The Russian soviet (council) constitution is so built that in the cities the workers elect a city soviet from their factories, bureaus or shops. The Moscow soviet has 400 members, and the president is Kamenieff. In the country, gouvemement Soviets are elected. These gouvernement Soviets meet every half year in congress. In the Samara go>uvernement are 3% million electors, which are represented in the congress by 300 delegates. The All- Russian Soviet Congress consists of representatives of all the city Soviets, who send a representative for each 25,000 electors, and of the representatives of the gouvernement Soviets, who send a representative for each 125,000 of population. These rules will be found in the constitution of the Russian republic, Article 25. This All-Russian Soviet Congress is called in at least twice a year by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee is elected by the Afl-Russian Soviet Congress and consists of at most 200 members. This executive committee is the highest authority outside of the congress. It forms the Soviet (Council) of People's Commissars, who may be compared to the cabinet ministers in the capitalist states. There are 18 different People's Commissariats.
On the functions of the individual commissariats I have already reported here. But whoever wishes to study these matters more in detail will find it in the flood of bolshevik propaganda literature which may be obtained in all languages.
More important it seems to me to point out here what 1 have observed in Russia in regard to the functioning of the present Soviets, which is something one does not find in the bolshevik literature mentioned. Then we must first call your attention to the circumstance that the Soviets have lost a good deal of their independence and freedom through the so-called soviet constitution. The Soviets were mixed up with the state. The Soviets are a revolutionary institution, but the state is and remains, in spite of the most beautiful recitations of the bolshevik about the proletarian state, a reactionary institution. It will, therefore, not be surprising that the original council system has also become reactionary in the same measure as it was mixed up with the state. That will appear already from the elections. The bolsheviks may assert ever so loudly that it is principally the workers who elect them and that the course of the revolution shows that the workers are ever more turning to the bolsheviks, as can be seen from the elections, that the majority in all Soviets consists of bolsheviks. But this changes nothing in the fact that the bolsheviks are in th( majority because they themselves make the majority.