VICTOR TUROVTSEV

PROGRESS PUBLISHERS MOSCOW

Translated from the Russian by S. VECHOR-SHCHERBOVICH

BHKTOP HsaHOBHH TypoBueu

HAPOflHhin KOHTPOJIb B COUHA^HCTHMECKOM OBmECTBE

Ha amAuiicKOM ti3biKe

CONTENTS

Chapter 1. THE NATURE OF SOCIALIST CONTROI.....

7

Chapter 2. FROM WORKERS' CONTROL TO MANAGEMENT

25

Chapter 3. THE PRINCIPLES OF SOCIALIST CONTROL . .

57

Chapter 4. MASS SCHOOLS OF MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL ..................

SI

Chapter 5. THE SYSTEM OF PEOPLE'S CONTROL IN THE

USSR.................

110

1. Control Groups and Sections..........

110

2. Rights and Responsibilities of the Control Committees .

121

Chapter 6. DIRECT CONTROL BY CITIZENS.......

137

Chapter 7. THE HISTORIC INEVITABILITY OF DEMOCRATIC CHANGES...............

160

First printing 1973

Printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics © Translation into English Progress Publishers 1973

CHAPTER 1 THE NATURE OF SOCIALIST CONTROL

The role of the masses in the development of society is one of the principal questions of Marxist-Leninist theory.

Marx, Engels and Lenin asserted that it is the masses, in particular those classes and sections of society which are the driving force in social production (i.e. the working people), that constitute the basis of society and its' main progressive force.

This thesis has tremendous importance since it encourages the working people to develop self-consciousness and an understanding of their role in the historic progress of human society.

The victory of a socialist revolution brings the economic exploitation and political oppression of working people to an end and it affords them an opportunity to take a direct and active part in all spheres of public and state life. Only socialism ensures the sovereignty of the people. Instead of being an apparatus of oppression confronting the working people, the state becomes an instrument of their class will, the efficiency of which depends on the degree of the participation of the masses in the management of state affairs.

Only the victorious socialist revolution, which hands over political power to the working people and abolishes the private ownership of the means of production, can usher in the social and economic conditions of true democracy. Under such a democracy, Lenin said, "the mass of the population will rise to taking an independent part, not only in voting

8

V. TUROVTSEV

and elections, but also in the everyday administration of the state".^^1^^

The practical experience of the USSR and the other socialist countries shows that the building of socialism is possible only when the conscious and creative initiative of workers, peasants and all working people is utilised to the full.

A socialist system brings forward numerous ways of drawing working people into the management of social affairs.

In the USSR the most important place in the system of institutions of socialist democracy belongs to the Soviets of Working People's Deputies, i.e., to those organs of power that are elected by the people, responsible to the people and consist of the best representatives of the people. The Soviets are based on the combination of state and public principles.

More than two million people have been elected deputies to the various levels of Soviets. These representatives of the working class, the collective farmers and the Soviet intelligentsia take their turn in serving the people. The composition of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the eighth convocation, the deputies to which were elected in June 1970 illustrates the genuinely democratic nature of the Soviets. This country's supreme organ of power included then 481 workers (or 31.7 per cent of the total number of deputies), and 282 collective farmers (18.6 per cent); some 27.7 per cent of the deputies were non-Party people, and 30.5 per cent, women.

The activity of the Soviets reflects most fully the truly , socialist and democratic nature of the Soviet state.

The trade unions, the Young Communist League ( Komso; mol), the co-operatives and the other mass organisations of the working people in town and country are also playing an emphatic role in the development and improvement of socialist democracy and in encouraging the people to participate in the management of public affairs.

The Report of the CC CPSU to the Party's 24th Congress (1971) contained the following statement: "we see the meaning and content of socialist democracy in the increasingly broader participation of the masses in the administration of state and social affairs.. . . The Party's constant concern is

NATURE OF SOCIALIST CONTROL

that our socialist democracy should steadily develop and that every person should feel he is a citizen in the full sense of the word, a citizen interested in the cause of the entire nation and bearing his share of the responsibility.''^^1^^

,

The people's control organs play an important role in edu4

eating the people to see themselves as the complete masters

of their land and as the conscious architects of their own fate. I

t According to Lenin, the chief purpose of control under

> socialism is to give the broad masses the right to check and

manage all state affairs. Accordingly, when elaborating the

.theoretical and practical problems of building socialism and

'communism, he emphasised the importance of the correct

organisation of state and public control. Lenin wrote:

``Accounting and control, if carried on by the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies as the supreme state power, or on the instructions, on the authority, of this power---widespread, general, universal accounting and control, the accounting and control of the amount of labour performed and of the distribution of products---is the essence of socialist transformation, once the political rule of the proletariat has been established and secured.''^^2^^

Control is a social function, its character dependent upon the nature of production and the distribution of products. Therefore, one must proceed from a social analysis, making clear the interests of which class control is upholding. On *b,g fYg "f *h^ Qrtober Revolution ,L£jiin__wrote___Jjiaj^"the whole question of control boils down to who controls i.e., which class is inljQB&etanrl which

_

Under the bourgeois system, control, whichever form it takes, always upholds the interests of the ruling class. In spite of all assertions to the contrary by the apologists of capitalism, there can be no talk of independent or unbiased control in capitalist countries.

In his book Social Control of Business^ the prominent

~^^1^^ Report of the CPSU Central Committee to the 24th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Moscow, 1971, p. 136.

2 V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 26, p. 410.

~^^3^^ Ibid., Vol. 25, p. 342.

~^^4^^ J. M. Clark, Social Control of Business, Chicago, 1926, 2nd edition; New York, 1939, p. 149.

^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 25, pp. 487-8

V. TUROVTSEV

NATURE OF SOCIALIST CONTROL

American economist J. M. Clark advocates control over the monopolies to prevent conflict between them and reduce economic catastrophe. He claims that the problem should be solved on a voluntary basis, realising perfectly well that any other form of control over profits would be intolerable to the capitalists. According to J. M. Clark, control should be introduced cautiously, taking into account the specific demands of the situation.

The Executive Leadership Course,^^1^^ which was published

in the United States in 1967, claims that inspection officials

should be guided by the interests of the companies. This is a

cynical admission of the actual nature of control under

' capitalism.

In capitalist society the organs of administration are subservient to the powers that be; their purpose is to enrich the, ruling class, and oppress and exploit the working people./ The principal task of inspection is in such circumstances to/ safeguard the rights and interests of millionaires and of otherl wealthy people.

The parliaments or heads of state of capitalist countries usually appoint the chief executives of the central inspection organs either for a lengthy terms of office or for life. These officials can be recalled only by parliament, and even then, only if they have committed a crime.

The chiefs of state inspection agencies are given high salaries on the pretext that their independence of the government is thus ensured. In many countries the chief executives of the central inspection agencies (general inspectors, chairmen of inspection committees) enjoy higher salaries than government ministers. The other officials serving in the control organs also receive higher pay than their counterparts in the ministries. The bourgeois rulers lavishly spend the people's money on maintaining inspection organs.

In an attempt to prove that the state inspection agencies are independent of the government, these expenses are entered in the budget as items that do not require annual approval from parliament. To put it briefly, the bourgeoisie grants all possible rights and privileges to the watchdogs of its money bags.

A state inspector's post is not threatened by the frequent government crises and he is thus able to serve loyally the real rulers of the imperialist states. In this respect he is irremovable and independent.

State inspection portrayed as a ``non-partisan'', ``unbiased'' agency is actually nothing but a compromise between various parties. In its long struggle against the working class and the revolutionary movement, the bourgeoisie has realised that in the face of the general crisis of the capitalist system the inter-party co-ordination of efforts is the best means of serving the interests of the ruling groups and parties. Hence, the inspection agencies are called upon to safeguard the common interests of the ruling parties. The inspection agency is an instrument of "general use" in the political machine of the capitalist state for upholding the fundamental class interests of the bourgeoisie as a whole, irrespective of party affiliations.

A typical feature of state inspection in the capitalist countries is the continual staff increase. In Britain, for example, there were 113 inspectors in 1866; 206, in 1913; and 380, in 1948. Today the control and inspection department employs nearly 600 people. The control department of the United States employs 5,000 people.

The class nature of state inspection in the capitalist countries is illustrated by its subservience to the financial oligarchy. The capitalists cannot give the working people access to control sincethis would undermine the very foundation of the syste'nT of exploitation and oppression. """ '

~~ '

Ther`icTe'oluglsl.s uf ifnpsrialismmalcfe all sorts of ingenious attempts to prove that there is perfect harmony in modern capitalist society; that there is a community of interests uniting all layers of the population, including the financial sharks and the working people; that everyone has the right to control the state and the monopolies and that the workers have a share in the profits made by the enterprises. There is hardly any need to prove that all such claims are false. The working people are debarred from exercising control.

Control in a socialist society takes on a very different form. It serves the interests of the working people and of the entire nation.

Lenin regarded accounting and control as one of the basic

~^^1^^ Executive Leadership Course, Prentice-Hall, New York.

V. TUROVTSEV

NATURE OF SOCIALIST CONTROL

points in the struggle of the proletariat for power, and for the victory of socialism and communism, and as the essential prerequisite for the foundation and correct functioning of the new society.

As a result of the Great October Socialist Revolution the working people themselves were given for the first time in history the right of control. When the reins of government were taken over by workers and peasants, control became a powerful instrument for suppressing the resistance of the deposed classes and an important tool of economic and cultural development.

The necessity of control under socialism stems from the very nature of the new system based on the public ownership of the means of production. Socialism means labour free from_capitalists ajid exploitation: it means~TigIcr state lind public control over the production and consumption.

The planned development of productive forces and of the relations of production is an objective necessity, and is the economic law of socialism. Under socialism, control as a social function is, therefore, closely related to the law of planned and balanced economic development.

The economic policy of a socialist state is the combination of a number of measures, based on a conscious employment of the economic laws of socialism and aimed at the solution of economic, political and cultural problems. This economic policy is elaborated by the Communist Party and embodied in the economic plans. However, without accounting and control, the plans, however sound they might be from the scientific viewpoint, are doomed to failure. The Programme of the CPSU states that "firm and consistent discipline, dayto-day control, and determined elimination of elements of parochialism and of a narrow departmental approach in economic affairs are necessary conditions for successful communist construction".^^1^^

The Communist Party regards control as the most important instrument of economic management, and as an effectual means of developing and improving the socialist relations of production. Control helps to utilise more fully the advantages

that socialist democracy gives and the creative initiative of the people.

Control is not an emergency measure, it is a function of the scientific management of state and public affairs. It is an integral part of administration.

Control involves work on the implementation of decisions, bringing to light the problems that arise as these assignments are being carried out and calls for measures to overcome the difficulties. Control plays a large part in raising the citizen's sense of responsibility before society and teaches him discipline, honesty and patriotism.

Mass control consolidates the unity between the socialist state and the working people. It ensures the efficiency of that administrative machinery which organises the work of people in the different fields of production and distribution.

Control is one of the channels supplying objective information about society. It helps to appraise accurately the work of society's economic and political organisations and the precision with which laws and social norms are observed™.

Elaborating the scientific principles of administration to be followed by the world's first state of workers and peasants, Lenin emphasised the paramount importance of control in the solution of such problems as the regulation of labour and consumption, the enforcement of order and selfdiscipline by making sure that all officials and citizens strictly observe the socialist law and the schooling of the broad masses in administrative techniques.

Control and accounting play a great part in creating new attitudes towards labour and social property and in the struggltKagainst idleness, loafing, bribery, knavery, and hooliganisiri>vfn order to render these parasites harmless to socialist society we must organise the accounting and control of the amount of work done and of production and distribution by the entire people, by millions and millions of workers and peasants, participating voluntarily, energetically and with revolutionary enthusiasm.''^^1^^

Control is essential if law and order are to be maintained. In a socialist society control is to be perfected by the organisation and high sense of duty of the working people, and

~^^1^^ The Road to Communism, Moscow, 1961, p. 534.

V. I. Lenin. Collected Works, Vol. 26, pp. 411-12.

V. TUROVTSEV

NATURE OF SOCIALIST CONTROL

this is why the development in every conceivable way of discipline, self-discipline, organisation, order and efficiency is constantly called for.

The rules of human conduct codified in laws that reflect the will of the whole people form the core of the discipline and order of social life. The laws and the other legislative acts play a powerful role in economic, social and cultural development; they create the conditions for the harmonious and all-round development of the individual. Socialist legislation forms the legal basis of public discipline, and thus the control over its correct enforcement is a question of paramount importance.

The improvement of economic management and planning is indispensable if the material and technical basis of communism is to be realised and greater labour productivity and the expansion of production on the basis of the latest scientific and technological advances to be achieved. In this situation the problem of the rational utilisation of resources ( material, natural, labour and financial) and of capital investments, the reduction of production costs and the elimination of losses, take on an exceptional importance. The institution of people's control has been called upon by the 24th Congress of the CPSU to help solve these problems.

Through their involvement in the process of checking the way the state organisations and officials execute the decisions of the CPSU and the Soviet Government, the working people come to understand these resolutions and actively help implement them; they begin to demand more of themselves.

Participation in controlling the different aspects of the work of the state machinery, the administrations of industrial enterprises, institutions and organisations is one of the ways of developing the conscious self-discipline which, as the Programme of the CPSU emphasises, leads to the consolidation and development of the basic rules of communist society.

In a socialist community control on account of the aims it sets itself and by the fact that it is exercised by the public is based on broad democratic principles. Lenin said that when accounting and control was placed in the hands of the working people, these activities would become in the true sense general, universal and nation-wide.

Once the exploiter classes had disappeared and socialism

won a final and complete victory, the Soviet state was transformed into the instrument of the whole society; it began to serve society's needs. The entire system of the various organs of power and administration has been so devised as to ensure the maximum realisation of the people's will and allow their participation in administration and control on genuinely democratic terms.

In the USSR control is exercised through the various state and public political organisations. No matter the organisation or sphere of public life under question, control is always exercised in a deeply democratic manner because it is in the hands of the working people themselves and is used in their own interests.

The interconnection of state and public control derives from the fact that all the organs of control pursue one and the same goal and all the forms of control are aimed at the successful solution of the problems involved in the building of communism. The different agencies entrusted with these functions are components of Soviet society's single administrative machinery directed by the Communist Party.

The methods of work employed by the state and public control organs have much in common, including above all their approach to explanation, persuasion and education.

Persuasion is the principal method employed by the Communist Party in its leadership of the people; it is the basic principle of every aspect of the internal life of the socialist community. This method presupposes the existence of a broad democracy in all public organisations. Only in such an atmosphere can people become convinced that the decisions they take are correct, set about working out ways of implementing the adopted decisions and produce arguments to convince those who are uncertain and explain to those who have not fully understood.

The method of persuasion requires an individual approach to people. It is essential to be able to win people and gain their confidence. That requires tact, delicacy, self-possession and patience.

To call an offender to order is a simple matter. It is far less easy to take the trouble to find out a person's weak and strong points; to understand where he fails because of ignorance or inability and where because of negligence or lack

V. TUROVTSEV

NATURE OF SOCIALIST CONTROL

of zeal. If the latter is the case the man has to be helped to realise his mistakes and understand what is required of him. In his dealings with people Lenin took into account not only the constant aspects of a man's character, but also the temporary, transitory features. He took into account a man's mood and his physical condition; he sincerely sympathised with people in sorrow and always tried to help them. Lenin considered it his duty not only to reprimand the offender, but also to give him useful advice and warn against repetition of the fault in question.

Persuasion is not a preaching of abstract, copy-book morality; persuasion relies on facts and examples from real life. Nothing can be so effective and forceful as the voice of experience. So it takes a man with a broad outlook, who knows life and is capable of analysing and comparing facts, to make an efficient controller.

Lenin paid a great deal of attention to facts. Correct leadership is impossible without this kind of knowledge. He relied greatly on his personal observations; he mixed with the people and took note of all valid opinions expressed by people when they spoke in simple and relaxed phrases undisturbed by the presence of a great man.

In January 1922 Lenin travelled incognito by rail and found that transport was being altogether neglected. Later he wrote: "I found the trolleys in the worst possible state.. .. Riding incognito, I was fortunate to hear frank and truthful (and not false and bureaucratically sweet) remarks made by employees, and I inferred from their stories that it was not a chance occurrence, but that the entire organisation was utterly shameful; degradation and inefficiency were complete.

``This was the first time I went by rail not as a 'high official', who brings everybody to their feet by dozens of special cables, but as a stranger. .. .'^!1

Lenin scrupulously investigated the local situation, but regarded those facts, which illustrated the economic position of the whole country, as material for profound political generalisations. It was in this manner that he came to the conclusion that the grain surplus appropriation system should

be replaced by a tax in kind and that the urban-rural trade turnover should be expanded.

The leader of the young Soviet state talked with delegations of peasants, took part in their conferences and congresses, and jotted down their requests and complaints. For example, on October 21, 1920 he made the following note:

``Peasants from Stavropol Gubernia (the ones who brought bread to children) complain that the co-operatives do not distribute

wheel-grease (the warehouse has it)

matches

and other goods.

Herrings were spoilt but not distributed.

Discontent is terrible. The Gubernia's Food Commissar tells the peasants that they will get everything only after the appropriation of surplus is completed.''^^1^^

Lenin believed that the art of administration and control is not an innate equality, but one that is developed by experience, self-improvement and persistent training. That was why he despised crude approach of the politician who relies on his position of authority and command.

If it was a matter of oversight or neglect, Lenin always asked the nature of the offence and the moral and political qualities of the offender. He never took a hasty decision when it was the case of an honest man having committed a mistake by accident.

Lenin was exacting but understanding. N. P. Gorbunov, the business-manager of the Council of People's Commissars, recalled that while keeping constant watch for carelessness or negligence, exposing wrong-doers, and condemning lax, slovenly and uncultured behaviour, Lenin did so in such a manner that even people whom he threatened with severe reprimands, including arrest, could not feel resentful.

Methods of persuasion and explanation, naturally, cannot be relied upon entirely without leading to an overindulgence. One cannot speak about villainy, Lenin said, without ire. Wrong-doing and lawlessness cannot but rouse indignation.

Lenin successfully combined tact and consideration for people and their needs with an exacting and severe approach

~^^1^^ Lenin Miscellany XXXV, p.p. 315-16.

~^^1^^ Lenin Miscellany XXXV, p. 159.

2---118

V. TUROVTSEV

NATURE OF SOCIALIST CONTROL

when this was necessary. He did not tolerate officials who failed to take steps against inefficiency, red-tape, bureaucracy, breach of trust, and violations of state discipline. He demanded that such people should be immediately released from office and deprived of Party membership.

Fidelity to principle is one of the salient features of Lenin's way of conducting public and political work. Never, under no circumstances did Lenin resort to unscrupulous, back-stage deals with his ideological and political opponents; he never went back on his principles and convictions.

His private relationships also showed Lenin to be a man of principle.^ 1917, Lenin, already Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, replying to a letter from a French socialist C. Dumas, whom he had met earlier in Paris, wrote: "I very much regret that personal relations between us became impossible after such profound political differences divided us.''^^1^^

The Communist Party ,teach_ citizens tobeasuprighk and ^xactmg^as Lenin ~

media through which the broad masses of working people control the various spheres of political life and of economic and cultural development, and through which they take part in managing state affairs.

Lenin wrote: "The organisation of proper administration, the undeviating fulfilment of the decisions of the Soviet government---this is the urgent task of the Soviets, this is the condition for the complete victory of the Soviet type of state, which it is not enough to proclaim in formal decrees, which it is not enough to establish and introduce in all parts of the country, but which must also be practically organised and tested in the course of the regular, everyday work of administration.''^^1^^

The control exercised by the various levels of Soviets over the state administrative machinery is far-reaching, encompassing many essential questions, including the formation of the state apparatus, the content of its activity, and the selection and placing of personnel.

The local Soviets of working people's deputies are responsible for controlling or supervising the work of all enterprises, institutions and organisations within their territorial jurisdiction, irrespective of departmental subordination.

The Soviets employ the following methods in controlling the administrative apparatus:

Reports submitted by subordinate organs are discussed and their activities tentatively investigated.

Reports are delivered at the sessions of Soviets, in the standing committees and to groups of deputies by state administrative organs and officials dealing with the fulfilment of the tasks posed by the given Soviet or by higher authorities.

Questions are put either at a session or in the form of a letter to the organs of administration and the personnel involved.

The Soviet or its standing committee appraises the work of a certain administrative apparatus in connection with a particular question concerning one of the factories, organisations or institutions that comes under its jurisdiction.

The activities of the administrative organs over the ap-

The 24th~CongTess of me CPSU emphasised that no one should take any position of authority or command for granted as his for life; the norms of socialist discipline and law apply to all. All organs of control should work to strengthen state discipline and law.

The principal forms of control in the USSR are as follows:

a) state control;

b) organs of people's control which includes elements of both state and public control;

c) other forms of public control, excluding Party control: control by trade unions, Komsomol, co-operative and other public organisations, as well as the control exercised by the citizens themselves.

The system of control in the USSR is based on the Soviets of Working People's Deputies whose role in society is steadily acquiring greater importance. The Soviets, which exercise absolute authority, represent most vividly the control the people have over socialist production and over the administrative machinery. They have a tremendous influence on all aspects of state and public activities. The Soviets are the

^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 44, p. 51.

j

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 27, p. 315.

V. TUROVTSEV

NATURE OF SOCIALIST CONTROL

pointment or election of chief executives or officials are examined.

The control exercised by the administrative bodies themselves is of no less importance. Since this too is an integral part of the socialist control system, it is also based on democratic principles. The mobilisation of citizens not on the permanent staff of the given institution as inspectors and instructors in control work and the establishment of public departments, are evidence of this. As a component of the administrative activities, this form of control is either intradepartmental or supra-departmental. Its distinguishing feature lies in the involvement of organisations, institutions and enterprises that are administratively independent of the control organ.

Supervision and control over the implementation of laws to a large extent rests with the procurator and judicial organs.

The measures of control carried out directly on the initiative of private citizens are considerable. They involve all spheres of economic, social, cultural, administrative and political activity. Public organisations have the right to recommend possible^vays^ot eiirrnnafing the existing shortcomings they find in state organs.

/] The public jg_£gry active in preventing crime and safe// guarding lawandorder. The Communist Party attaches tre/ mendous importance to the further strengthening of law and ! order and the protection of civil rights. The state and the ^society as a whole defends the rights, the freedom, the honour and the dignity of Soviet citizens. The fight against the violators of public order, and those who break the norms of discipline required at work and in social life; the fight against the plunderers of socialist property, the parasites and the hooligans is the common cause of all working people and of all the organisations which represent them.

The greatest contribution to this cause is made by the comradely courts and the voluntary public-order maintenance squads, which are recruited at factories, construction sites, institutions and collective farms.

Comradely courts are public organisations designed to help educate people in the spirit of communism: to teach the communist attitude to work and to socialist property, to

spread the norms of a socialist community, to develop collectivism, the practice of comradely mutual aid, and a respect for the dignity and honour of other citizens.

Their main task is to prevent violations of law and other offences, harmful to society, to educate people by methods of persuasion and public coercion, and to generate an atmosphere antagonistic to all anti-social activity.

Courts of comrades can be inaugurated by the decisions of general meetings of workers, office employees, students of secondary and higher educational establishments, collective farmers, house tenants or residents of villages and settlements. Members of the court are elected by a show of hands for a tw^yearTerrrK The cases that come under their jurisdiction are violations of work discipline or the rules of behaviour in apartments and hostels, the neglection of safety regulations, improper behaviour in public places and at work, the failure to bring up children properly, a discreditable attitude to parents and women, insults, insinuations, and other offences not covered by the penal law.

Cases are filed by trade-union committees, voluntary public-order maintenance squads, street and residential committees, executive committees of the local Soviets, private citizens or by the courts themselves. The hearings are conducted publicly in off-work hours.

The comradely court can order the offender to apologise publicly to the person or collective involved in the case; it can reprimand, warn, reproof or fine the offender; and it has the right to demand that the guilty party be transferred to a lower-paid job, be demoted or discharged. _

The decision of the comradely court is final. It is brought to the notice of the public organisations and officials so that they can take steps to eliminate the circumstances which lay at the root of the violation.

The headquarters, sections and Komsomol control groups are all charged with the supervision of certain areas of the state apparatus, and of the administration of enterprises, institutions and organisations.

Such methods as spot check-ups, general inspections and reviews as well as competitions, surveys and books of suggestions and inquiries, are all employed in this work.

Control functions are also exercised by women councils,

V. TUROVTSEV

NATURE OF SOCIALIST CONTROL

school parents' committees, unions of writers, journalists, composers, architects and artists, library and club councils, the society of inventors and rationalisers, and by other public ogranisations representing the working people.

The USSR Society of Inventors and Rationalisers, for example, is responsible for public control over the elaboration, introduction, dissemination and utilisation of inventions and innovations. It controls the expenditure of allocations made by economic bodies for inventions and innovations, and the observance of laws that have a bearing on this field.

The importance of these functions can be judged from the following statistics. In Leningrad alone there are over one hundred thousand inventors and innovators. Every year they submit approximately 200,000 suggestions for the improvement of methods of production. In the USSR there are in all more than three million inventors and innovators. By applying these proposals industrially the country saves something like 2,300 million rubles yearly.

House committees are responsible for improving living conditions and involving the population in the managing of the state housing fund. Elected at the general meetings of tenants, their work is directed by the local Soviets or, in the case of departmental housing funds, by the trade unions in question.

The house committees take part in working out the economic and financial plans of the house-maintenance committees, in improving the operation of the housing fund, and ensuring that general and routine repairs are undertaken in time and that the workmanship is of good quality. The documents to the effect that the repairs have been completed are invalid unless signed by the representative of the house committee.

Medical institutions have set up their own public councils, aimed at fostering the democratic principles of the public health service, and engaging the mass of people in the solution of problems bearing on the improvement of the medical service.

These public councils include representatives of the given medical institution, as well as representatives of Soviet, tradeunion, Komsomol and economic organisations, of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and of the house com-

mittees. The councils control the sanitary conditions of production and of communal premises, of trade and public catering enterprises and of child-welfare institutions; other duties include the checking of sick-leave cards and establishing the sources of pollution and noise. The councils take part in suggesting improvements and in examining the routine and long-term plans of medical institutions.

Control exercised directly by citizens is one of the most efficient forms of mass control.

Soviet citizens, irrespective of their membership of public organisations or of their participation in the work of state bodies, have the power to control and assess the state body, with which they come into contact, as to its results, adherence to the existing laws, and compliance with the national interests.

There are elements of control in such forms of direct democracy as the election of representatives to the state organs of power, the recall of deputies, the reports made by deputies and officials to their constituents, in village meetings, meetings of citizens, etc. The numerous forms of expressing public opinion at working people's conferences and congresses are further examples of this control. When discussing and deciding on administrative problems, Soviet citizens are afforded every opportunity of examining the work of state bodies; they have the chance to control and influence this process because their remarks and suggestions are attentively studied, and the most valuable implemented.

Every Soviet citizen" has the right to make sincere and frank criticism at meetings or in the press of the shortcomings in the work of the state bodies; he can complain to any Party or state organisation. Such signals are an invaluable source of information on the work of the state apparatus and help to perfect its operation.

The existence in the USSR of these different forms of control can be explained by a series of objective factors: the ever increasing specialisation and division of social labour, expanding economic ties and the rapid social and economic progress. Since all these developments entail an expansion of administrative functions, it becomes impossible to cover them all by a single type of control.

In addition to these bodies, which have other functions

V. TUROVTSEV

CHAPTER 2 FROM WORKERS' CONTROL TO MANAGEMENT

besides control, the Soviet state and the public organisations are setting up bodies exlusively for this purpose. Control, for example, is only one of the functions of the organs of state power and administration; but such bodies as the people's control committees, various state inspection departments dealing with trade, sanitation, veterinary services, technology and electrical communications have no other function beside control.

The system of socialist control is not static. It is being developed and improved so as to increase its democratic nature, abolish the duplication of control organs, improve the forms and methods of work, and establish a clear line of demarcation between the various state and public control agencies, while ensuring, at the same time, their co-ordination.

When the Communist Party was preparing Russia's proletariat for social revolution, it attached great importance to the establishment of workers' control over social production and the distribution of products.

Lenin first advanced the idea of workers' control in industry in 1905, on the eve of the first Russian revolution. In the Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution he put forward the idea of workers' inspection of factories and workers' control over enterprises. He saw this as the essential prerequisite for the victory of the revolution and the foundation of a new, socialist state.

The subsequent course of events in Russia and the strikes staged by the proletariat throughout the country for fundamental economic and social changes proved the correctness of Lenin's thesis. The Bolshevik Party headed by its founder and leader, Lenin, was proved to be the spokesman of the basic interests of the working people and the ideas of socialism were shown to have already captured the minds of the exploited and oppressed people.

May 1905 was marked by workers' action in IvanovoVoznesensk. The two-month strike was well organised, determined and militant. It was directed by the Council of Workers' Representatives (Deputies), one of the first Soviets of Workers' Deputies. The strike spread to the textile factories of Shuya, Orekhovo-Zuevo and other towns. Workers everywhere began to set up trade unions which, besides

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defending the economic interests of workers, put forward political demands.

In the middle of 1916 Lenin declared that "capitalism cannot be vanquished without takin^over the banks, without re^e^\\n^^rrjintp.^fmijj&r^hij^ nf jTip means oT~production. These / revolutionary measures, however, cannot be implemented without organising the entire people for democratic administration of the means production captured from the bourgeoisie, without enlisting the entire mass of the working people ... for the democratic organisation of their ranks, their forces, their participation in state affairs".^^1^^

This idea also found expression in the appeal "To the Workers Supporting the Struggle against War and the Socialists Who Went Over to the Side of Their Governments", written in the same year. The appeal explained how the imperialist war had made possible the planned management of economy under the leadership of the revolutionary working class "not in the interests of the capitalists, but by expropriating them, under the leadership of the revolutionary proletariat, in the interests of the masses who are now perishing from starvation and the other calamities caused by the war".² The appeal went on to discuss workers' control over social production. The workers were advised to make use of those organs of control and co-ordination already set up by monopoly capitalism.

The need to replace the inspection organs of the monopolists by organs of workers' control became particularly evident during the bourgeois-democratic revolution in February, 1917. This was one example of the peculiar nature of the February Revolution which, in both the political and the economic spheres, went far beyond the limits of a typical bourgeois revolution. In the realm of politics, something very like the revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry was achieved by the inauguration of the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies; in the realm of the economy, workers' control over production was placed on the agenda.

Analysing the situation in Russia after the February Rev-

olution, Lenin put forward the demand that the old state machinery be smashed and replaced by a general and mass organisation of the armed working people. This was the only form of government, he claimed, that could solve the fundamental problems of the revolution and realise the people's demands for a just peace, confiscation of the estates of landlords, and organisation of the national economy on the basis of workers' control and universal labour conscription.

The Communist Party regarded workers' control, universal labour conscription and various other social measures as transitional steps towards the new social system. "In their entirety and in their development these steps will mark the transition to socialism, which cannot be achieved in Russia directly, at one stroke, without transitional measures, but is quite achievable and urgently necessary as a result of such transitional measures.''^^1^^

Lenin stressed that not impatience or propaganda, but objective conditions were making it urgently necessary to establish workers' control over production and distribution. With the connivance of the bourgeois Provisional Government the country's economy was going to ruin.

geoisie were sabotaging the work of countless enterprises; 568 enterprises were closed down between March and July 1917. By November at least 300,000 workers were unemployed. In an attempt to intimidate the workers and compel them to retreat, the bourgeoisie resorted to economic subversion. The bourgeois press openly advocated the closure of enterprises as a radical method of putting an end to the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat.

Under these circumstances, ideas of workers' control quickly won the sympathy of the broad masses. The working class soon realised that only control over production could save the situation and prevent the capitalists creating complete chaos in the economy. The Communist Party's appeal for workers' control was supported by the masses; in many parts of Russia, the Bolsheviks gave a planned and organised character to the spontaneous attempts of the proletariat at establishing control.

The forms that workers' control over production took were

^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 23, p. 25. - Ibid., p. 230.

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin. Collected Works, Vol. 23, p. 341.

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varied. The factory committees which became the mass revolutionary organisations of the working class were an example of their revolutionary initiative. Control became one of the basic functions of these committees.

In the article "How the Capitalists are Trying to Scare the People", Lenin wrote that it is the "objective conditions and this unprecedented break-down of civilisation that necessitate this control over production and distribution, over the banks, factories, etc. Failing this, tens of millions of people can be said without exaggeration to face inevitable ruin and death".^^1^^

The flight of owners and managers of plants and factories, the plundering of factory property, the absence of fuel, raw materials and equipment, and the frequent cases of arson were all problems requiring prompt action. The workers themselves began to organise production and protect factory property.

The working class in its struggle for control had to overcome tremendous difficulties. The workers had to crush the dogged resistance of the entrepreneurs and their supporters, the bourgeois Provisional Government, and find by trial and error the most rational methods of control.

The proletariat soon compelled the Provisional Government to recognise officially the factory and plant committees which were set up spontaneously during the first days of the revolution. The work of these organisations in the main, involved the regulation of the hire-and-discharge problems arising between workers and entrepreneurs, but soon the course of events expanded the scope of their activities. In March 1917 several Petrograd factory committees established control on their own initiative over the hire and discharge of workers and office employees, began to take stock of raw materials, fuel and machines, guard factory property, setting up detachments of workers' militia and watchmen for this purpose, and took steps to regulate and ensure the normal pace of production.

To counter the attempts of sabotage, the lockouts and the distortion of production the factory committees mobilised the working class to fight economic chaos and hunger. The initiative was taken by the Petrograd working class. The follow-

ing decision taken by the first conference of the factory committee representatives of twelve of the largest factories, uniting nearly 100,000 workers, is an illustration of their mood:

-JV -••-•

``To deal with those matters concerning the relations between labour and capital, both state or private, and those matters relating to factory regulations, the workers establish democratic organisations with committees elected by the whole factory and separate shops for the purpose of defending the interests of labour against factory administrations and for controlling the administrations' work.''^^1^^

The organised resistance of the Russian capitalists to the activities of the factory committees and their attempts to prevent by all means workers' control over production required the factory committees to unite their efforts in the struggle against the bourgeoisie's sabotage attempts and the economic chaos. It was once again the factory committees of the state enterprises, and in particular the artillery works who led the way. They drafted the "Instructions for the Unification of the Workers of State Enterprises" which were adopted by the conference of workers of state enterprises. These Instructions played an important part in the struggle of the Russian proletariat for workers' control over production.

The Instructions pronounced the general factory committees the leading body of each factory. The committees were made responsible for ".factory regulations", the "public life of all workers of the given factory", and control over "the activities of the factory management in administrative, economic and technical matters". The representatives of factory committees had the right to examine all official documents of the factory management, including the production estimates and the expenses. It was made plain that factory committees were not obliged to take responsibility for the decisions of the management.^^2^^

~^^1^^ Pravda, April 11, 1917, Conference of the Representatives of the Artillery Department Factories, p. 2.

~^^2^^ The October Revolution and Factory Committees, Materials on the History of Factory and Plant Committees, (Russ. ed) Part 1, Moscow, 1927, pp. 33-34.

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 24, p. 440.

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The instructions further envisaged the establishment of a Central Committee to serve as the focal point for all the workers of state factories. "All factory committees of state enterprises and factories should sent three representatives each to the Central Committee which, being the centre unifying all factory committees, directs the work of all state enterprises and controls the work of the administrations.''^^1^^

The struggle to end the sabotaging activities of entrepreneurs and establish workers' control was underway in other parts of Russia as well.

A conference of factory committee representatives from the textile industries situated in the Central Industrial Area, took place in the middle of June 1917. The situation in the factories was discussed and a decision to fight against the lockouts adopted. "There is absolutely no proof of the need to close down the textile industry," the resolution stated. "Stoppages can be tolerated only in exceptional cases.

``1. Not a single plant or factory can be closed without a preliminary inspection by the control commission set up by the local supply agencies and the representatives of the factory committee, -^T

``2. In cases of malicious lockout attempts by entrepreneurs, the district supply agency is duty bound to confiscate the enterprise in question.

``3. When the committee finds that production is impossible because of the shortage of cotton or fuel, the workers should be considered to be on paid vacation.

``4. The term for which the enterprise is to be closed is fixed by the control commission; hire contracts cannot be cancelled.

``5. Under no circumstances can factory committees be dissolved, they must not be touched.''^^2^^

Pravda printed an interesting letter from a miner of the Alexandrovsk pit which characterised the mood of the advanced workers in the summer of 1917. Their attitudes towards the Provisional Government, the parties favouring

~^^1^^ The October Revolution and Factory Committees. Materials on the History of Factory mid Plant Committees. Part 1, p. 35.

~^^2^^ The Revolutionary Movement in Russia in May-June 1917. The June Demonstration. Documents and Materials, (Russ. ed.) Moscow, USSR Academy of Sciences' Publishing House, 1959, p. 309.

conciliation and the Bolshevik Party are plain. The letter reads:

``From the depths of the mines we, miners, can see that the gentlemen like Skobelev, Chernov and Tsereteli^^1^^ act hand in arm with the bourgeoisie, and we know that only the Bolsheviks led by Lenin are fighting for the interests of the workers. We are branded as 'Lenin's adherents' just because we are controlling the work in the mine. But just see why we are Leninists. The management keeps on curtailing the output of coal on the excuse that there is a shortage of this or that. So we checked up. And what do you think? It took some hard work but we found pig iron and timber and many other things. As a result, we have now increased the output of coal... . We do not know Lenin personally, but we understand what he is speaking about. He helps us, talks about the things we want to know about.''

In July 1917 a general meeting of factory committees in Saratov adopted a resolution on the composition and functions of factory and plant control commissions. They were to be made up of three members of the factory committee. In cases where the factory committee was composed of three members or less, it was made responsible as a body for control work. The control commissions were to be entrusted with the following functions:

1. control over all the materials, including raw materials and fuel belonging to the enterprise, their rational utilisation, and control over "the finances of the enterprise;

2. control over movement of all the materials from the enterprise and approval of the management's applications for raw materials and fuel;

3. control over the timely repair and refurnishing of equipment;

4. supervision of state orders: their acceptance and timely fulfilment.^^2^^

This was one of the most comprehensive instructions

~^^1^^ Leaders of the petty-bourgeois parties who backed the Provisional Government.

~^^2^^ The Revolutionary Movement in Russia in July 1917. The July Crisis. Documents and Materials, (Russ. ed.) Moscow, USSR Academy of Sciences' Publishing House, 1959, pp. 360-61.

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concerning ways of establishing workers' control at enterprises to be adopted before the October Revolution.

In its programme for the transformation of the bourgeoisdemocratic revolution into a socialist revolution, the Communist Party planned the confiscation of all landed estates and the nationalisation of all land; the amalgamation of all banks into a single national bank, and its subordination to the Soviets of workers' deputies, and workers' control over production. "It is not our immediate task," Lenin wrote, "to `introduce' socialism, but only to bring social production and the distribution of products at once under the control of the Soviets of Workers' Deputies.''^^1^^

The slogan of workers' control was formulated in the decisions of the All-Russia Conference of the Bolshevik Party in April 1917: "To bring about the prompt consolidation and extension of revolutionary achievements throughout the country it is necessary to mobilise the support of the majority of the local population, organise and increase initiative in every way possible, so that freedoms are realised, counterrevolutionary officials removed, and economic reforms such as control over production and distribution, are achieved.''^^2^^

Factory committees set up special control commissions entrusted with the inspection of matters concerning administration, finance, production, technology, supply, fuel and wastes.

The slogan of workers' control put forward by Lenin and approved by the Bolshevik Party was very popular among the working people. It was in fact one of the chief slogans of the working class during that period; workers' control was considered as part and parcel of the proletariat's struggle for power.

Workers' control was a challenge to capital, it was a threat to the principles of the capitalist system, an intrusion into the bourgeois world of private property and private enterprise. That was at any rate how the bourgeoisie saw workers' control.

An article in the Gornozavodskoye Delo (Mining Industry), an established spokesman for the interest of South Russia's monopolies, included the following: "It is not only the activities of the entrepreneurs that are endangered by workers' control, but the entire system of capitalist relations. If the workers can control and direct the work of an enterprise, there is no need for an entrepreneur.... If the workers were able to control production, the entrepreneur would become redundant.''^^1^^

In their fight against workers' control, the petty-bourgeois parties of Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries tried to intimidate the workers by prophecies of anarchy in production and the ruin of the economy. They made slanderous declarations to the effect that workers were "ruining the industry". "Under the banner of control," they said, "you are running the enterprises, creating chaos and anarchy in production, contributing thereby to the economic dislocation.''^^2^^ Bourgeois organisations sent instructions to their members on what measures to take to counteract workers' control, and they appealed to the Provisional Government to take steps against the workers' ``intolerable'' behaviour.

But all such attempts were futile. The workers realised the power that control gave them and acted courageously and persistently. The first Petrograd Conference of Factory Committees held from June 12 to June 16, 1917, is an illustration of this. t^-

In the course of the proceedings it became clear that some factory committees had begun, in addition to their control functions, to manage the enterprises and cope with the economic and financial problems. A representative of the Schliisselburg Gunpowder Factory, for instance, said that "six weeks ago the administration decided to close the factory. The workers took up the problem seriously; after all they were threatened with unemployment. The situation was aggravated by the fact that we have, in addition, a brick factory and a big dairy---all of them owned by Baron Medem.

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 24, p. 24.

~^^2^^ The CPSU in Resolutions and Decisions of Congresses, Conferences and Plenums of the Central Committee, 7th Russ. ed., Part. I, Moscow, 1953, p. 339.

~^^1^^ Gornozavodskoye Delo, (Russ. ed.) 1917, Nos. 36, 37, pp. 16, 328.

~^^2^^ Materials of the Second All-Russia Congress of the Soviets of National Economy, (Russ. ed.) Moscow, 1919, p. 336.

3---118

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The workers had to decide whether or not to take over the management. ... A lot of noise was made over this issue.

``The bourgeois press began to cry about anarchy. The prosecutor, and then the delegates from the Provisional Government and the Executive Council of the Soviets headed by Ghkheidze came rushing to the spot. And they had to admit that there was nothing wrong. On the contrary, production had been raised, and the workers were proving themselves efficient managers of the brick factory and the dairy.''

While Lenin was preparing the Party and the working class for an armed uprising against the bourgeoisie and for the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, he was simultaneously working out a plan of building the new, socialist society. In all his writings of the pre-October period he posed the question of the new government's measures in the field of economic reforms. In his article "The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It" he mapped out the most comprehensive and scientifically substantiated plan for the fight against catastrophe and hunger and guidelines for the building of socialism. The proposals were based entirely on an analysis of the current political and economic situation, and fully complied with the historic development of Russia.

Lenin considered that the immediate and nation-wide establishment of effective workers' control with the participation of the broad masses of the working people was the most important measure in the fight to combat the imminent economic catastrophe.

``. . . Control, supervision, accounting, regulation by the state, introduction of a proper distribution of labour-power in the production and distribution of goods, husbanding of the people's forces, the elimination of all wasteful effort, economy of effort. Control, supervision and accounting are the prime requisites for combating catastrophe and famine.''^^1^^

To grasp fully the situation throughout the country, the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party at the Sixth

Party Congress (July-August 1917) distributed a " Questionaire to the Delegates of the All-Russia Congress". Three of the questions concerned the problem of workers' control:

``Do workers raise the question of control over production and co-ordination of work in the enterprise?

``Have there been cases of workers intervening in the affairs of the administration? If so, give details.

``If cases of intervention have been noted, what role did your organisation play in them?''^^1^^

The answers were of tremendous importance in establishing the scale of workers' control and its effectiveness. The survey indicated that workers' control had been established in one form or another at practically all industrial enterprises.

Lenin always insisted that the introduction of workers' control was only possible if the following vital measures had been taken:

``(1) Amalgamation of all banks into a single bank, and state control over its operations, or nationalisation of the banks.

`` (2) Nationalisation of the syndicates, i.e., the largest, monopolistic capitalist associations (sugar, oil, coal, iron and steel, and other syndicates).

`` (3) Abolition of commercial secrecy.

`` (4) Compulsory syndication (i.e., compulsory amalgamation into associations) of industrialists, merchants and employers generally.

`` (5) Compulsory organisation of the population into consumers' societies, or encouragement of such organisation, and the exercise of control over it.''^^2^^

During the preparation for the armed uprising Lenin wrote in the article "Can the Bolsheviks Retain State Power?" that "the chief difficulty facing the proletarian revolution is the establishment on a country-wide scale of the most precise and most conscientious accounting and control, of workers' control of the production and distribution of goods", but the task was quite feasible because under the

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 25, p. 324.

~^^1^^ Sixth Congress of the RSDLP(B). Minutes, (Russ. ed.) Moscow, 1958, p. 318.

~^^2^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 25, p. 329.

3*

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dictatorship of the proletariat ``workers' control can become the country-wide, all-embracing, omnipresent, most precise and most conscientious accounting of the production and distribution of goods.''^^1^^

Lenin was perfectly well aware that the full implementation of this programme could be undertaken only after the Soviets had seized power.

The victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution made the organisation of the country's administration essential. Having won political power, the working class had to crush the apparatus of the old bourgeois and landlords and build a state founded on completely different principles. Only a republic of Soviets, according to Lenin, could advise this. "If the creative enthusiasm of the revolutionary classes had not given rise to the Soviets, the proletarian revolution in Russia would have been a hopeless cause.''^^2^^

Lenin declared that the organisation of control and accounting was one of the most pressing tasks and one which offered a powerful means of curbing the overthrown classes and a highly convenient method of encouraging the working people to take part in managing the affairs of the new society. Besides substantiating theoretically the need and role of public and state control under socialism, Lenin organised its practical introduction.

At 10 o'clock in the morning of November 7, 1917, Lenin proclaimed in the Soviet Government's first document, the appeal To the Citizens of Russia: "The cause for which the people have fought, namely, the immediate offer of a democratic peace, the abolition of landed proprietorship, workers' control over production, and the establishment of Soviet power---this cause has been secured.''^^3^^

On the same day, while addressing the session of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, Lenin declared: "We shall institute genuine workers' control over production.''^^4^^ The resolution which he wrote and which was adopted by the Soviet promised that the government of

workers and peasants would "institute workers' control over the production and distribution of goods and establish national control over the banks, at the same time transforming them into a single state enterprise.''^^1^^

The Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets called upon the workers to set up their control everywhere.

Immediately following the victory of the revolution, Lenin, who attributed exceptional importance to this question, worked out a Draft Statute of Workers' Control which set forth the tasks facing workers' control, and the rights and duties of its various bodies. On November 15, 1917, the Statute was approved by the Council of People's Commissars and made public.

This was the first decree to lay the foundation of the USSR's system of control. Two days after the publication of the Statute Lenin wrote in his appeal To the Population: " Comrades, working people! Remember that now you yourselves are at the helm of state.. .. Ensure the strictest control over production and accounting of products. Arrest and hand over toth^_j^vj3jjitionarycpjjrj^__alj^wlw .darp"in injjjie J:hg_^rjeo^' pie s "caused, irreSpeelTve^oT whethelrtrre injury is maffifesTecT in sabotaging production (damage, delay and subversion), or in hoarding grain and products or holding up shipments of grain, disorganising the railways and the postal, telegraph and telephone services, or any resistance whatever to the great cause of peace, the cause of transferring the land to the peasants, of ensuring workers' control over the production and distribution of products.... Be watchful and guard like the apple of your eye your land, grain, factories, equipment, products, transport---all that from now onwards will be entirelyyaur_QTOperty, public property.'^

The d^ecreTOTiworker^control envisaged a harmonious system of control bodies, ranging from factory committees to the All-Russia Council of Workers' Control. Their main task was to safeguard industry, suppress capitalist sabotage, and organise economic life along socialist lines.

Workers' control involved all industrial, trade, banking, agricultural and other enterprises, as well as enterprises

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 26, pp. 104-05.

~^^2^^ Ibid., p. 104.

~^^3^^ Ibid., p. 236.

~^^4^^ Ibid., p. 240.

~^^1^^ Ibid., p. 241.

~^^2^^ Ibid., Vol. 26, pp. 297-98.

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which employed people working at home. The decree emphasised the vital need of ensuring that mass control is exercised by all workers and all organisations of the given enterprise or institution, including the plant and factory committees, the councils of elders, etc.

The decree insisted that particular attention be given to the main branches of production. The organs of workers' control were to supervise the process of production, fix the volume of output, analyse production costs, control the procurement, marketing and storage of raw materials and products, and check financial transactions. They were given the right to inspect all books and documents and all warehouses and stocks of materials, tools and products without exception. No changes in production, and in particular no stoppages, could be introduced without the permission of workers' control bodies.

The decree made all proprietors of enterprises and all elected representatives of workers and office employees responsible before the state for strict order, discipline, protection of property and correct accounting and summary reports. The proprietors were obliged to comply with all instructions issued by the organisations of workers' control; the instructions could be reversed only by the higher authorities.

As soon as the decree was made public, the working masses began to set up workers' control organs throughout the land. Though the working people had no experience in this field, they went ahead to elect factory committees, councils of elders and other mass organisations for controlling the work of enterprises and institutions.

This campaign was particularly well organised in Petrograd, Moscow, Ivanovo-Voznesensk, the Donbas and the Urals. By the beginning of 1918 factory committees had been established in 88 per cent of the enterprises in Moscow, and economic control commissions in 288 of the 600 enterprises. By March of the same year control commissions had been set up at 222 of the 280 enterprises in Moscow Region.

Workers' control greatly contributed to the suppression of private entrepreneurs and the struggle against post-war devastation. Early in 1918 Lenin wrote that ``workers' control

and the nationalisation of the banks are being put into practice, and these are the first steps towards socialism".^^1^^

The working people used the organs of workers' control to grapple with the problems of industrialising such a huge country and in their fight against the exploiters. Soviet reality was a daily proof that Lenin's thesis was correct and that ordinary workers and peasants once they got started could and would learn to manage the industry and the state.

Their part in the work of factory committees, town and provincial organs of control gave workers economic and organisational experience. They studied the questions of the organisation of production, planning, and accounting; gradually they began to understand financial matters and the problems of raw material and fuel supply. Their involvement in this work taught them how to manage production.

Workers' control contributed to the consolidation of the gains the October Revolution had won in the economic field; it prepared and smoothed the way for the socialist nationalisation of industry, and introduced conditions that allowed for creativity and mass initiative in the building of new life.

Under the screen of revolutionary slogans, the "Left Communists" came out against Lenin's idea of general accounting and control, ignoring the role and importance of workers' control. They attempted to justify their position by references to Marx's slogan on the need to "expropriate the expropriators". But Karl Marx and Frederick Engels had written in the Communist Manifesto that "The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i*e., of the proletariat organised as the ruling class; and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible.''^^2^^

Karl Marx and Frederick Engels never pressed the solution of the problem. Lenin exposed the petty-bourgeois essence of the attitude of "Left Communists" to the Marxist slogan "expropriation of the expropriators". The petty bourgeois understood the slogan from the anarchist viewpoint--- "plunder the loot". Lenin wrote that the petty bourgeois had

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 26, p. 400.

~^^2^^ Marx and Engels, Selected Works in three volumes, Vol. 1, p. 126.

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``one desire---to grab, to get as much as possible for himself, to ruin and smash the big landowners, the big exploiters. In this the petty proprietor eagerly supports us.

``Here he is more revolutionary than the workers, because he is more embittered and more indignant.''^^1^^

But the proletarian revolution says: "Count up what was stolen and don't let it be filched piecemeal, and if people start filching for themselves directly or indirectly, these infringers of discipline must be shot. . . .''^^2^^

Lenin repeated time and again that socialism means accounting, and that the most important task of the dictatorship of the proletariat was to advance in every possible manner accounting and control making it a universal national phenomenon. To implement this plan it was necessary to recruit the workers and peasants and place all state organisations and enterprises under the constant control of the people. When control and accounting really become widespread and nation-wide when everybody knows how to manage social production and when it becomes impossible to escape control, it will be impossible to evade one's responsibilities before society, there will be no violations of public order, and parasites and swindlers will find it difficult to escape punishment. The task of such a nation-wide, all-seeing control is to ensure by educational, administrative and, if need be, by measures of compulsion the general observance of public rules at work and in private life.

During the first years of the revolution the bourgeois press time and again took up the question of the practical implementation of workers' control.

In most cases these bourgeois writers of books and articles distorted the essence and organisational forms of workers' control. Some declared it a "horrible change", others believed that as a result of workers' control, "the workers and not the State became the employers in the nationalised industries. . . . Capitalist anarchy was superseded by proletarian anarchy.''^^3^^ The French economist, A. Burvil, writes that

because of workers' control "the axis of the economic movement was displaced and the enterprises found themselves in the position of a ship without a compass left to the fiercy of the winds".^^1^^

Similar claims are made in works being brought out today in Britain, the United States and the other capitalist countries. In 1959 the American economist D. Bell wrote: "But, given the chaos of the time, workers' control was inevitably a mockery.''^^2^^

False and slanderous statements are made to the effect that workers' control was not a thought-out policy of the Bolshevik Party, nor was it the first step toward socialism.

According to the American historian H. Avrich, "during the spring when it had seemed necessary in order to undermine the existing order, Lenin had joined forces with the AnarchoSyndicalists in support of the factory committees and workers' control" and again: "during the first weeks of its existence, the Bolshevik Government had supported the factory committees and workers' control in order to secure the loyalty of the proletarian rank and file". At the beginning of 1918, H. Avrich goes on to say, Lenin "sided with the Menshevik and rightist Bolshevik champions of the trade unions and of state control".^^3^^

Ignoring the obvious facts, the bourgeois critics of workers' control attempt to deny that its introduction ensured the wide-scale reorganisation of the running of industry, banks and trade. Shop committees, says D. Bell in an article in the World Politics magazine, were unable to organise and mobilise the unruly workers. If the committees tried to take some action, he claims, the workers immediately held new elections.^^4^^

It is quite clear that almost all bourgeois scholars are ful-

~^^1^^ A. Burvil, L'organization economique de regime Sovietique, Paris, 1924, p. 63.

~^^2^^ D. Bell, One Road from Marx: On the Vision of Socialism and the Fate of Workers' Control in Socialist Thought. In World Politics, N. Y., Vol. XI, No. 4. July 1959, p. 506.

~^^3^^ H. Avrich, The Bolshevik Revolution and Workers' Control in Russian Industry, in Slavic Review. March 1963, p. 60.

~^^4^^ D. Bell, One Road from Marx: On the Vision of Socialism and the Fate of Workers Control in Socialist Thought. In World Politics, N. Y., p. 506.

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 27, p. 294.

~^^2^^ Ibid., Vol. 27, p. 307.

~^^3^^ S. N. Prokopovitch, The Economic Condition of Soviet Russia, London, 1924, p. 10.

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filling a task, essential from the point of view of the reactionary forces in the imperialist countries. Their job is to distort the history of the socialist changes in the USSR, slander the Communist Party's policies concerning the working class, and cast slurs on the idea of workers' control.

This, on the one hand, is a manifestation of the hatred the imperialist bourgeoisie harbours for the working class of the USSR, which took the first step in the history of mankind to open up the road to socialism. On the other hand, it is an attempt to prevent the proletariat of the other countries from learning from the experience of the Soviet system of workers' control.

But falsehood cannot hide the truth about the Soviet Union. Workers' control and the subsequent socialist nationalisation of industry created the conditions for a new organisation of production and of social labour. It was through the organisations of proletarian control that the working class first learned the art of managing production. This however was only the first step in establishing the administration of the country's economy. In mid-1918, when the nationalisation of industry had been almost completed and the system of workers' control had fulfilled its initial task of curbing the capitalists, Lenin advanced the task of establishing state control.

All control in any state, Lenin taught, derives from the essence of state power and, therefore, reflects the interests of the ruling class. After the victory of the proletariat, control, naturally, acquires a new significance dependent on the essence of the proletarian state, the chief aspects of which are its economic, organisational, cultural and educational functions.

In 1918 the Council of People's Commissars set up a Central Control Board, local auditing and control boards and also elective control commissions in institutions and enterprises which provided a base for the former.

A year later, after examining the draft decree on the establishment of a single system of state control, Lenin wrote:

``I think the following should be added to the decree on control:

``1) formation of central (and local) bodies with workers' participation;

``2) introduction by law of the systematic participation of witnesses from among the workers, with compulsory participation of up to two-thirds women;

``3) giving immediate priority to the following as our urgent tasks:

``(a) lightning inquiries into citizens' complaints

``(b) combating red-tape

``(c) revolutionary measures to combat abuses and

red tape

``(d) special attention to boosting labour productivity, and

``(e) to increasing the quantity of products, etc, "^^1^^. Time and again Lenin returned to the idea of the participation of the broad masses in control: "You must recruit," he said at a session of the Moscow Soviet, "the most diffident and undeveloped, the most timid of the workers for the workers' inspection and promote them ... let them gradually proceed from the simple duties they are able to carry out---at first only as onlookers---to more important functions of state. You will secure a flow of assistants from the widest sources who will take upon themselves the burden of government, who will come to lend a hand and to work. We need tens of thousands of new advanced workers. Turn for support to the non-party workers and peasants. . . ."² These remarks on basic principles influenced the decree "On State Control" approved by the All-Russia Executive Committee in April 1919. All agencies of departmental control, control groups at enterprises and organisations were amalgamated into a single body of state control, which had the following functions: to control the implementation of the decrees of the Party and Government by the Soviet organisations, to fight bad management and bureaucracy, and to analyse the experience of state building and improvement of the administrative machinery.

The decree declared merciless war on bureaucracy and on all other distortions and shortcomings in the work of the Soviet State machinery, and it pointed out that success depends on the participation of workers and peasants in the

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 28, p. 486.

~^^2^^ ibid., Vol. 30, p. 415.

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management of the state. Only the involvement of the broad masses of workers and peasants into the country's administration, and the establishment of mass control over the organs of management can eliminate shortcomings, clear the Soviet organisations of bureaucratic evils, and propel forward the cause of socialist construction.

The decree proclaimed the principle of the democratisation of state control and the closest contact with the mass of workers and peasants. It introduced the system of witnesses chosen from the people's representatives. Spot-checks by public organisations were encouraged. The decree was not a departure from but a development of the old conceptions of control. Formerly, state control had been limited to financial problems alone, but henceforward it became means by which the All-Russia Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars could check the work of all agencies and institutions, and the implementation of Soviet decrees.

State control was entrusted with the task of drafting concrete proposals for simplifying the administrative machinery, eliminating duplication, inefficiency, and red tape, as well as with changing the system of management in some branches of the economy. State control was given the right to supervise the activity of all people's commissariats and departments to check their work by assessing results, and to file cases against officials who had committed offences or crimes, or remove them from office, f^^

On April 11, 1919, the newspaper Bednota (The Village Poor) declared in an article ``Workers' and Peasants' Control" that "the Commissariat of State Control, which will include representatives of the mass of workers and peasants, will henceforth not only check financial accounts, but also demand honest and conscientious work from all Soviet officials''.

From that time onwards the control was responsible not only for pointing out shortcomings and mistakes, but also for eliminating and preventing any unfavourable development. Its task was to take prompt action, in one or another form, against violations of the Soviet laws and thus prevent such events recurring and educate the working people to observe the law.

Lenin did not tolerate those who disgraced the name of

communist or patronised the offenders of the law, thereby undermining the authority of the Party among the people.

A. Divilkovsky, an official of the Secretariat of the Council of People's Commissars, at Lenin's request took part in checking the work of the Moscow Soviet about which there had been several complaints. Lenin wrote to the Politbureau of the Central Committee:

``This is not the first time that the Moscow Committee (and Comrade Zelensky^^1^^ too) is showing indulgence towards communist criminals, who deserve to be hanged.

``This is done by `mistake'. The danger of this `mistake', however, is enormous. / move:

``1. That Comrade Divilkovsky's proposal be adopted.

``2. That the Moscow Committee be severely reprimanded for being indulgent to Communists (the form of indulgence ---a special commission).

``3. That it be confirmed to all Gubernia Party Committees that for the slightest attempt to `influence' the courts in the sense of `mitigating' the responsibility of Communists, the C.C. will expel such persons from the Party.

``4. That a circular be issued notifying the People's Commissariat for Justice (copies to the Gubernia Party Committees) to the effect that the courts are obliged to punish Communists more severely than non-Communists.

``People's judges and members of the Board of the Commissariat for Justice who fail to observe this are to be dismissed from office.

"5. That the Presidium of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee be asked to inflict a reprimand on the Presidium of the Moscow Soviet in the press.

Lenin 18. III.

``P. S. It is a crying shame, disgraceful---the ruling Party defends 'its own' scoundrels!!''^^2^^

In May 1918, having learned that the Moscow Revolutionary Tribunal, examining the case of four state officials who were charged with bribery, had sentenced them to only six

~^^1^^ N. A. Zelensky was then Secretary of the Moscow Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks).---Ed.

^^2^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 42, pp. 408-09.

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months of imprisonment, Lenin wrote a letter full of indignation to the Politbureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, demanding that the judges who examined the case be purged from the Party for such leniency:

``To award bribe-takers such derisively weak and mild sentences, instead of shooting, is disgraceful behaviour for a Communist and revolutionary. Such comrades must be pilloried by the court of public opinion and expelled from the Party, for their place is at the side of Kerensky and Martov¹ and not at the side of revolutionary Communists.''^^2^^

In May 1919, Pravda published an appeal from the People's Commissariat of State Control to "All Citizens of the Soviet Republic" which announced the establishment of central and local bureaus of complaints and described how they would work.

Any citizen had the right to raise a complaint in written or oral form, which if not slanderous or false, was guaranteed complete security and would be kept confidential if so requested. The bureaus examined all these complaints and all information dealing with violations of decrees and orders, with abuses, red-tape, and rude behaviour on the part not only of local authorities, but also of central agencies, including the people's commissariats. Complaints against the decrees taken by the All-Russia Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars were not to be examined, but if they were very numerous, they could be used as the basis for the government to reverse the decree or ruling in question.

A formal and careless attitude towards letters from working people always aroused Lenin's indignation. Once F. Romanov, a peasant from Yaroslavl Gubernia, and I. Kalinin, a peasant from Moscow Gubernia, complained to the Secretariat of the Council of People's Commissars that the local authorities had unlawfully requisitioned their horses. The complaints were passed on to a special commission, which dealt with such matters, but were returned to the Council of People's Commissars, the following note written on the en-

velope: "There is too much work and no time to waste on such trifles." Lenin was so outraged that he advised V. Avanesov of the State Control Commission to arrest the official who had replied in such a way.^^1^^

The example of Lenin's activity was a lesson for Party and state officials on how to check at the first sign any infringement of the rights and interests of citizens and the state. Typical in this respect is the cable he sent to the Novgorod Gubernia Executive Committee in June 1919: "Apparently, Bulatov has been arrested for complaining to me. I warn you that I shall have the chairmen of the Gubernia Executive Committee and Extraordinary Commission, and the members of the Executive Committee arrested for this and will insist on their being shot. Why did you not reply at once to my inquiry?''^^2^^

Lenin considered that the greatest responsibility of every state official, Communist or Soviet activist was his fight against bureaucracy and red-tape. He said: "We shall be fighting the evils of bureaucracy for many years to come, and whoever thinks otherwise is playing demagogue and cheating, because overcoming the evils of bureaucracy requires hundreds of measures, wholesale literacy, culture and participation in the activity of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspection.''^^3^^

Lenin's ideas of mass all-embracing, ever-active control were developed further by the creation of Workers' and Peasants' Inspection. The first units made their appearance in the second half of 1919 and in 1920 spread widely.

Workers' control as a form of the people's participation in government continued to function alongside state control. The experience of workers' control was applied to the system of inspecting state institutions. In practice these inspections consisting mainly of workers, who took up turn to serve, were the chief organs of control. These inspectors enjoyed all the rights of state controllers but were responsible to their collective.

In 1920 it was decided to amalgamate the two forms of

~^^1^^ Kerensky headed the bourgeois Provisional Government in 1917. Martov was the leader of the Menshevik Party.---Ed.

~^^2^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 27, p. 322.

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 36, p. 511.

~^^2^^ Ibid., Vol. 44, p. 232.

~^^3^^ Ibid., Vol. 32, p. 68.

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control into the People's Commissariat of Workers' and Peasants' Inspection (WPI) which was charged with the tasks of improving the state machinery, drawing the people into the government of the country, exercising control functions in the field of finances and protecting socialist property, etc.

WPI branches were opened up in gubernias, districts, and towns. Enterprises, institutions, army units and villages established WPI assistance groups; trade unions set up assistance commissions.

Any working person could be elected to WPI; the elections were held in such a way as to involve gradually all employees of the given enterprise in the inspection work. Lenin said that "workers must enter all the government establishments so as to supervise the entire government apparatus. And this should be done by the non-party workers, who should elect their representatives at non-party conferences of workers and peasants.''^^1^^

Members of WPI were elected at general meetings either permanently or for a temporary period of up to four months. The most capable people who had both experience and initiative were elected as constant members; people with less experience were chosen to perform temporary control functions.

WPI assistance groups superintended the work of the administration, checked the legality and expediency of their activity, controlled the safekeeping of valuable materials and goods, and accepted complaints. They were elected at general meetings of the working people to whom they reported at least once a month. In a letter to all Party committees, the Central Committee of the Communist Party emphasised the necessity of inaugurating WPI assistance groups everywhere, of holding elections in plants, factories and villages, popularising the idea of socialist control, and of establishing firm, links with the working masses.

The People's Commissariat of Workers' and Peasants' Inspection launched a campaign for the establishment of WPl assistance groups. By the middle of 1921 there were 12,000 such groups with a total membership of nearly 40,000 people.

In the summer of 1921, the Commissariat organised an

Assistance Commission to Economic Organs. This action was taken a few days after Lenin had mentioned to A. Korostelev, a member of the board of the People's Commissariat of WPI, that the stagnation, bureaucracy and sluggishness of economic organs seriously impeded the correct implementation of the New Economic Policy.

``You," Lenin said to A. Korostelev, "are a member of the Board of the People's Commissariat of Workers' and Peasants' Inspection, you are a member of the Government, and you have access to all factories and plants; you are a worker and therefore it is easier for you to talk with workers than it is for the officials of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspection.

``Set up a small group of workers from factories and a few honest specialists; take a few enterprises, investigate them and see how they are supplied with fuel, food and money; find out who and what obstruct their work, call those guilty to account for their faults and try to help and assist the enterprises and workers by making use of your powers.

``If we succeed in removing the obstacles to the New Economic Policy, it will be a good example, particularly here, in Moscow, and it will have a big political and subsequently economic effect.''^^1^^

Korostelev set to work. He did not have immediate successes and reported his difficulties, asking Lenin for help. The reply came immediately:

``The task of your commission is exceptionally important, responsible and difficult, . ..

``It is much more difficult to work in Moscow than in the provinces, there is more bureaucracy here, more corrupt and spoilt `top-ranking' people and so on.

``But on the other hand, the work in Moscow will be of tremendous political significance as a demonstration les-

son.

``The main thing is not to squander the energy, it is better to choose a few enterprises and undertake small tasks, to set oneself modest goals at first, but to strive for them persistently, not forgetting things already started, not stopping half-way, but completing everything you undertake.

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 30, p. 351.

~^^1^^ Lenin Miscellany VIII, p. 29.

4---118

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``You must be sure gradually to enlist non-Party, honest and respected workers in all districts___

``The main thing is to accustom the workers and the populace to the commission so that they would feel its assistance; it is important to win the confidence of the masses---- nonParty people, ordinary workers and men-in-the-street.''^^1^^

Lenin attentively followed the work of WPI, criticised its shortcomings, helping it to acquire greater authority and expand its functions so as to create a genuinely socialist people's control, a machinery for inspecting and improving all work conducted by the state. In the letter "Tasks of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspection and How They Are to Be Understood and Fulfilled" Lenin formulated the main task of that body as follows: to study the organisation of work and timely implement the necessary changes. Later he developed the idea in a series of articles, including "How We should Reorganise the Workers' and Peasants' Inspection", "Better Fewer, but Better", "On Co-operation", and others.

After the Civil War the country was faced with the task of consolidating and improving the state machinery. The Communist Party believed that economic rehabilitation and the consolidation of the union between workers and peasants depended on the efficiency of the state machinery and the character of its links with the masses of working people. Under these circumstances the organs of control had to solve new problems and WPI charged with the following tasks became an effective instrument in the transformation of the Soviet state machinery.

A practical and theoretical analysis of the state machinery in order to make clear its good and bad points; the implementation of proposals aimed at improving the methods of management, clerical work and accounting; a study of the best methods of accounting, calculating and book-keeping; a drafting of plans for changing the structure of state agencies.

WPI were to guide the work of all institutions studying scientific methods of labour, production and management; inspect the work of all state and public enterprises and their amalgamations and assess their results; the systematic improve-

~^^1^^ Lenin Miscellany VIII, pp. 30-31.

ments achieved on the basis of research and scientific data.

They were to control the implementation of laws and decrees, and in particular those measures aimed at the improvement of the state machinery; analyse scrupulously the state budget of the USSR, the budgets of the union republics and local budgets, their financial feasibility and economic expediency; control and assess the work of heads and officials of administrative and economic bodies; assist in the selection of personnel, and in taking measures to train workers and peasants for leading and responsible positions, and to support loyal officials.

A further task was to analyse the causes of crime and inefficiency in state organs, to struggle against bribery and the disregard of the need of workers and peasants.

In addition, WPI was given special assignments by the legislative bodies of the USSR, and controlled the implementation of their resolutions.

WPI had a host of duties but it also had many rights.

WPI had the right to inspect all central and local state administrative agencies, enterprises and institutions, as well as joint-stock and mixed companies. It had the right to demand of these state agencies any information, including papers, documents, reports, etc., to require the chiefs and officials to attend its sessions, give personal explanations of their activity and suggest measures that would lead to the elimination of shortcomings and to the improvement of their work.

WPI could insist on the discharge of officials, advise the heads of the agencies under inspection to reprimand an offender, file lawsuits and administrative cases and bring actions against individuals for damage to the state.

The control organs would bring up before the central and local authorities proposals for simplifying the administrative structure, reducing personnel and eliminating shortcomings. They annulled illegal acts and orders. WPI had a consultative voice in every standing organ, commission and conferences called by the higher state authorities at sessions of the boards of people's commissaries, on executive committees of Soviets, and at departmental and interdepartmental conferences and congresses.

WPI could publish in the press the names of people found

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guilty of inefficiency, slipshod work or disregard of the needs of the working people.

Thus, WPI was granted many rights which enabled it to fulfil its important assignments and actively help the people to build a new life. The number of workers taking part in the work of WPI grew every year. In 1929, for instance, over 180,000 people in the Ukraine alone were engaged in the activity of WPI, as against 184,000 for the whole country in 1920-21.

The mass organisations of working people made use of the great experience gathered by the control agencies. In 1927-29, for example, Komsomol organised the so-called light brigades for improving the work of the state machinery. The light brigades took part in all mass inspections sponsored by WPI. In 1930 the light brigades numbered more than 250,000 members.

WPI served as an example to all government agencies and thus the Communist Party was very careful in selecting executive chiefs for the control bodies. The Party selected the most authoritative, competent and capable people who could organise efficient and unbiased control. The control bodies in the USSR were headed by such prominent leaders as Stalin, Kuibyshev, Ordjonikidze, Tsyurupa, Andreyev and Rudzutak; Krupskaya, Ulyanova, Yaroslavsky, Zemlyachka, as well as Dzerzhinsky, Shvernik and other state leaders were also very active in control work.

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union resolutely denounced the personality cult which damaged the organisation of control among the masses but was not able to change the genuinely democratic nature of the Soviet system. The CPSU eliminated the consequences of the personality cult and thus opened up broad opportunities for public initiative and for the development of socialist democracy.

Following its 20th Congress, the CPSU began a consistent implementation of a series of major steps aimed at drawing the masses into the management of state and public affairs. In 1961, the 22nd Congress of the CPSU elaborated important theoretical and practical questions of the advancement of socialist democracy and the raising of the role of state and public control.

The scale of economic and cultural achievement was ex-

panding, the masses were actively engaged in creative work, their initiative was on the rise and democratic principles were spreading. In such a situation it was necessary to involve more people in checking that the Soviet, economic and other authorities implemented the Party and Government decrees and to mobilise people in the struggle for the consolidation of state discipline and socialist law.

With this aim in view, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted, in December 1965, a law on People's Control in the USSR which established the People's Control Committee of the USSR and people's control committees in republics, territories, regions, towns and districts, as well as groups and sections of people's control attached to village Soviets of Working People's Deputies, enterprises, collective farms, various institutions and organisations and army units.

Experience proved that this decision aimed at the improvement of the control system and the mobilisation of millions of working people to take part in the management of state affairs had been the correct one.

The Statute of the People's Control Organs in the USSR is firmly based on Lenin's teaching about the role of genuinely mass and permanent control in a socialist community. The Statute is based on the achievements of control organs both within the Soviet Union and in the other socialist countries.

The organs of people's control are now concentrating their efforts on the consolidation of state discipline, improvement of the administrative machinery and reduction of its maintenance expenses. They are concerned with the tapping of latent reserves of the economy and with stepping up the struggle against inefficiency and extravagance.

The work of the people's control organs is a concrete example of the Communist Party's concern for the development of socialist democracy.

In his speech on the 100th anniversary of Lenin's birth, iLeonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the CPSU Central (Committee, said:

/ "In order to ensure the rights of the Soviet citizens, the (Party is daily concerned with the improvement of the forms / of people's representation and people's control over the activities of the organs of power and management.''

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WORKERS' CONTROL AND MANAGEMENT

The 24th Congress of the CPSU, which took place early in 1971, paid much attention to the problems related to the strengthening of the Soviet state. The Congress pointed out that the improvement of the organs of people's control was an indispensable measure as far as the further advancement of Soviet democracy was concerned.

The Resolution of the 24th Congress on the Report by the Central Committee notes that "An improvement must be achieved in the work of the people's control and efforts must be made to have the Leninist ideas on constant and effective control by the broad masses unswervingly translated into life".^^1^^

Even such a short summary of the history of state and public control in the USSR indicates the growing role of the people's masses in the construction of the new life, and the great importance of control as one of the forms of socialist democracy.

the working class of Austria was the law on Production Councils drafted by the commission on socialisation, headed by Otto Bauer, and adopted in May 1919. Workers' production councils were also set up in a spontaneous fashion, under the influence of the October Revolution and the working class was persistent in its demand that these should be granted a legal status. Two other laws followed, one, on The Elections to the Production Councils, and the other, on The Competency and Activities of the Production Councils.^^1^^ In compliance with these laws, production councils were set up at all industrial, handicraft and trade enterprises employing of over twenty workers, and also at transport and communications enterprises.

The production councils were made responsible for a variety of problems: collective agreements, hire and discharge, work regulations, wages, financial documents, control over the implementation of social legislature, the activities of communal institutions and enterprises, and also, balanceof-payments sheets and financial calculation. They had the right to join the administration in discussing problems of management. The production councils were granted two places in the supervisory council of any joint-stock company with a fixed capital of over one million crowns.^^2^^

In Italy the revolutionary upheaval of 1919-21 was marked by the struggle for workers' control over production. In the summer of 1919 the workers of many enterprises began to elect shop commissars, later known as shop stewards. The campaign quickly spread throughout industry. The alliances formed amongst the plant and factory shop commissars brought into being the factory councils, the first organs of proletarian self-government and workers' control. They took over the administrative functions at many enterprises and "brought home to the divided workers' masses what the worker self-government in production means".^^3^^

In April 1920 the metal-workers of Turin went on strike. This was the first time that Italian strikers were to demand

The very first decrees of the young Soviet Republic and its first steps in the field of social and economic changes tremendously influenced the progress of the proletarian revolutionary movement in all capitalist countries.

The working people in the capitalist countries followed the example of the working class of Russia and intensified their struggle for economic rights and for power. Councils (counterparts of Russia's Soviets) sprang up in Germany, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Italy. The demands put forward by the advanced sections of the European proletariat for workers' control over production and the nationalisation of industry, were very popular among the masses.

The working people of Austria, for example, demanded the nationalisation of the banks, the mining and marketing of coal and iron ore, the iron-and-steel enterprises, etc. In some places they took over management of the enterprises.

The most important of the democratic victories gained by

~^^1^^ W. Ellenbogen, Sozialisicrung in Ostcrrcich, Wicn, 1921, S. 18-19.

~^^2^^ Ibid.

'^J Opere di Antonio Gramsd. L'Or dine Nuovo (1919-1920), 1955, p. 184.

24th Congress of the CPSU, Moscow, 1971, p. 227.

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CHAPTER 3 THE PRINCIPLES OF SOCIALIST CONTROL

workers' control over production and they had behind them all the workers of the town and the province.

According to Gramsci, the specific feature of the largescale activity, which was launched by the workers of Turin and had political as well as an economic, character, was that "for the first time in history the proletariat began to fight for control over production, not motivated by hunger and unemployment; besides, it was a battle not of the minority, the forward detachment of the working class, but of all the workers of Turin. They waged the battle to the last, in spite of all the hardships and privation.''^^1^^

But in 1919-20 the workers did not succeed in establishing their control over production in the country as a whole. As Gramsci noted, "The entire might of the Italian capitalists was used to crush the campaign of the Turin workers; the bourgeois state placed all available means at their disposal. . . .''^^2^^

Gradually, under pressure of the bourgeois reactionary forces and the general weakening of the revolutionary movement in Italy, the campaign lost its force. The Italian Communist Party, founded in January 1921, was too inexperienced to direct the class struggle of the proletariat.

The revolutionary events that took place in Europe between 1918 and 1923 successfully paralysed the forces of imperialism attempting to strangle Soviet Russia. These and subsequent events proved that in spite of the temporary defeat the proletariat regarded workers' control and revolutionary changes as the key to liberation from exploitation and the key to freedom and democracy.

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union is engaged in organisational and educational work of gigantic scope aimed at actively involving all citizens in industrial and public life and helping them make full use of their rights. The Party spares no efforts in its attempts to expand socialist democracy, promote the role of the Soviets, the trade unions, the mass organisations of working people, and the organs of people's control.

In his work The State and Revolution, Lenin pointed out that "when all have learned to administer and actually do independently administer social production, independently keep accounts and exercise control over the parasites, the sons of the wealijiy thg swindlers and other 'guardians of capitalisrTradJhon£rniTesTapefrbm this popular account - ing and control wTTTmevitably become so incredibly difficult, such a rare exception, and will probably be accompanied by such swift and severe punishment (for the armed workers are practical men and not sentimental intellectuals, and they will scarcely allow anyone to^frifre~^vifh~thern), ffiaTthe necessity of observing the simple, fundamental rules of the community will very soon become a habit".^^1^^

These are the purposes which the organs of people's control serve. They educate the people to be active builders of the communist society, to strictly adhere to the norms of the socialist community, and to be ready to place public above personal interests.

~^^1^^ Opere di Antonio Gramsci. L'Ordine Nuovo (1919-1920), pp. 176-77.

~^^2^^ Ibid., p. 177.

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 25, p. 474.

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PRINCIPLES OF SOCIALIST CONTROL

The Statute of the People's Control Organs in the USSR defines their role, sphere of activities, the principles of their organisation, the rights, responsibilities, and methods of their work in a socialist society. Here is a resume of the Statute.

The tasks of the control committees, groups and sections are as follows:

To exercise regular control over the fulfilment of state plans and assignments;

To search actively for the latent potential of the economy, to ensure greater efficiency of production, the thrifty use of materials and finances and the introduction of progressive techniques;

To wage a vigorous fight against violations of state discipline, against parochialism, mismanagement, extravagance, deception, and encroachments on socialist property;

To put a stop to bureaucracy and red tape, to improve the work of state bodies, reduce expenditures, implement scientific methods of labour and management, and efficient departmental control.

It follows that people's controllers in a socialist society are neither prosecutors of evils and shortcomings nor administrators with punitive functions; they are the sentinels and guards of the people. They actively help the Communist Party and the people's government in overcoming the difficulties in the fields of politics, economy and culture; and they mobilise the masses for the successful solution of the problems facing the country.

The governing principle of the socialist community is democratic centralism, the essence of which is the inviolable combination of democracy: the sovereignty of the people, their initiative, the selection of the leading bodies by election and their responsibility to the masses with centralism: central administration, submission of the minority to the majority, one-man management, and strict discipline.

The principle was first put into practice by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in the creation of the Communist League, and later, the First International. Democratic centralism was the cornerstone of the proletarian Party in Russia and it has remained the basic principle of the organisation and the activities of the Communist. Party of the Soviet Union and of all the other Communist and Workers' Parties.

The consolidation of Soviet power and the success achieved in the building of socialism strengthened the application of democratic centralism to the management of the state, of the economic and moral affairs of society. This principle envisages the centralised management of economy on the one hand and the economic independence of enterprises and the development of their initiative on the other; one-man management of production, and joint leadership in the solution of basic problems and the broad initiative of the masses.

Democratic centralism reflects the essence of socialism; it is based on objective factors. The economic foundation of democratic centralism is the socialist ownership of the means of production. The socialist ownership of the means of production puts an end to economic crises and to the anarchy of production; it brings to life the law of planned and balanced development. The social and political basis of democratic centralism is the absence of antagonistic classes; and the unity of the will and the interests of the entire society. The moral basis of democratic centralism is the supremacy of socialist ideology and the ideological unity of society.

Thus, ensuring unity in all spheres of public life, democratic centralism "presupposes the possibility, created for the first time in history, of a full and unhampered development not only of specific local features, but also of local inventiveness, local initiative, of diverse ways, methods and means of progress to the^ common goal".^^1^^

Lenin explained that democratic centralism assumes a combination of firm leadership of the lower by the higher bodies, compulsory execution of directives from the centre by the local organs but independent decision-making on local issues. He stressed that those who relied on the conventional patterns of activity, were prey to formalism and failed to take personal responsibility in management were not to be tolerated; he insisted that the local organs should be given more responsibility and be granted greater initiative.

Only such a principle permits the socialist state to concentrate and utilise, in the most effective way and in the interests of the people, all the available resources, and

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 27, p. 208.

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ensures both the steady development of the country as a whole and the progress of its various regions with all their differences. Lenin wrote: "Agriculture in Kaluga Gubernia differs from that in Kazan Gubernia. The same thing can be said about industry; and it can be said about administration, or management, as a whole. Failure to make allowances for local differences in all these matters would mean slipping into bureaucratic centralism, and so forth. It would mean preventing the local authorities from giving proper consideration to specific local features, which is the basis of all rational administration.''^^1^^

The Communist Party opposes not only all bureaucratic distortions of centralism, but also parochialism. Both impede successful administration of state and economic affairs.

Socialist economy is an entity, and thus if one enterprise ceases to run smoothly this inevitably affects all the other enterprises. If but one factory fails to fulfil the plan of cooperated deliveries this generates a kind of a chain reaction. That is why we cannot tolerate violators of state discipline or people who look upon the enterprise or organisation they head as their own patrimonial estate where they are free to act as they please.

In the Soviet Union, as in the other socialist countries, the state wants every town and village, every district and region to have fine residential facilities, good roads, schools, hospitals, bath-houses and other facilities. The state allocates considerable sums for this purpose, but not, of course, those funds marked out for investment in the branches of economy important to the whole nation.

Local problems cannot be solved satifactorily without the preliminary solution of national problems and thus a genuine interest in local requirements should be expressed as a readiness to guarantee the best possible fulfilment of state plans.

It is the task of public control to ensure and safeguard national interests because these interests are common to all towns, districts,, regions and republics. Damage to state interests inevitably affects local interests. Therefore, lack of discipline or, say, slipshod fulfilment of obligations as regards co-operated deliveries, or diversion of funds for local

needs is an expression of parochialism and an offence against the state. Attempts are made to put a stop to such activity since a narrow approach always leads to counterposing local interests, which means placing them above national interests.

The departmental approach and parochialism can manifest themselves in many ways. Some administrators, for instance, hoard raw materials and other goods, thereby freezing a large quantity of funds. They think that they are doing a good turn for their enterprise, but in reality they are depriving other enterprises of necessary material and preventing industry in general from fulfilling the state plan.

Instead of utilising the available reserves and practising economy some managers do all they can to get permission to consume above-quota quantities of electric power and raw material and take an extra labour force. Or they press for additional construction at their enterprise even though they have excess floorspace to start with and the existing equipment is not used as it might be.

Public controllers bring to light many incorrect practices. Here is an example. Once the manufacture of a certain product has been started, the management of an enterprise may be unwilling to introduce the latest scientific and engineering achievements. To conceal its conservatism, the management advances as an excuse its fear of falling back behind in the fulfilment of the production programme. It risks no additional expenses and does nothing by way of the necessary reorganisation. The management, to put it in a nutshell, is prepared to lag behind technologically if by that means it can escape trouble and difficulties.

There are many other ways in which the departmental and parochial approach finds expression. Some executives are so involved in their departmental interests that they fail to safeguard the general state interests and put a brake on specialisation and co-operation of production. Thus a factory might cling to its own foundry, no matter how obsolete it is, even though, from the economic viewpoint, it would be much better to operate one modern foundry to supply the needs of a whole town or industrial district.

Once during thorough inspection people's controllers unveiled activity that could almost be classed as criminal.

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 33, p. 364.

(J2

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Statistic relating to the fulfilment of plans, had been falsified, material and goods had been concealed from the state, requirements of materials that were in short supply had been overstated and there had been attempts to secure understated plans. This was all done, presumably, in the interests of the enterprise; but such care for the enterprise's welfare has nothing in common with statesmanlike administration, and thus the offenders were severely punished.

These attitudes contradict the very essence of socialist economy. The public ownership of the means of production requires a definite co-ordination of work within the economic regions and the entire system of socialist production, and is not merely a question of co-ordination within the enterprise itself. Therefore, one of the most important tasks of control organs, trade-union organisations and of society in general is to bring to light and fight all parochial tendencies which run counter to the national interests.

The activity of people's controllers is characterised by their statesmanlike approach and their desire to utilise to the maximum all opportunities of raising the output of products. Here is one of the numerous examples that could be given to illustrate this point.

As is generally known economic plans in a socialist society are drafted and discussed by millions of people, as well as by the special departments. The people's controllers also take part in this important work, helping the planning agencies at the draft stage by uncovering unexploited economic reserves.

The controllers scrupulously study calculations, estimates and economic statistics, compare this data with the results of their inspections, and hold discussions with specialists, workers and collective farmers. All this done, they table the so-called counterproposals.

In 1970, for example, the People's Control Committee of the USSR submitted to the USSR State Planning Committee a well-grounded proposal to increase the output by a 1,300 million rubles' worth of consumer and certain other goods. The proposal was readily accepted.

Its mass character is one of the basic principles of people's control. Its strength lies in the workers, collective farmers and office employees who voluntarily serve in the sections,

PRINCIPLES OK SOCIALIST CONTROL

gjj

groups, and committees of people's control, check the execution of the directives issued by the Communist Party and the Government, and help to implement them.

Control exercised by the producers of society's material wealth is only possible under socialism. As soon as the proletariat took over the reins of government it had to solve the problem of thrifty, economical management and controlling and accounting of the entire national property. In his appeal to workers and peasants Lenin wrote: "You yourselves must set to work to take account of and control the production and distribution of products---this, and this alone is the road to the victory of socialism, the only guarantee of its victory, the guarantee of victory over all exploitation, over all poverty and want!''^^1^^

More than eight million people are engaged in the work of control groups or work as public inspectors on the people's control committees. In addition the control agencies are assisted by three million Komsomol members and active tradeunion members. This is a clear proof that control in the USSR involves all the people.

The growing number of control sections and groups is further evidence that Lenin's principle of mass work has really been implemented. In Moscow, at the beginning of 1971, for example, there were more than 40,000 groups and sections. They involved nearly 240,000 people.

The city and district committees of people's control are assisted in Moscow by 300 departments, commissions and sectors which are staffed by more than 4,000 voluntary workers, specialists from the various branches of the economy and pensioners; 27 per cent of the inspectors are women.

But besides the voluntary inspectors, the organs of people's control, which work jointly with the standing commissions of Soviets, trade-union public controllers and Komsomol Searchlight teams, mobilise hundreds of thousands of people for mass inspections, spot-checks and surveys. In Moscow, for example, more than 1.5 million people took part in the thrift and economy campaign.

By taking part in these activities, the Soviet people learn to manage public, economic and state affairs. Such is the

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 26, p. 411.

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educational function of people's control. It encourages every citizen to feel a sense of responsibility for the affairs of the whole society.

The rules of establishing groups and sections of people's control are such that the principles of mass work are developed and millions of Soviet people are educated.

The groups and sections are elected for two-year terms. This gives sufficient time to learn the principles of control, the methods of analysing the different aspects of the work of this or that collective and the manner in which shortcomings are discovered and eliminated.

Every two years the groups and sections are replenished by new people who also learn the qualities of efficient management and service to the people. This is in line with the Party's policy of involving all people without exception in control work.

Those who write letters, make statements or suggestions or come personally to control sections and groups also play a useful role. This form of action is widespread: approximately 1.5 million people apply to control bodies every year. In 1969 the organs of people's control in Moscow examined more than 21,000 letters, and interviewed over 10,000 people.

The cases brought up are rarely personal matters. The letters speak of unexploited economic resources, suggest innovations, relating to the elimination of excess expenses, the improvement of the work of economic bodies and state apparatus, etc. Some of the proposals are very valuable, and help to improve economic efficiency and the conditions of work and of life in general.

Some time ago the Moscow City Committee of People's Control received a number of warnings pointing to the unsatisfactory work of a dry-cleaning enterprise. The inspection that followed unveiled many serious shortcomings and negligence on the part of the management. The offenders were reprimanded and the Committee mapped out a series of measures for eliminating the shortcomings. A few months later the inspection was repeated. It was found that the management had repaired 12 reception stations, commissioned 18 units of new equipment, etc. All this considerably improved the services offered to the public. The number of complaints fell drastically.

This careful examination of letters and submitted information is not aimed simply at the solution of some concrete albeit very urgent problems. The main purpose of this work is education. The worker or office employee who applies to an organ of people's control and meets there with an understanding of his position begins to realise his rights and his role in society. He becomes an active fighter against negligence, extravagance and irresponsibility. He feels himself the real master of the land. Thus it is the sacred duty of every people's controller to take heed of letters, suggestions and critical remarks.

The mass participation of workers, collective farmers, office employees and specialists in the work of control committees helps not only to bring to light and eliminate the negligence of officials or organisations, but also to prevent the mistakes, failures, errors, offences and even crimes that might occur. This is a very valuable service.

Part of the work of the Soviet administrative and judicial organs and the investigation agencies consist of persistent crime-preventive work. The same is true of the people's control; here the emphasis is not so much on punishing and reprimanding the offenders, but on educating and convincing people and anticipating the slightest violation of state discipline and socialist law.

Thus, mass work, attention to the warnings and suggestions submitted by the people and crime-prevention are the primary duties of peopled control.

It would be wrong to claim, however, that these duties are performed adequately by every control organ. Mistakes are inevitable when the work is being carried out on such a large scale. Some committees fail to enlist the services of the public and their ties with groups and sections of people's control are weak. Inspections are sometimes made only by staff officials, and there are cases where the emphasis is on the discovery of shortcomings and the passing of a decision on this subject, while the necessary check to make sure the decision is implemented is neglected.

The Communist Party helps the people's control to get rid of these and other obstacles. It uncovers the mistakes and teaches the committees to work creatively, relying on the broad masses of the people.

5---118

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A characteristic feature of the organs of people's control is that they combine the functions of state and public control.

The people's control committees resemble state organs in many ways, above all, in the manner of their establishment. The committees are created by the USSR Council of Ministers, the Councils of Ministers of the republics or the local Soviets of Working People's Deputies.

The committees are provided with the authority and power to perform their control functions. The committees, acting on behalf of the state, have the right to call offenders to account, reprimand them, relieve them from their posts, bring lawsuits, rescind unlawful orders and acts, order the elimination of shortcomings and violations, etc.

The public relations which evolve in the course of the

activity of people's control organs are governed by Soviet

law. The committees' decisions have juridical power and

.have to be obeyed by all the organisations and people whom

llthey concern.

j The committees of people's control are financed by the ' state budget, i.e., as regards finance they are thus considered state organisations.

Another feature common to the committees and state administrative organs is the employment of paid full-time staff. But the wide participation of the people in the work of the control committees brings them closer to public organisations.

The system of people's control includes, as we said, sections and groups of control, whose members do their work on a non-paid basis. It is their public work, a duty of honour.

It is clear, therefore, that the organs of people's control in the USSR are of a specific kind. They combine the principles of state and public organisation and in composition and the methods of their formation and activity they are genuine organs of the people. *J^

This is the point at which they differ from the inspection bodies in bourgeois society where control is exercised only by the state apparatus and then only in the interests of the exploiter classes. In tsarist Russia, for example, the department of state inspection employed over 10,000 high-ranking officials who ardently promoted the interests of landowners and capitalists. The leading positions in the state inspection system were held by Baron Kampenhausen, Count Panin,

Prince Shakhovskoi and other representatives of the ruling classes.

The genuinely democratic nature of control in the USSR is manifest in the composition of the People's Control Committee of the USSR. The Committee members include V. Smirnov, Hero of Socialist Labour, a team-leader of shipbuilders at the Baltic Shipyards in Leningrad; L. Lyubchenko, deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, chairman of the Bolshevik Collective Farm in Zhitomir Region; A. Egle, a merited specialist of the VEF Radio Factory in Riga.

S. Kotova, Hero of Socialist Labour, deputy chief engineer of the Kalinin Spinning Mill; S. Soyuzov, Hero of Socialist Labour, fitter of the Kuntsevo Engineering Plant; S. Matveyev, Hero of Socialist Labour, director of Watch Factory No. 1; Y. Kolotyrsky, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences; V. Ilyin, secretary of the Moscow Writers' Union, are among the members of the Moscow City Committee of People's Control.

Thousands of people with splendid records of service both at their work and in the public and political sphere are engaged in the activity of different control organs, ranging from the various sections and groups to the People's Control Committee of the USSR.

One must have the moral right to control, correct and instruct others. The Rules of People's Control Organs in the USSR therefore make quite clear what is demanded of a controller. It is his duty to continuously take an interest in safeguarding and increasing national property, and to be an example of hard-work, efficiency and discipline; he must demand a lot of himself, and be principled and irreconcilable when it comes to defending state and public interests.

This control work is not a job. It is done by lathe-- operators, shop assistants, designers and by each person who joins his workmates in actively solving the general problems of his enterprise and the problems facing the whole country.

This is the spirit in which Antonina Guskova, a mother with two children, understands her duty. Guskova has been working for the past 20 years as a cutter at a knitwear factory in Moscow.

Her workmates say with a smile that she is ``boss'' in the workshop. Antonina really cares for the good name of her

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enterprise. That was why she was one of the first to be named as candidate during the elections to the people's control section and the elected controllers chose her for their chief.

``Nothing can be too trifling for us in our work," says Antonina Guskova. "Everybody knows that little things lead to bigger. So one has to notice the little things, and appreciate their significance.''

Guskova told us about one of the sort of episodes that is always cropping up.

The ends left over after cutting cloth for gloves might at first glance seem only good for waste.

``But why not make children's mittens out of them?" Antonina Guskova suggested.

There was nothing particularly remarkable or ingenious about her suggestion, though many asked themselves why they hadn't thought of it earlier. So the amount of waste has been reduced to the minimum; the factory has increased its profits, and the mittens are in great demand.

``It's hardly surprising that we try to save materials and improve the quality of our goods," Antonina remarked. "Everything that we manufacture is designed for the people, fcr_our_own_selves. I buy our mittens for my granddaughter. She is proud, you know, that her mittens are made at the factory where her grandmother works.''

Ivan Benyukh is well known in Novokuznetsk and probably throughout the whole of Kemerovo Region. He is respected for his hard work and his honesty, his consideration for people, and knowledge of life and for his persistent and uncompromising struggle against all shortcomings. His authority is high, particularly with those builders with whom he has worked for many years and who know everything about his interesting, and at times difficult life.

Ivan Benyukh had already passed through many hard times even before he took part during the first five-year plans in building the Kuznetsk Iron-and-Steel Works. He nevertheless managed to study in his spare moment. When the war broke out in 1941, he joined the army and went to the front. After the war he returned to his native Novokuznetsk and started working again on important building-schemes that included a concrete factory, the coke batteries of the West

Siberian Iron-and-Steel Plant, and the construction of residential blocks.

The time came for Ivan Benyukh to retire, but he did not want to break with his life of hard work and public service. So he joined the army of people's controllers on a non-paid basis and found that the work suited him. Ivan Benyukh can be seen back on the construction sites side by side with his former workmates; he shares their joys and worries, and he takes their work to heart. Ivan Benyukh passes on his experience and knowledge to others, and spares no effort in showing people how to live and work better.

These are examples of voluntary workers. But there are staff workers, too. They act as chairmen of district people's control committees, chairmen and officials of regional, territorial and republican committees, or they sit on the People's Control Committee of the USSR. The staff workers are not numerous---less than a tenth of one per cent of the total number of people's controllers for the whole of the Soviet Union.

Who are the staff officials?

There are no special educational establishments for training people's controllers, and these posts are filled by engineers, economists, directors of enterprises, officials of local administrations, etc. The chief officials are chosen from among the most advanced workers and collective farmers who show particular initiative.

The chairman of the Oktyabrsky district committee of people's control, Vasily Moiseyev, is a well-known figure in Moscow. He was born about 50 years ago into a peasant family. In his youth he worked in agriculture and after fighting in the war returned to his native Tambov Region to resume his job on a collective farm. In 1954 he moved to Moscow and started to work as a machine-operator at a thermoelectric power station, where he stayed for almost 15 years; he worked very hard and also improved his qualifications. Moiseyev's industry was appreciated, and he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labour. In 1968 the deputies of the Oktyabrsky District Soviet elected him chairman of the district committee of people's control. Thus Vasily Moiseyev, an ordinary worker, took charge of a several-thousand-strong army of people's controllers. That is what he says about his work:

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``At one committee meeting we discussed the work of the Second Car Repair Plant. Many drivers were sceptical about the repairs done at the enterprise. And not without reason. Here are just two of the cases that came up during discussion. The plant sent a taxi back into service after a complete overhaul. It looked brand new, but after running 747 kilometres it broke down, and was taken for more repair. Another car broke down even sooner. That was the plant's idea of overhaul!''

The commission sent to look into the matter with the people's control group of the plant discovered that bad-quality spare parts, violation of specifications and shortage of testing instruments were the reasons behind the unsatisfactory work. No accounts were kept of losses rising from bad production. The district committee of people's control punished the offenders.

``But I don't want to emphasise the machines and the technological side," Moiseyev went on to say. "I would rather talk about people and their attitude to work. The quality of car repair work in the case in point does not depend exclusively on the director and the chief engineer whom we reprimanded. Workmanship depends on all members of the collective, and if they value their good name and the good name of their factory, they must all act as people's controllers.

``Every Muscovite, irrespective of his place of work, be it in a factory, construction site or research institute, is in the broad sense of the word a people's controller. During the same committee meeting I mentioned we discussed the shortage of measuring and testing instruments. But the best instrument, you must agree, will be useless if the man who handles it does not consider himself a people's controller. The workman who put faulty parts in the car and violated the specifications, hoping that it would pass unnoticed, lacked a sense of responsibility and an understanding of control.

``People who remember me working at the power station occasionally come up to me and ask: why is your station sending up clouds of heavy black smoke? I won't go into detail, but I will say that from my own experience part of the fault rests with the operator. The director, the chief engineer

and all the other leading specialists are, naturally, also responsible, but the blame must be mainly with the operator.

``People who know the modern thermoelectric power station are aware how much depends on the automation and the control instruments. Every emergency may apparently have been taken into account and provided for, but if the operator loses concentration even for a moment he causes huge clouds of black smoke above the station. The gas and heat, representing people's money, are blown to the winds.

``What qualities are the best operators, such as my former workmates, Yekaterina Dronova and Ivan Skotnikov noted for? In the boiler-room their concentration never wavers, they never forget that they are supplying heat for the population and always look for ways of saving fuel. They could most certainly be called people's controllers even though they are not members of the special groups.

``Recently we have singled out a number of people's controllers for their good work. B. Yegorov, a pattern-maker, Z. Kondratyeva, deputy chief of the technical control bureau, and V. Ponomarenko, Doctor of Sciences (Chemistry). What is the secret of their success? The answer is that they and the other real activists are genuine people's controllers who by their example encourage others to develop a sense of responsbility. People's controller is not a title, it makes him morally responsible to himself and his comrades.''

The Communist Party and the people's control committees constantly educate the activists in these high moral qualities, and show how shortcomings can be uncovered and eliminated.

Controllers learn this art mainly through their practical work, but the courses held in the so-called people's universities, schools and departments run on a voluntary non-paid basis are also very helpful.

The network of such educational establishments covers the whole country. They function in towns and other large urban settlements, and at almost all enterprises, institutions, collective and state farms.

The programmes and curricula are worked out locally taking into account the specific nature and concrete tasks of the collective in question. But they have a single aim: to give their listeners a basic understanding of efficient control work.

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The main subjects for study include economies, finances, planning, cost accounting, labour organisation and rate setting, accounting and book-keeping. The lectures delivered by scientists, economists, administrators, finance experts, leading officials of ministries, executive councils of Soviets of Working People's Deputies, Party and trade-union committees cover a great variety of subjects.

The listeners are interested above all in such subjects as the modern scientific and technological revolution, scientific principles of managing socialist production, the fundamentals of Soviet law, methods of raising the efficiency of labour and production, the way the Soviet state apparatus works, information and its role in influencing the organs of power and controlling their activities, the history of the evolution of people's control in the USSR and the other socialist countries, the law and the citizen, the socialist way of life, the rising standard of living of the Soviet people, and the development of socialist democracy.

Besides the lectures there are seminars for creative exchange of experience, the study of forms and methods applying to the work of control committees, groups and sections, the methods of control activities, and the principles of publicising control work and of making it efficient.

Such an education raises the qualification of a controller, develops initiative and enables him to carry out investigations in depth and with success.

Particular attention is being paid at the moment to economic questions, especially those connected with uncovering ways of raising labour productivity. This is one of the most important problems facing the country. In the period from 1971 to 1975 the Soviet Union's national income will be increased by 37 or 40 per cent: approximately 80 or 85 per cent of this increase will result from higher labour productivity.

It is not difficult to understand the tremendous importance of improving the situation in this field even by just one per cent. Such a step forward could result, for instance, in an additional million square metres of housing accomodations which is equivalent to building a town for 100,000 inhabitants. In terms of other figures, the one per cent increase in labour productivity would mean:

7,000 million kilowatt-hours of electricity;

85 million square metres of fabrics;

6 million pairs of shoes;

66,000 TV sets;

37,000 refrigerators;

5,000 lorries;

3,000 cars;

1 million tons of steel;

6 million tons of coal;

3 million tons of oil;

4,000 tractors.

This, it must be emphasised, is the effect of just one per cent increase in labour productivity. All enterprises have these unexploited reserves, and the people's controllers are doing their best to uncover them.

Control is not limited to checking up, it is the ability to right what has gone wrong. Lenin wrote:

``It is more the duty of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspection to be able to improve things than to merely `detect' and `expose'.''^^1^^

The effectiveness of control, its success in helping to mobilise the human energy and the physical means for fulfilling state plans, in strengthening discipline, and winning the struggle against mismanagement and waste, can only be judged from the final results. And those depend largely on the keeping up with daily events in the organisations under control.

Therefore the committees must maintain regular contacts with the groups of people's control working within the enterprises and organisations; they must be provided with the systematic information that serves to improve the methods of management. Any question put before control organs should be carefully analysed, examining and assessing all the facts.

As Lenin said, "We must seek to build a reliable foundation of precise and indisputable facts.... And if it is to be a real foundation, we must take not individual facts, but the sum total of facts, without a single exception, relating to the question under discussion.''^^2^^

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 33, p. 42.

~^^2^^ Ibid., Vol. 23, p. 272.

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Results are best when the control committee carries out the investigation and sets about the elimination of shortcomings working jointly with the chiefs and groups of people's control at the enterprise in question. V. Kuibyshev, one of the chiefs of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspection, made an interesting remark on this point: "We are trying to take a road which is not contributing to our popularity, but which is essentially the correct one: we are trying to eliminate the shortcomings with the help of the head of the economic organisation in question. We do not hide the shortcomings in our secret files; we make them know to the head of the organisation in question and together with him we eliminate them. This work is hardly visible to the outside world, and it is very difficult to sum it up. A high percentage of our activities, however, is taken up by this work.''^^1^^

This is exactly the way the organs of people's control work. They see their main task as helping the heads of economic organisations and working with them jointly in an effort to improve the situation rather than acting as overseers.

The principle of collectivity is behind all the activities of the organs of people's control. The committees regularly discuss and adopt decisions on the most important questions that arise; they examine the results of check-ups and hear reports on the elimination of shortcomings. A committee's chairman has no right to sign resolutions unless they have been discussed by the members of the committee and approved by the majority. The members of people's control groups draft their plans and discuss the results of investigations collectively. Decisions are taken only after all points of view have been put forward and seriously debated. Everybody makes a frank statement of his viewpoint, and thereby contributes to the matter in hand.

The principle of collectivity also implies however a personal responsibility for any assignment. Lenin wrote: " Indefatigable efforts must be made to ensure that ... everyone

is held personally responsible for a definite, strictly and precisely defined job or part of a job.''^^1^^

The combination of collective and personal responsibility is an effective means of educating the people's controllers to act only as their principles dictate whatever question they are examining.

The analysis of the work of organisations or executive officials from the viewpoint of existing legislature is an indispensable element of control. Since control involves broad sections of the public, the question of the ability to uncover violations of the law and of the rules of a socialist community acquires great significance. Propaganda of juridical knowledge plays an important role in this.

Publicity is an indispensable condition for successful work. The organs of people's control work openly, in public view. The results of checks and inspections are made known not only to the collective of the enterprise or organisation in question, but throughout the entire district and region and in some cases throughout the whole country. Publicity is one of the most effective means of cautioning others against the same mistakes and blunders. It raises the authority of people's control and the activity of the masses. Publicity imbues millions of people with the conviction that any shortcoming obstructing the successful development of Soviet society can be eliminated.

Publicity is provided by such powerful media as the press, radio and television. Every newspaper regularly prints People's Control Page; many towns, enterprises, construction sites and organisations have set up people's control stands and print special bulletins. There are public photostudios where the so-called photo-accusations are produced. The controllers also address public meetings, radio and TV audiences.

The organs of people's control employ various forms of publicity to anticipate shortcomings and to set public opinion against those whose wrong doings threaten the interests of Soviet society.

Because of its close contacts with the local Soviets of Working People's Deputies and trade-union organisations

~^^1^^ V. V. Kuibyshev, The Tasks of the Central Control Commission and WPI, (Russ. ed.) published by the Sverdlov Communist University, 1924, p. 23.

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 30, p. 142.

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publicity can have a very powerful effect. The following story from Moscow's Lenin District is an example of the links which control organisations have established with the local authorities.

The district Soviet of Working People's Deputies numbers 300 deputies and an army of 14,000 people's control activists. In 1970 the district Soviet asked the controllers to arrange 150 mass check-ups covering trade, public catering, medical and communal services, housing repairs, etc. The Soviet discussed the results of 12 of these check-ups and the relevant resolutions were made public.

Check-ups undertaken jointly by people's controllers and the deputies' standing committees and their activists are now more frequent. Discussions on the findings which are also held jointly are attended by the officials guilty of serious omissions, violations of legislative norms, or an irresponsible attitude to the needs of the working people. The adopted measures are always made known publicly and people thus have the opportunity to check the implementation of these decisions and can say whether or not sufficient has been done.

In 1968 the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a decree On the Procedure of Examining Suggestions, Notices and Complaints from Citizens. It is hard to overestimate the significance of such a democratic act passed by the supreme organ of power in a country which cares first and foremost for the individual human being. The Soviet state is a people's state, and attention to the needs and requirements of the people is the most important principle underlying its activity.

That is why the deputies of the Lenin District Soviet and the people's controllers jointly check the implementation of the decree demanding an understanding attitude towards people, their notices and complaints. Between January and April 1971 they checked the implementation of the decree at 137 enterprises and informed the population of the district of the results.

Here is another example of how publicity works and of the mass nature of control work.

The big conference hall of the Moscow City Soviet of Working People's Deputies was full to overflowing. The

members of the Soviet's executive committee were discussing the question of public catering in the city's industrial enterprises.

There is no need to go into the report and the speeches in detail. Much has been done and is being done to provide cheap, fine and nourishing food in the canteens and snackbars of the capital city's plants and factories. Such a complicated network, including more than 1,500 canteens and snack-bars, is bound to have its shortcomings. The meeting dwelt on this negative side and on the unsolved problems. This, to put it briefly, was a detailed and businesslike discussion of matters that concern the interests of hundreds of thousands of people.

All those who attended the session knew the work that had been undertaken prior to the discussion. Long before the session the committees of people's control and the tradeunion organisations had made a mass investigation into the communal services, and primarily the public catering, in plants and factories.

The results were examined by the City Committee of People's Control and the City Council of Trade Unions. Then the topic was placed on the agenda of the Moscow Soviet of Working People's Deputies. One can imagine how many thousands of people were involved in examining the question, interviewing the customers, studying their complaints and suggestions, and working out proposals. This was a real expression of the mass, collective and public nature of control.

It should be noted that such methods heighten a person's feeling of responsibility for the job assigned to him. There is no hiding away from the people, the saying goes. Once you are trusted with a job, be it great or small, it is your duty to work honestly and carefully; you must work with a will in order to justify the trust the people have in you. If you fail in this, then face the people. The Communist Party makes this demand of everybody. This is the way Lenin acted.

Resolutely fighting all negligence, inefficiency and irresponsibility, Lenin never made concessions for the sake of establishing good and comradely relations with people he had entrusted with a certain business. He would not stand

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violations of discipline and demanded that offenders, irrespective of their rank, be called to account.

In 1921, A. Badayev, Chairman of the Moscow Consumer Commune, failed to implement the decisions of the Council of Labour and Defence in time. He was severely reprimanded. But Lenin, though he knew the veteran Bolshevik well, considered the reprimand to be insufficient, and in a note dated July 23, 1921, he wrote:

``To put the following proposals through the Political Bureau and the Council of Labour and Defence:

``1) to punish Badayev and two of his closest associates by putting them under arrest for one Sunday for failure to fulfil the order of the CLD;

``2) to warn him and them that the next time they will be taken into custody for a whole month and then dismissed.''^^1^^

Lenin was against secret or private examinations of offences, even if the case concerned high-ranking officials. He demanded that errors be criticised and condemned in public. "From the standpoint of principle it is essential not to leave such matters within the confines of bureaucratic institutions, but to bring them out into the public court---not so much for the sake of inflicting strict punishment (perhaps a reprimand will suffice), but for the sake of publicity and for dispelling the universal conviction that guilty persons are not punished.''^^2^^

It is interesting to note that Lenin considered as guilty not only the official who failed to carry out a personal instruction, but also the head of the organisation who turned a blind eye to this negligence thus causing the organisation in question to suffer. Such high demands encourage the state officials to take greater responsibility for the uninterrupted execution of all orders from above by all concerned.

The Communist Party educates all Soviet people in these precious Leninist qualities.

In working out measures to improve the structure of management and develop the principles of people's control, the Communist Party is trying to arrange matters so that appointed people are entirely responsible for a piece of work.

Underlying the importance of this demand as regards leading officials, Leonid Brezhnev said at the 24th Congress of the CPSU: "When a decision is taken it must be made perfectly clear who is responsible for it. Similarly, it must be made clear who is responsible when a decision that is ripe for adoption is not adopted or is delayed. It is important to define at every level of management the volume and the balance of rights and responsibility.''^^1^^

It is no secret that some officials not wanting to ``offend'' a higher official by independent initiative are afraid of taking decisions and thus adopt the bureaucratic habit of securing approval even on the most simple matters. Some do it because of servility and toadyism, others because they have misunderstood the meaning of subordination, and have a misconceived idea of their rights and duties.

There are still cases of discipline violations in the administrative apparatus. These primarily concern failure to fulfill contract commitments on the part of an enterprise. There are examples of misuse of finance and materials, including natural resources. Sometimes managing bodies issue unlawful instructions and orders which go beyond the limits of their authority. Some administrators violate labour laws. It is not unknown for people to be late for work, or to pass part of the day in idleness; there are instances of bureaucratism, red-tape and neglect of duties.

The Report of the Central Committee to the 24th Congress of the CPSU states that "the successfull realisation of the tasks facing us presupposes the precise and efficient work of the state apparatus. Hence the increased demands made on the administrative apparatus. The introduction of modern means and methods of administration begun in recent years, creates the condition for a more rational organisation of the administrative apparatus, for cutting its operational costs and reducing its personnel. Steps have already been taken in this direction and they shall be continued.''^^2^^

Public control over the work of the administrative apparatus raises the officials' sense of responsibility. These high standards play a great role in preventing offenders from

~^^1^^ Lenin Miscellany XXXVI, p. 292.

~^^2^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 36, p. 555.

~^^1^^ 24th Congress of the CPSU, Moscow, 1971, p. 82.

~^^2^^ Ibid., p. 94.

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repeating their errors and warning others against making these same mistakes.

Bringing offenders to account is education not only for the person in question but for the other members of society. Citizens begin to feel certain that any managing official who carries out his duties superficially, who ignores the interests of the people or who uses his position to satisfy his own, selfish ends, will inevitably be punished. This confidence raises citizens' participation in public activity.

Lenin saw its inevitability as one of the educational aspects of punishment. "It has long been held that the preventive significance of punishment is not in its severity, but in its inevitableness. What is important is not that a crime shall be severely punished, but that not a single crime shall pass undiscovered.''^^1^^

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 4, pp. 398-99.

The scope of management in socialist society expands with every year as the number of economic and other projects increase and become more complicated. The factors that have to be considered before taking appropriate decisions multiply, and thus the flow of various kinds of information has to be stepped up. This applies not only to economic and industrial management, but also to the management of social and cultural construction, the development of science, of the arts and of other fields of public life.

It is clear that the professional managerial workers are powerless to solve these complicated questions without outside assistance. This is why the typical feature of socialism--- the increasing participation of the masses in management--- is continuously enlarging its scope. Public organisations are taking greater part in legislation, in the drafting of economic plans, in the control over the implementation of laws, and in safeguarding citizens' rights and interests.

The principle of the participation of the people's masses in management is inherent in the nature of the Soviet socialist state.

``The substance of Soviet government," Lenin wrote, "is that the permanent and only foundation of state power, the entire machinery of state, is the mass-scale organisation of the classes oppressed by capitalism.... It is the people, who even in the most democratic bourgeois republics ... have in

6---118

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fact been debarred by thousands of devices and subterfuges from participation in political life and enjoyment of democratic rights and liberties, that are now drawn into constant and unfailing, moreover, decisive, participation in the democratic administration of the state.''^^1^^

The main channels through which the masses are drawn into the management of state affairs are as follows:

The nation-wide elections to the organs of central and local power and to the people's courts;

Participation in the activities of the organs of state power through the deputies to the Supreme and local Soviets, and courts through the judges, people's assessors and members of courts of comrades;

The nation-wide discussion of important social and political measures;

Participation in the work of mass public organisations and various collective advisory organs of the state administration;

The occasional meetings and conferences of representatives from the different branches of the economy, of culture, and of science, etc.;

Participation in the work of trade unions, Komsomol, people's control, voluntary societies and other mass organisations of working people;

Participation in socialist emulation, rationalisation and in the direct management of production.

In view of the growing complexity of management in the various spheres of state and public activities it is essential that the increasing specialisation of management is combined with the participation of the broad masses.

It is clear that not every citizen is able to decide the special questions of state administration, some of which are so complex that they raise discussion even among highly qualified specialists. It is, therefore, necessary to instruct the working people in the art of administration and to find the most effective forms of engaging them in control work.

When we speak about the participation of all citizens in the management of the socialist state we do not mean that they all participate in administering state affairs at one and

the same time. The most important thing is to place all aspects of management under the people's control and to draw all citizens in one way or another into exercising democratic control.

At the same time there should be no interference in administrative processes which require firm one-man management and personal responsibility. If we were to ignore this, we would, under the cover of talk about collectivity and democracy, weaken the position of chief executives and foster negligence, despotism, anarchic tendencies, and irresponsibility. That is why the Communist Party strictly follows Lenin's advice: "The more resolutely we now have to stand for a ruthlessly firm government, for the dictatorship of individuals in definite processes of work, in definite aspects of purely executive functions, the more varied must be the forms and methods of control from below in order to counteract every shadow of a possibility of distorting the principles of Soviet government, in order repeatedly and tirelessly to weed out bureaucracy.''^^1^^

This task is being solved thanks to the well organised mass check-ups on the implementation of laws, of Communist Party directives and of the decisions and instructions issued by the organs of people's power.

Lenin underlined the indissoluble connection between administration and management checking up that jobs were done. He believed that the real task of administration was not to issue directives, but to make sure that directives were executed. "To test men and verify what has actually been done---this, this again, this alone is now the main feature of all our activities, of our whole policy.''^^2^^

The failure to check up on what has been done makes for an atmosphere of irresponsibility and negligence and prevents a correct assessment of the merits and negative sides of this or that organ of management and its staff. Absence of control spoils people; some officials, fearing no reprimands, begin handing out empty promises and assurances. As has often been noted fine leaders and officials begin to slip when there is no control.

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 28, p. 465.

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 27, p. 275.

~^^2^^ Ibid., Vol. 33, p. 226.

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85

Union republics. The CPSU Central Committee has set up the Committee of Party Control which sees to it that Communists are adhering to Party and state discipline.

Control functions are also exercised by territorial, regional, city, district and primary Party organisations. They are involved in daily checking the progress of activity, and in this work they rely on non-Party people as well.

The primary Party organisations at industrial and trade enterprises, collective and state farms have the right to control the work of the management. The 24th Congress of the Communist Party has extended this right to the primary Party organisations in all design bureaus and organisations, research institutions, educational and medical establishments and other organisations where the functions of the management do not overstep the boundaries of the collectives in question. The importance of this step can be judged from the fact that 160,000 primary Party organisations with 4 million Communists are involved. Now they have an opportunity to influence more actively the work of their institutions, organisations and departments.

The 24th Congress pointed out that it was the job of the Party organisations of the central and local Soviets and the various economic institutions and departments to see that the managing apparatus executed the directives of the Communist Party and the Soviet Government and observed Soviet laws.

Control over management implies the right of the primary Party organisations to acquaint themselves with the reports and other materials concerning the running of enterprises, departments or organisations as a whole or of their different sections. The primary Party organisation has the right and is in fact obliged to hear the reports of managing officials at Party meetings, in the Party bureaus and the Party committees, to point out the shortcomings that are preventing the plans from being fulfilled, uncover new economic potential and recommend measures to overcome shortcomings and improve production.

Party control does not substitute for economic management. The director or administrator is personally responsible for his actions. One-man management in socialist society is not, however, administration by high-handed measures but

That is why Soviet society pays such particular attention to the examination of concrete achievements. This process, moreover, begins immediately the decision has been approved and not when some unfortunate clause becomes apparent or when the work comes up against difficulties or has almost entirely fallen apart. The whole purpose of check-ups is to ensure that assignments are executed accurately and uncover and eliminate shortcomings when they are in the embryo stage.

In the Soviet Union it is naturally the Communist Party that takes the greatest responsibility for the organisation of people's control and mass inspection.

After the final victory of socialism in the Soviet Union the Communist Party, which had been founded as the vanguard of the advanced, organised and conscious sections of the working class, took up its position at the head of the entire people. The Party exists for the people and serves the people. It is the highest form of social and political organisation, the leading and guiding force of Soviet society. The Communist Party directs the people's creative work, and gives an organised, planned and scientific direction to the people's struggle for the final disappearance of the old system and the victory of communism.

Speaking about the necessity of a persistent struggle against the forces and traditions of the old society, Lenin underlined that "the force of habit in millions and tens of millions is a most formidable force. Without a party of iron that has been tempered in the struggle, a party enjoying the confidence of all honest people in the class in question, a party capable of watching and influencing the mood of the masses, such a struggle cannot be waged successfully.''^^1^^

The CPSU is such a party that can carry out this important work, organise and guide public control.

The most extensive powers of control belong to the highest organs of the Communist Party, including the nationwide Party congresses, Party congresses of the Union republics, and plenary meetings of the CPSU Central Committee and Central Committees of the Communist Parties of the

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 31, pp. 44-45.

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presupposes an ability to command, organise work, select personnel, give correct instructions, demand an account of how instructions have been complied with, eliminate negligence and the unwillingness to take personal responsibility. At the same time one-man management presupposes an ability to maintain contacts with the public and the entire collective of the given enterprise or institution.

The socialist principles of economic management are based on the idea of one-man management combined with the broadest democracy in carrying out mass control. Under such circumstances the manager himself is interested in daily control from below, because such activity helps him to manage the enterprise, discover shortcomings at their initial stage and mobilise a large number of people to set matters right.

Non-Party people can also take part in Party control over the work of the administration. The primary Party organisation of an enterprise is made up of the collective's best representatives; it bases the Party itself on the collective, and is the organ through which the collective expresses its opinions. Those Party organisations which have established close ties with their collectives are the most successful.

Communists and non-Party people have common tasks; and in order to deal with them successfully they act jointly in discussing together the urgent questions of production; they map out ways of raising efficiency and control the fulfilment of their plans. When a Party organisation is preparing to hear the report of a certain administrator, it involves as many people as possible in inspecting the man's activity. At such a meeting non-Party people also have the right to contribute to the discussion. Formally, of course, they are not included in the Party commission which examines the work of the administration, but the commission always takes into consideration the opinion of non-Party people.

When we are considering the relations between the Party organisation and the management, we must keep in view the following important fact.

No organisation of the Communist Party depends on any other institution whatsoever. Party organisations are not tied by departmental interests, and because of their independent position, they can examine any question in depth and with-

out bias and indicate the correct direction, conversant with the national interests, that the work ought to take.

The Communist Party sees to it that Party leaders only know one kind of dependence: dependence on the Party and the people. This safeguards their independence and their ability to decide every question in accordance with their principles. The official who stands by his principles is not afraid of independent action and initiative, while someone who is always keeping his eye on the management is often more concerned with maintaining good relations with everybody and inclined to close his eyes to shortcomings and malpractice.

Their full independence from Soviet economic agencies is most important in enabling the Communist Party organisations to examine economic questions objectively and uncover errors and mistakes.

The Communist Party guards the independence of its organisations and rejects everything that obstructs criticism and self-criticism on the part of the economic executives. So as to exclude the possibility of bribery and nepotism, for example, Party officials are strictly forbidden to accept bonuses from economic agencies.

This ruling however does not apply to production work. If a team-leader, a worker or an engineer, who happens to be secretary of the Party organisation, achieves good results at his job, invents something or forwards a technical proposal, he is entitled to remuneration or a premium in just the same way as any other employee.

In order to improve control the Communist Party sees that the administrative and official relations between Communists do not intrude into Party life. Otherwise this could lead to an intolerable situation where servility, toadyism and departmentism reign unchecked, and in such an atmosphere the Party organisation risks becoming the mere appendage of the management or of the director of an institution.

This sometimes actually happens in organisations and ministries where, because of the specific features of work in these departments, Party organisations have no control over the work of the management. But just because the Party organisation has no right of control this does not mean that it should be a mere observer.

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In such cases the Party organisation should make the shortcomings in the working of the apparatus or of individual officials known to higher authority concerned. The CPSU Rules demand that all Party organisations without exception fight against negligence and mismanagement, strengthen state and labour discipline, and involve and concern themselves with the opinions of all members of the collective.

All Communists have equal rights, and equal responsibilities whether they belong to the Party organisation of an enterprise or institution. The Party organisation of a ministry, therefore, has the right and is in fact obliged to examine all matters which concern the work of the administrative apparatus. The closer the ties the Party organisation has with non-Party employees and the greater the attention it pays to their criticisms, the greater the chance that it will speedily discover shortcomings and eliminate them.

It might be asked: since the Party organisations have the right of control over the work of the management and since the Communist Party is the only party in the USSR, is this not a substitution for the various Soviet and economic organisations?

This sometimes does happen, but such cases are disapproved of and criticised. Control of any type in socialist society does not mean tutelage over these organs which are called upon to handle economic problems; nobody should do their work for them or assume their responsibilities.

The socialist principle of economic management was clearly formulated back in 1921 at the llth Congress of the Communist Party, held under Lenin's leadership. A section of one of the Congress resolutions reads:

``In no case should the Party organisations interfere with the daily and routine work of economic organs; they must altogether refrain from administrative orders in the field of Soviet work. The Party organisations should direct the activities of economic organs, but not substitute them or deprive them of their responsibility.''^^1^^

Party work is always and under all circumstances work

~^^1^^ The CPSU in Resolutions and Decisions of its Congresses, Conferences and Plenary Meetings of the Central Committee, (Russ. ed.), Part 1, pp. 627-28,

with people, care for their education, and the selection of the most experienced people for each post and position, of people who know their job and who can assume personal responsibility. This is the goal pursued by each and every means of control practised in socialist society, whether it is Party, state or public control.

Socialist society successfully combines both state and public principles of management. Management is effected by the joint efforts of professional workers employed by the state and the broad masses of the working people for whom direct management is not a profession, but a public duty.

The Communist Party, by creating the necessary conditions, is trying to draw every citizen in the work of state administration. An example of this is the nation-wide struggle for higher labour productivity, the purpose of which is to increase free time so that people can take part in administrative work. People become more conscientious and, instead of being interested only in their narrow personal matters, feel a keen desire to actively participate in the affairs of society. And last but not least the Party teaches millions of people how in practice public affairs should be conducted.

The development of public principles is most vividly manifested in the growing role of the Soviets of Working People's Deputies in the life of Soviet society. The Programme of the CPSU says: "The Soviets, which combine the features of a government body and a mass organisation of the people, operate more and more like social organisations, with the masses participating extensively and directly in their work.''^^1^^

It is primarily by their participation in the Soviets that the masses learn statesmanship.

The Soviets are among the most representative organisations of the working people. The majority of deputies are workers, peasants and employees of research and cultural institutions who perform their electoral duties in their spare time without any remuneration.

The Soviets enlist the services of a huge army of activists so as to raise the effectiveness of administration in all spheres of public life. Hundreds of thousands of standing commissions, non-staff departments and public inspection agencies

t The Road to Communism, Moscow, 1962, p. 548.

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have been set up. At the 24th Congress of the Communist Party it was disclosed that the army of voluntary assistants working with the Soviets numbered 25 million activists.

Such democracy is naturally impossible in a society based on antagonisms and split by the irreconcilable contradictions between the oppressed and the exploiters. At best, democracy under capitalism is curtailed, limited, and in many ways a mere formality. Lenin justly noted that "bourgeois democracy, although a great historical advance in comparison with medievalism, always remains, and under capitalism is bound to remain, restricted, truncated, false and hypocritical, a paradise for the rich and a snare and deception for the exploited, for the poor".^^1^^

The Soviets are guided in their work by Lenin's principle of the organic combination of legislative, control and executive functions which eliminates the gap between the legislative and executive powers inherent in bourgeois parliamentarism and establishes one of the important conditions for the genuine sovereignty of the people.

The role of the Soviets is constantly increasing. The Communist Party has implemented a number of measures aimed at extending the rights of district, city and village Soviets and raising their responsibility to their constituents.

A resolution of the 24th Congress of the CPSU notes that these measures have led to more active work on the part of the Soviets in various fields. The local Soviets are increasingly availing themselves of the rights accorded to them in co-ordinating, within the scope of their competence, the work of enterprises and economic organisations located in their areas. Much attention is being paid to the utilisation of local resources for the manufacture of consumer goods, organisation of trade and communal services, modernisation of towns and villages, and the development of culture.

One of the typical features of the Soviets' work is its public character. This is manifest in the regular reports made to constituency by the leading officials of executive committees, their departments and sectors, members of standing commissions, and all deputies; in the extensive coverage of the work of the Soviets in the press and on the radio and

television; in the electors' mandates and the checks held to ensure that they are being carried out; in the working people's control over the activities of state agencies, and in the active participation of the people in drafting and implementing the decisions of local and central organs of power.

The socialist countries regard the development of public involvement as one of the main tasks of confronting the organs of power. The Communist Parties are trying to keep the population of all towns and villages well informed of what the organs of power are doing, they want the people to actively participate in this work of the organs of power so that issues basic to the life of town and countryside can be discussed by the working people in their places of work and residence.

The 24th Congress of the CPSU paid much attention to the further advancement of the role of Soviets and their deputies and the extension of their rights as spokesmen and executors of the will of the electors. The Congress considered it wise to enact laws on the status of all deputies irrespective of their level, on their powers and rights, as well as on the duties of other officials in their dealings with deputies.

The formation procedure is evidence of the democratic nature of the system of Soviets. Deputies are directly elected by the people on the basis of universal, direct and equal suffrage and the secret ballot. The number of electors taking part in voting has steadily increased. In 1926, only 50.8 per cent of the electorate took part in the elections; the figures for 1929, 1931 and 1934 are 63.5, 72.1 and 85 per cent respectively. From 1939 onwards all elections of deputies of Soviets have had a 99 per cent turnout. The elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in June 1970 involved 99.96 per cent of the electorate. The same was true of the June 1971 elections to the Supreme Soviets of the Union and autonomous republics and elections to the local Soviets.

The composition of the Soviets clearly reflects the social structure of socialist society and is a vivid illustration of the democratic nature of the system of Soviets; 50.3 per cent of the deputies of the present convocation of the USSR Supreme Soviet are workers and collective farmers.

In spite of all the boostings of the press, not a single bour-

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 28, p. 243.

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geois parliament reflects the social structure of society. As a rule these bourgeois parliaments include no representatives of the working class or the peasantry, who are the actual producers of material wealth. Out of the 535 members of the US Congress, for example, 184 are entrepreneurs and bankers and 57 are big landowners, many others are generals or high-ranking officers, and there is not one worker in Congress (although the working class accounts for more than half of the country's population).

The following undeniable facts are also very significant. Young people are practically excluded from bourgeois parliaments. The average age of American Senators is 55, and of Congressmen, 51. In the Soviet Union the organs of state power include more than half a million young people. Nearly 20 per cent of deputies to the USSR Supreme Soviet are young men and women.

There is another example. Contrary to the slanderous falsehood spread by the enemies of socialism, both Communists and non-Party people alike are elected to the organs of power in the socialist countries. They form a single bloc during election campaigns and they work together to serve the people in the most democratic organs of power.

Approximately half of the deputies to the Leningrad Soviet are non-Party people. One of them, a worker, V. Akimov, inspected two new schools and found that the children, through the fault of the builders, were not provided with hot meals. Akimov went to the chief of the district education department and asked him to summon the city construction chief and the head of the department responsible for the building of the schools.

Here you have a case of a non-Party deputy severely criticising two executive officials, both Party members. Steps were quickly taken to eliminate the omission.

This example is not an exception. The socialist way of life implies severe and democratic criticism of all who err and make mistakes in their work.

The growing role of the Soviets and extension of their control functions is connected with the widening scope of the powers of the elected organs and the real contribution of deputies to the administration. This question was tackled seriously in the early years of Soviet power. For example,

the Programme of the Communist Party, which was adopted in 1919, envisaged the following:

``(1) Compulsory engagement of every member of a Soviet in a definite work concerned with managing state affairs.

``(2) Consecutive transfer from one work to another so as to gradually encompass all branches of government.

``(3) Gradual involvement of all the working population without exception in the work of managing state affairs.''

The same idea has been set down in the new Programme of the Communist Party: "Every Deputy to a Soviet must take an active part in government affairs and carry on definite work.''^^1^^

Deputies everywhere are becoming more active, the growing number of deputies taking part in debates during sessions is proof of this. In 1969 1,159,497 people, representing more than half of the total number of deputies to the local Soviets spoke at sessions.

The Soviets are intensifying their control over the administrative apparatus. Many questions which were formerly attended to by executive organs are now being passed on to the standing commissions of the local Soviets. The commissions check that the decisions taken at the sessions are being implemented.

The extension of the control functions exercised by the public is illustrated by the reports presented to the public by the organs of power, the right of the electors to recall their deputies before their term of office expires and in the frank discussions by citizens of all questions of governmental, economic and cultural development. In 1968, the electors recalled in all 541 local Soviet deputies, including 4 regional, 69 district, and 46 town deputies. The following year 323 deputies were recalled.

The sessions work in an atmosphere of absolutely free criticism and self-criticism. The deputies can discuss the questions on the agenda unhurriedly and from all viewpoints; they can make remarks and suggestions; they have the right to make inquiries of executive and managerial officials and to receive detailed explanations.

The deputies have the right to place on the agenda of the

~^^1^^ The Road to Communism, Moscow, 1961, p. 549.

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Soviet or its executive committee any problem arising from their work and contact with the public. The Communist Party insists that the Soviet deputies should always keep close links with the people; they must be aware of the needs, requirements and the mood of the masses; they must regularly meet with their constituents, examine their complaints and statements, and take prompt action when needed.

The people are informed beforehand of the agenda of the forthcoming session of a Soviet so that they have time to send their suggestions to the executive committees. Notices of forthcoming sessions often contain full texts or a synopsis of the reports and also the draft resolutions.

One of the typical features which distinguishes the deputies in socialist society from their bourgeois counterparts is that the former not only take decisions, but also execute them. Lenin believed that Soviet deputies "themselves have to work, have to execute their own laws, have themselves to test the results achieved in reality, and to account directly to their constituents".^^1^^

At the executive committee or standing commissions, if so instructed by the Soviet, any deputy can take part in checking the work of collective farms, state farms, enterprises, institutions and other organisations located within the territory of the Soviet, and table proposals in connection with the results of the inspection. The deputies have the right to enlist the services of their constituents in carrying out this work.

Another means by which the deputy maintains regular contacts with his constituents is by setting aside hours when he is free to see them. This practice also ensures that control from below is maintained. These interviews are conducted by deputies of all levels at fixed times and places. Their frequency however varies; the deputies of the local Soviets receive their constituents two or three times a month.

The responsibilities of deputies take up much time, but the people's representatives are not released from their main occupation. How are the difficulties this presents overcome?

Take, for instance, N. Rusakov, a fitter of an electric engineering plant in Leningrad. Rusakov is deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. His responsibilities as deputy take up approximately two months a year. He frequently leaves work a couple of hours before the end of shift to attend to his duties as deputy. Rusakov is paid for these hours on the basis of his average monthly earnings of about 200 rubles.

It is not easy to do everything single-handed, so Rusakov is helped by an assistant, a retired lawyer, whom he pays from the sums allocated to him by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for his expenses as deputy.

Besides the public work the deputies carry out individually, there are collective forms of activity, involving the groups of deputies which are formed within a definite territory, such as settlement, constituency or residential area. In such groups the deputies can co-ordinate their work and attempt jointly to solve these complicated problems including electoral mandates for building or repairing schools, hospitals, communal enterprises, streets and roads, and controlling the work of enterprises and organisations in the area, which cannot be tackled single-handed.

The people have great respect especially for those deputies who press for the realisation of electoral mandates. The mandate is a form of control exercised by the masses over the work of the organs of power.

Take the example of M. Mchedlishvili, a village Soviet deputy. She approached the Council of Ministers of the Georgian SSR and two ministries with a request for the construction of a bridge over the lori river. Her report was examined, and the arguments found valid. The Council of Ministers therefore passed a decision to build the bridge.

Definite guarantees have been established to ensure that letters which deputies to the Supreme Soviets address to leaders of state and public organisations, enterprises and institutions are examined adequately. The recipients have been made personally responsible for the timely and correct solution of questions raised in the letters. Proposals and statements made by deputies must be examined and acted upon immediately if no additional information is required, or

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 25, p. 424.

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within a month, if otherwise. When a deputy of a village or settlement Soviet applies to the head of a collective farm, state farm, enterprise or institution, the answer must be supplied within five days.

There is another strict rule that the leaders of state and public organisations and enterprises are obliged to inform the Supreme Soviet deputies personally of measures taken in connection with proposals submitted by these deputies; if the deputies appeal to them through the press, the answers must be published in the same periodical.

In socialist society the nature, direction and scope of the control exercised by public organisations are determined by the social task and functions of the organisation concerned. Let us take, for example, the trade unions, which form the largest voluntary public organisation unifying the working people on the basis of their profession.

Speaking of the influence which trade unions exert on the state apparatus when the people are in power, Lenin emphasised that "we, for our part, must use these workers' organisations to protect the workers from their state, and to get them to protect our state".^^1^^

What protective functions had Lenin in mind? Is it not a paradox that in the most democratic society, socialist society, there is a need to protect the working people from their own state? Let us look into this question.

Socialism, as is well known, generates and develops a new economic mechanism allowing for the progressive growth of social production. This economy is based on the combination of centralised planning with commodity-money relations, extensive rights to enterprises, and the introduction of economic incentives for initiative and positive results, and the moral and material encouragement of collectives and individuals.

The economic methods of management under a socialist system of production create conditions in which it is profitable for an enterprise to operate efficiently. This is primarily ensured by the cost accounting now introduced in many enterprises.

Lenin said that cost accounting, which envisages higher

labour productivity and the profitability of every enterprise and which is connected with the inevitable departmental interests and excessive departmental zeal, "is bound to create a certain conflict of interests in matters concerning labour conditions between the masses of workers and the directors and managers of the state enterprises, or the government departments in charge of them".^^1^^ In such cases the trade unions must represent and defend the interests of the working people.

The protective functions of trade unions, however, arise not only from cost accounting that takes place at the enterprises but also from that undertaken by higher and primarily economic organisations.

Lenin attributed the need to protect the interests of the working people to the existence of bureaucracy in the government apparatus. He noted that the trade unions had not dispensed with "the non-class 'economic struggle', which means combating bureaucratic distortions of the Soviet apparatus, safeguarding the working people's material and spiritual interests in ways and means inaccessible to this apparatus, etc. This is a struggle they will unfortunately have to face for many more years to come.''^^2^^

This was written more than half a century ago, in 1921. Since then the Communist Party and the Soviet people have done much to strengthen the state apparatus with honest and reliable officials, to improve government administration by bringing it closer to the masses and encouraging millions of people to participate in it.

Times have changed. It is not only the administrative apparatus that has been transformed. A new historic community of people, the Soviet people, has emerged during the building of socialism in the USSR. This community is united by joint work, the struggle for a new life, its common and progressive ideology and the lofty aim of building a communist society.

The majority of Soviet office employees are qualified and conscientious people loyal to their country. The Report of the Central Committee to the 24th Congress of the CPSU

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 33, p. 186.

~^^2^^ Ibid., Vol. 32, p. 100.

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 32, p. 25.

7---118

V. TUROVTSEV

MASS SCHOOLS OF MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL

noted that "their work merits the highest appreciation and respect. But it must be admitted that there still are callous officials, bureaucrats and boors. Their conduct evokes the just indignation of Soviet citizens. Relying on public support, the Party is and will go on making resolute efforts to achieve more efficiency in the work of the administrative apparatus.''^^1^^

The report drew attention to the fact that for efficient management, an understanding attitude towards the needs and requirements of the working people and prompt examination of their requests and applications, is essential. The CPSU, actively supported by the Soviet public, is doing its best to ensure an atmosphere of cordiality and respect for people in all organisations.

It quite often happens that the failure to satisfy people's needs is due not to the shortage of material or financial means, but to the bureaucratic attitude of some officials, towards improving the living standards of this or that group of people. Some economic managers are prepared to go to any lengths to fulfil planned assignments and illegally introduce over-time and violate labour laws and safety measures.

This explains why the trade unions' function of safeguarding the direct interests of the working people has to be maintained and is all the more important since the employees of some enterprises do not oppose and even approve, strange as it seems, the unjust actions of the management.

The 24th Congress of the Communist Party noted that "the safeguarding of the legitimate interests of the working people remains^orie of the basic tasks of the trade unions. It is no secret^ for example, that we still have enterprises where over-time is systematically practised, where people are unnecessarily deprived of days off and where, here and there, labour safety is poorly organised. The trade unions can do much to eliminate these abnormal phenomena.''^^2^^

The Soviet trade unions, which have a membership of over 93 million people, have extensive functions in the > field of control. This is only natural, since the trade unions form

one of the most important links in the system of socialist democracy, and one of the schools in which the working people learn the art of managing state and public affairs. Some of these rights are listed here.

The factory, plant and local trade unions have the right:

to act with the management in endorsing the expense estimates from the enterprise's fund for the improvement of cultural, communal and production standards, as well as for bonuses and grants-in-aid;

to hear the reports given by the heads of enterprises, institutions and organisations on the fulfilment of production plans, collective agreements, improvement of labour conditions, material, communal and cultural services, and to demand the elimination of shortcomings which have been brought to light;

to forward proposals to higher economic and government agencies on questions dealing with the improvement of production activities, labour conditions, material, communal and cultural services. These agencies are obliged to consider the proposals and inform the trade-union committees of measures taken.

Workers and office employees cannot be discharged from an enterprise, institution or organisation on the administration's initiative without the agreement of the trade-union committee. Over-time, and then only in exceptional cases laid down in labour legislation, is allowed only with the permission of trade unions.

If the trade-union committee finds that an employee has been injured or taken ill as a result of a violation of labour protection or safety measures on the part of the management it rules that the enterprise should pay the expenses incurred by the social security fund in paying grants during the period of temporary disablement or illness.

Factory and plant committees are represented on the commissions which deal with residential housing and communal and cultural projects which involve their employees. Living accommodation is distributed as agreed between the management and the trade-union committee.

The committee's right to insist that the organisation in question dismisses or punishes those executive officials who have violated labour laws, employed bureaucratic methods

^^1^^ 24th Congress of the CPSU, Moscow, 1971, p. 94.

~^^2^^ Ibid., p. 95.