The Idea Behind All Power to The Soviets - Essay Example

 Political Science INTRODUCTION With due regard to the all the speeches as well as articles conferred by the authors during the first half of 1917, a strong emphasis about the desirability of a peaceful transfer of ‘power to the soviets’ is one of the major statements deliberated in the political perception of Lenin1. The statement critically and genuinely explores the right to form democratic self-governance system in the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, the statement has also been reflected into different viewpoints wherein a large number of scholars and policy makers had critically explored the meaning of the Lenin’s statement, ‘all power to the soviets2.’ THESIS STATEMENT The discussion made in this essay critically explores the meaning and implication of Lenin’s statement ‘all power to the soviets’ and draw a major critical assessment of the arguments underpinning the meaning and validity of the statement. The essay in this context provides a major understanding about the implications of the statement by elucidating specific arguments and case examples by the policy makers and authors reflecting the aspects associated with the Russian Revolution. COMPREHENSIVE MEANING OF THE STATEMENT IN DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES In relation to the viewpoint of Trotsy in ‘Results and Prospects’ identified in the ‘Preface to the Re-Issue of this Work,’ the uprising characters in the Russian Revolution was the most prominent question in terms of forming ideological trends and building a strong movement group upholding the political organizations in the movement. The uprising character in the Russian Revolution had also stirred towards serious contentions from the perspective of social-democratic movement, which further turned into a practical character3. Kautsky also realizes that the differences amidst the uprising characters and disagreements of the social-democratic movements had shaped two central movement trends, namely the Menshevism and Bolshevism. In relation to the viewpoint of Menshevism, the revolution was being shaped as bourgeois movement by transferring adequate power to the bourgeoisie and form conditional aspects for ‘parliamentarism’ of bourgeois. On the other hand, in a Bolshevism standpoint, the strong establishment of democratic republic through proletariat and peasantry dictatorship was the prominent objective in the form of ‘all power to the soviets.’ The Bolshevism viewpoint regarding the statement is formed due to the inability of the bourgeois as the uprising character in the revolution4. Correspondingly, Žižek was critically observed in ‘Revolution at the Gates,’ to provide a major insight about the Lenin’s statement of ‘All power to the soviets.’ According to his rigorous assessment, the study revealed a major set of contentions regarding Lenin’s statements during Russian Revolutions. The fundamental threat existing in the statements of Lenin during the two Russian Revolutions generally reflects of his perseverance of certain gaps that explicitly separate the formal contours regarding the political contests among different political organizations along with other political subjects from the actual social-democratic stakes of the revolution. In this regard, Lenin’s statements of ‘all the power to the soviets’; distribution of lands as well as immediate peace generally defines the disassembling of the key political apparatuses and replacing them with newly developed commune-like types of social management5. In addition, Goldstone in ‘An Analytical Framework’ in the book ‘Revolution in the Late Twentieth Century’ also realizes that the revolutionary statements of Lenin save his most caustic irony for the individual and groups engaged in searching for successful key aspects for a guaranteed revolution. The findings of the author critically denoted the contention that the guaranteed revolutionary aspects assume two key forms. The first form is to emphasize the confirmed view of social necessity in the context of determining appropriate time for the revolution rather taking the risk of conducting revolutionary activities too early. Moreover, the second form fundamentally describes about the normative legitimacy, which deliberately depicts about the agreement of population in the form of democracy while conducting the revolution. However, the study reveals that the continuous repetition of the revolutionary steps designed by Lenin include the confiscation of the state’s power6. In this regard, Žižek suggests that the revolutionary steps formed by Lenin should get appropriate authorization by developing revolutionary referendum with majority of supports for the revolution’s objectives7. ANALYZING IMPLICATIONS OF THE STATEMENT The elucidation of Woods provided in ‘The Year of Revolution,’ Section 4 of 7 in Part Six, can also be considered to be an effective assessment result regarding the implication of Statements designed by Lenin in the revolution. According to the observation, the author has critically explored about few of the major examples regarding the way, Lenin’s question about the transfer of power to the soviets8. According to the study results of Luxemburg, the supporters of the demand ‘All power to the soviets’ were not been offered acceptable thoughts regarding the notion for a peaceful progression of the revolution. In this regard, the peaceful movement emphasized not only in the notion that no class, no power of any position are likely to prevent transfer the power to the soviets, but the all aspects to meet social necessities. Therefore, during the period of peaceful progress in the revolution in February 27 and July 4, would have been rationale even in the notion regarding the revolutionary struggles of the classes as well as political parties. Additionally, the notion could have been accepted as the sound peaceful progress of the revolution9. CONCLUSION Wirth due regards to the overall assessment of the statement ‘All power to the soviets,’ a large number of studies revealed that not only depict about the agreement, but the statement also developed serious contentions for emphasizing a peaceful progression of the revolution. ‘All power to the soviets’ has been recognized as one of the eminent slogans within the revolutionary movements of the world. According to a critical assessment of the literatures, it has been identified that the meaning of the statement is not only to obtain majority in terms of rights and liberty, the meaning of the slogan also denotes an uprising of acquiring major domination of self-governance in the political regime across the Soviet Union. Additionally, the disagreement evaluation made by the authors regarding the statement can also be considered as a major part to be analyzed in this context. Works Cited Goldstone, Jack. A., Ted Roger Gurr and Farrokh Moshiri. “Revolution of the Late Twentieth Century.” Boulders, Co.: Westview Press, 1991. Print. Kautsky, Karl. “Terrorism and Communism,” 2004. Web. 16 Feb. 2015. Kimmel, Michael. S. Revolution in the Sociological Imagination. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991. Print. Luxemburg, Rosa. “The Russian Revolution, Chapter 6: The Problem of Dictatorship.” Web. 16 Feb. 2015. Trotsky, Leon. “Results and Prospects - Preface to the Re-Issue of This Work,” 2007. Web. 16 Feb. 2015. Woods, Alan. “Bolshevism: The Road to Revolution - Part Six: The Year of Revolution,” n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2015. Zizek, Slavoj. Zizek on Lenin: The 1917 Writings. New York: Verso, 2002. Print. Read More