The Soviet period in the history of our country is replete with various kinds of abbreviations that are found everywhere: in the names of state authorities, in party institutions, in the names of specialized objects of law and order and simply in the names of public organizations at different levels. One of them was the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Deciphering the name of this body means the scope of its authority and their level.
Creation of a new management system
Since the October 1917 coup, power in the country passed into the hands
of the Bolshevik party. Their primary task was the formation of new bodies of power that would fulfill their task of turning the country into a
dictatorship of the proletariat. The party leader V.I. Lenin, having studied the principles of the power structure of European states, did not recognize the principle of
separation of powers. In addition, he believed that in the conditions of the formation of a new state, this principle can only do harm, not allowing the necessary transformations to be carried out in the necessary and short terms and to properly control them. At his suggestion, fully approved by the party leaders, a special body appears combining the features of both the legislative, executive and judicial branches. So, what is the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in the period from 1917 to 1937?
Features of the Soviet model of state power
Initially, his competence extended to the territory of the RSFSR, while representatives of Ukraine, Belarus and the republics of Transcaucasia could also be members of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. The decoding of the abbreviation sounds like the “All-Russian Central Executive Committee”, thereby emphasizing its dominant position among all the authorities of the Soviet republic.
At the end of 1917, minor changes took place in the functional powers of this institute: the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was formed, which became the operational unit of the committee. Quite often, the authority of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee used completely different authorities, although in hierarchy they were all below it.
The initiative was intercepted by the Council of People's Commissars, in other words, the Government of the country. All decisions of this body had such a legislative form as the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. If you carefully understand, then these are laws adopted by the highest legislative body. Comparing with modernity, we can say that these are regulatory legal acts issued by the State Duma of the Russian Federation.
Structural-funcional perturbations
Over the course of its relatively short history, the committee has undergone numerous reforms and a change in the sphere of its powers, and already at the Eighth Congress of Soviets the boundaries of its actions were determined by the legislative framework, but after a while it was returned to it controlling and executive functions. It was recognized that the supreme authority of the country is the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, and in between its meetings - the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. The decryption may be somewhat discouraging, but the letter “I” denoting “executive” actually assumed that the committee was involved in the appointment of members of the Council of People's Commissars, which was the main executive body of Soviet power. The constitution, adopted in 1918, put the All-Russian Central Executive Committee at the highest legislative level in second place in the organizational structure of the power of the RSFSR, and then the USSR.
Build and Submission
The second Constitution, adopted in 1925, finally approved the well-established system of state power of the RSFSR and the USSR: from this period the All-Russian Central Executive Committee had several units and divisions. The structure of this important state institution was threefold:
- Departments (financial, Cossack, propaganda, communications, etc. - a total of about ten).
- Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.
- All-Russian Central Executive Committee Secretariat.
However, structural changes took place almost constantly: for example, in the period from 1923 the so-called Small Presidium began to operate. His organization was connected with the fact that the number of appeals to the oran committee increased significantly, and there was a need to increase the amount of work. Later, this unit is liquidated in connection with the transfer of part of the powers to other institutions of power. By the time of liquidation, the committee structure had the following structure:
- Secretariat of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.
- Reception of the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.
- Finance department, personnel sector and information and instructor group.
Similarities and differences between the authorities of the Russian Empire and the USSR
If we draw a parallel between similar bodies of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, then the All-Russian Central Executive Committee can be put on a par with the Tsar’s Senate, the sphere of authority and organizational structure of these authorities was almost identical with some slight differences. In both cases, there was no separation of powers, and one state institution carried out a wide variety of actions, often duplicating and replacing the work of another. In the second case, it has become more ordered. To clarify the cumbersomeness of the management apparatus in the RSFSR and the USSR, it can be noted that there was also a Central Executive Committee, along with the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. The decoding of the first from the second differs only by the name "All-Russian", and the functions were almost identical. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the USSR continued its work until 1938, when a permanent Supreme Council, the main authority of the country of the Soviets, was created.