The dictatorship of the democracy'? The Council of People's Commissars as Bolshevik-Left Socialist Revolutionary coalition government, December 1917-March 1918

The Bolshevik-Left Socialist Revolutionary coalition government

Bibliographic Data

ID4557879
AuthorsLara Douds (0000-0002-4525-7526, University of York, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume90
Issue247
Pages32-56
Publication date2017-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistorical Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0950-3471 • E-ISSN: 1468-2281
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/1468-2281.12170
OpenAlexW2575511701
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited8

In its early months the Soviet republic was governed by the Council of People's Commissars as a dual-party coalition cabinet composed of Bolsheviks and Left S.R.s. This article examines the period of their collaboration in central government, a phase often sidelined in general studies of the Russian Revolution, and attempts a fuller and more positive reassessment of the activity of the coalition. The focus is on the practical functioning of coalition politics inside the council of people's commissars, or ‘Sovnarkom’, from December 1917 to March 1918, and the formal and informal methods through which the Left S.R.s were able to exercise some degree of influence over government

Coalition government · Democracy · Dictatorship · Economic history · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · European history and politics · French Historical and Cultural Studies · History · Law · Public Administration