Government formed of workers' councils
1936 map of The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
A
soviet republic
(from
Russian
:
Советская республика
,
romanized
:
Sovetskaya respublika
), also called
council republic
, is a
republic
in which the government is formed of
soviets
(
workers' councils
) and politics are based on
soviet democracy
.
Although the term is usually associated with
Soviet member-states
, it was not initially used to represent the political organisation of the
Soviet Union
, but merely a form of
democracy
.
There were several revolutionary workers' movements in various areas of Europe which declared independence under the name of a soviet republic in the immediate aftermath of the
First World War
.
[1]
History
[
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]
The earliest known examples of workers' councils on a smaller scale occurred during the
1905 Russian Revolution
, including the
Revolution in the Kingdom of Poland (1905?1907)
, which spread throughout the lands of the
Russian Empire
; early soviets were active particularly in
Central Russia
and
Congress Poland
, where workers took over factories, districts, and sometimes even entire towns or regions before the tsarist authorities reclaimed control.
[2]
[3]
Near the end of the
First World War
, Soviet republics started appearing on a larger scale as short-lived communist revolutionary governments that were established in what had been the Russian Empire after the
October Revolution
and under its influence. These states included some such as the
Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic
and the
Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic
which won independence from Russia during the
civil war
period. Others such as the
Ukrainian Soviet Republic
and the
Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia
later became
union republics
of the Soviet Union and are now independent states. Still others such as the
Kuban Soviet Republic
and the
Bukharan People's Soviet Republic
were absorbed into other polities and no longer formally exist under those names.
In the turmoil following World War I, the Russian example inspired the formation of Soviet republics in other areas of Europe including
Hungary
,
Bavaria
,
Slovakia
and
Bremen
.
[4]
Soviets also appeared within towns throughout Poland, known as
rady delegatow robotniczych
(councils of workers' delegates), mostly throughout 1918 and 1919. One year later a
Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee
was created under the patronage of Soviet Russia with the goal to establish a Soviet republic within
Poland
(it was later dissolved following the
Red Army
's defeat in the
Polish?Soviet War
). Short-lived
Irish Soviets
also briefly emerged during the
Irish War of Independence
, most notably the
Limerick Soviet
. Soviet republics, most notably the
Chinese Soviet Republic
(Jiangxi Soviet), later appeared in China during the early stages of the
Chinese Civil War
. Other than these cases, "soviet republic" typically refers to the administrative
republics of the Soviet Union
.
List
[
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See also
[
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]
References
[
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]