research methods. It analyzes problems of historical research as the most important sign of the progress and historical knowledge and as the expression of the socioeconomic and political needs of a historical period. Soviet historiography has been severely criticized by scholars, chiefly—but not only—outside

6956-421: The soviets, the bourgeoisie cut themselves off from the soviets of their own accord, boycotted them, put themselves up in opposition to them and intrigued against them. The soviets arose without any constitution and existed without one for more than a year (from the spring of 1917 to the summer of 1918). The fury of the bourgeoisie against this independent and omnipotent (because it was all-embracing) organisation of

7050-637: The soviets. This ended later that year with the October Revolution , during which the Second Congress of Soviets proclaimed itself as the supreme governing body of the country. Because soviets gave the name to the later Soviet Union , they are frequently associated with the state's establishment. However, the term may also refer to any workers' council that is socialist, such as the Irish soviets . Soviets do not inherently need to adhere to

7144-492: The soviets." The Bolsheviks promised the workers a government run by workers' councils to overthrow the bourgeoisie's main government body - the Provisional Government . In October 1917, the provisional government was overthrown, giving all power to the Soviets. John Reed , an American eyewitness to the October Revolution , wrote, "Until February 1918 anybody could vote for delegates to the Soviets. Even had

7238-636: The standing committees a more likely arena for deputy participation in the work of the soviet is their smaller size [...] in 1985 nearly 2 million deputies were members of one or another standing committee - about 80 percent of all deputies. In addition, deputies are assisted in their work by unpaid volunteers ( aktiv ) with a particular interest or expertise in the issues before the committee. The Union Republics , Provinces and Town Soviets had jurisdiction to run their own industry, take censuses, employ more doctors, teachers, and nurses, build schools, libraries and hospitals so long as it did not directly conflict with

7332-667: The strike committees and councils of 1980–1981 . In the wake of World War I, the Social Democrats took power in Bavaria , setting up the People's State of Bavaria under the leadership of Kurt Eisner , a popular Jewish writer. Eisner, an eccentric and well known figure in Munich , succeeded in carrying out a bloodless coup with a few hundred men on 7 November 1918, occupying the seat of parliament and government, and proclaiming

7426-402: The subject of a personality cult . Textbooks were rewritten periodically, with figures—such as Leon Trotsky or Joseph Stalin —disappearing from their pages or being turned from great figures to great villains. Certain regions and periods of history were made unreliable for political reasons. Entire historical events could be erased if they did not fit the party line. For example, until 1989

7520-410: The success of Genghis Khan to the fact that feudalism among his people had not developed, which would have involved feudal and political strife. By contrast, the peoples opposed to the Mongols were in a mature state of feudalism and the political disunity that went with it. Soviet historians conclude that the Mongol domination had disastrous consequences for Russia's historical progress and development. It

7614-539: The term as connoting the defunct Soviet Union , the same word is used in Russian for the Federation Council of the post-communist Russian Federal Assembly . Its untranslated name is Сове́т Федера́ции (Sovyet Federatsii). Workers' councils, known as rady delegatów robotniczych (councils of workers' delegates) or simply rady robotnicze (workers' councils), were formed in Poland at various times throughout

7708-653: The top of the hierarchy, the Congress of Soviets became the nominal core of the Union government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), officially formed in December 1922. Successive Soviet Constitutions recognised the leading role of the Communist Party in politics, - the 1936 Constitution deemed it the "leading nucleus of all organisations of workers, whether public or state". The soviets were structured as

7802-414: The vanguard of the working class – was given the role of permanent leading force in society, rather than a temporary revolutionary organization. As such, it became the protagonist of history, which could not be wrong. Hence the unlimited powers of the Communist Party leaders were claimed to be as infallible and inevitable as the history itself. It also followed that a worldwide victory of communist countries

7896-422: Was falsified both during collection—by local authorities who would be judged by the central authorities based on whether their figures reflected the central economy prescriptions—and by internal propaganda, with its goal of portraying the Soviet state in the most positive light to its own citizens. Nonetheless the policy of not publishing—or simply not collecting—data that was deemed unsuitable for various reasons

7990-463: Was marked by restrictions imposed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Soviet historiography is itself the subject of modern studies. George M. Enteen identifies two approaches to the study of Soviet historiography. A totalitarian approach associated with the Western analysis of the Soviet Union as a totalitarian society, controlled by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of

8084-495: Was much more common than simple falsification; hence the many gaps in Soviet statistical data. Inadequate or missing documentation for much of Soviet statistical data is also a significant problem. In his book, The Stalin School of Falsification , Leon Trotsky cited a range of historical documents such as private letters, telegrams, party speeches, meeting minutes, and suppressed texts such as Lenin's Testament , to argue that

8178-617: Was openly calling for the overthrow of the Soviet Government, boycotted the elections, it was only because at that time they still hoped soon to make an end of us with the help of armed force... If the Petrograd bourgeoisie had not boycotted the municipal elections, its representatives would have entered the Petrograd Council. They would have remained there up to the first Social Revolutionary and Cadet rising, after which ... they would probably have been arrested if they did not leave

8272-558: Was openly subjected to politics and propaganda , similar to philosophy , art , and many fields of scientific research . The Party could not be proven wrong, it was infallible and reality was to conform to this line. Any non-conformist history had to be erased, and questioning of the official history was illegal. Many works of Western historians were forbidden or censored , and many areas of history were also forbidden for research because, officially, they had never happened. For this reason, Soviet historiography remained mostly outside

8366-468: Was personally known to the electors, and his qualifications could be argued about immediately in front of his face. Delegates once elected were liable to 'recall' should they cease to represent the views of their electorate. Since this electorate was a real entity, always in existence and discussing politics from day to day, it had a live and changing public opinion. Thus the will of his 'constituency' could easily, unmistakably and effectively be brought home to

8460-413: Was publicly endorsed by Russian President Vladimir Putin . Putin said that "we can't allow anyone to impose a sense of guilt on us" and that the new manual helps present a more balanced view of Russian history than that promoted by the West. The book says that repressions, carried out by Stalin and others, were "a necessary evil in response to a cold war started by America against the Soviet Union." It cites

8554-483: Was published and Soviet experts themselves published some adjusted data for the Stalin era; however the quality of documentation has deteriorated. Some researchers say that on occasion the Soviet authorities may have completely "invented" statistical data potentially useful in historical research (such as economic data invented to prove the successes of the Soviet industrialization, or some published numbers of Gulag prisoners and terror victims—as Conquest claims). Data

8648-465: Was severely restricted. Historians were required to pepper their works with references—appropriate or not—to Stalin and other "Marxist–Leninist classics", and to pass judgment—as prescribed by the Party—on pre-revolution historic Russian figures. Nikita Khrushchev commented that "Historians are dangerous and capable of turning everything upside down. They have to be watched." The state-approved history

8742-557: Was suppressed, in order to enforce the policy of 'Polish-Soviet friendship'. Similarly, the enforced collectivisation , the wholesale deportations or massacres of small nationalities in the Caucasus or the disappearance of the Crimean Tatars were not recognized as facts worthy of mention. Soviet historians also engaged in producing false claims and falsification of history; for example Soviet historiography falsely claimed that

8836-562: Was true even when alternate theories had a greater explanatory power in relation to a historian's reading of source material. The Marxist theory of historical materialism identified means of production as chief determinants of the historical process. They led to the creation of social classes , and class struggle was the motor of history. The sociocultural evolution of societies was considered to progress inevitably from slavery , through feudalism and capitalism to socialism and finally communism . In addition, Leninism argued that

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