IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecoind/v6y1985i1p65-91.html

Rethinking the Significance of Workers' Control in the Russian Revolution

Author

Listed:
  • Carmen J. Sirianni

    (Northeastern University, Boston)

Abstract

Drawing upon recent Western and Soviet research, this paper reevaluates workers' control during and after the Russian Revolution. The old dichotomies of anarchic organization from below and authoritarian centralization from above are much too simplistic to capture the complex dynamic that characterized the movement and the tasks of institution-building. Workers' control, while hardly ideal, displayed many very positive characteristics of organization, co-ordination, discipline, maintaining production, as well as democratic control, representation, bargaining and dignity. In addition, although the conditions of revolution and civil war limited democratic possibilities, the potential of workers' control for medium-term development were considerably greater than recognized by Bolshevik ideology, and presented one element in a realistic nonStalinist industrialization strategy in the 1920s and beyond.

Suggested Citation

  • Carmen J. Sirianni, 1985. "Rethinking the Significance of Workers' Control in the Russian Revolution," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 6(1), pages 65-91, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:6:y:1985:i:1:p:65-91
    DOI: 10.1177/0143831X8561004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0143831X8561004
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0143831X8561004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Philip Corrigan & Harvie Ramsay & Derek Sayer, 1978. "Socialist Construction and Marxist Theory," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-03131-3, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bernstein, Henry, 2004. "Development Studies and the Marxists," Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, Working Paper Series qt43f9g6qd, Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, UC Santa Cruz.
    2. Henry Bernstein & Howard Nicholas, 1983. "Pessimism of the Intellect, Pessimism of the Will? A Response to Gunder Frank," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 14(4), pages 609-624, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:6:y:1985:i:1:p:65-91. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ekhist.uu.se/english.htm .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.