That the economic life is of great significance for the political form, that is something one can easily admit without being a -Marxist. Thus, taking possession of the land by the peasants is in more than one respect an economic and a political act at the same time. The new form, of political life, the Soviets (the councils), connects in the most intimate manner with the economic transformation. In many places the peasants divided the property of the landowner. In order to divide this in a just manner between themselves, and for the purpose of arranging the new relationships with neighboring villages as well as its relations to the whole country, they elected councils. Here we already have the roots of the soviet system. The building of this soviet system could, naturally, not be the same among the peasants as with the city proletariat. The peasants could not elect their Soviets by the factory. They elected them by the communes or by the districts. They did not elect them according to economic units but according to territorial units. The state soviet communes, however, also elect according to their agricultural occupations.
The local Soviets, the smaller district Soviets and the gouvernement Soviets of the peasants had, and have, mostly economic functions, if we except a few educational and school questions. It is a question of regulating traffic, roads, transportation to connect with the cities for trade purposes or, speaking socialistically, for exchange, and similar things. The economic and political life are here very intimately connected. But all these things have nothing to do with party politics. Although most of the peasants belong to no party, they still have elected their Soviets according to party. This, of course, was done in party interest, not in the interest of the peasants; but that springs from historic reasons. Still, the peasants frequently elect non-partisan Soviets.
Naturally, all the parties tried their luck among the peasants in the beginning of the revolution. For he who in Russia has the peasants behind him is building on a strong power. Thus the bolsheviks gained great sympathies among the peasants when Lenin made the peace at Brest-Litovsk. Later they lost these sympathies again by sending the soldiers into the villages to requisition grain.