The overthrow of the autocracy in February 1917 and the transfer of power into the hands of the Provisional Government served as a powerful impetus to increase the social activity of the masses. One of the manifestations of this process was the emergence of workers' control bodies. At small and medium-sized enterprises, their function was performed by factory and factory committees - the so-called factory committees. At large factories, special control commissions were created. What was their activity?
Another Bolshevik initiative
The competence of such groups included control not only over the technical side of production, but also over the financial and commercial activities of the owners of the enterprise. The powers of the commission members extended to such important aspects of factory life as hiring and firing staff, receiving orders, labor protection and much more.
In the period following the February Revolution, the Bolsheviks were the most active propagandists for the introduction of workers' control in enterprises. Their leader, V. I. Lenin, in one of his articles that appeared in those days, wrote that the creation of various production facilities at enterprisescommittees and commissions is just as necessary as the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat in the country. According to him, the slogan "Workers' control!" should be taken as a guide to action by the entire mass of workers.
Expanding the powers of factory committees
After the October armed coup and the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, the sphere of activity of factory committees and workers' commissions expanded significantly. To the previously assigned duties, preparations were added for the widespread nationalization of enterprises and transport, as well as their transfer to the rails of a planned economy.
Already in November 1917, that is, immediately after the seizure of power, at the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets, the Bolsheviks announced their intention to establish workers' control everywhere in enterprises. This was a very important decision, since its implementation legally secured the powers of the factory committees.
Discussions at the meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee
This initiative was further developed at the meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Commission (VTsIK), held on November 14 of the same year. It adopted the Decree on Workers' Control. His statement was preceded by a discussion that turned into a heated discussion between representatives of the Bolsheviks and their opponents, the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries.
As a result of the voting, the supporters of the Leninist position won (24 votes against 10). Characteristically, the main argument voiced in the speeches of their opponents was the fear that the adoption of the document would give the workers a basisfeel like full owners of enterprises. As you know, later this principle formed the basis of the communist ideology and was replicated in various versions by party propagandists.
Main provisions of the November Decree
Having received its legal justification in November 1917, workers' control was established both over the production process itself and over the acquisition of raw materials, and if necessary, their sale. In addition, it covered finances, as well as issues related to the supply of workers, employees and their families with food in the most difficult post-revolutionary years.
The Decree adopted by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on November 14, 1917, specified in detail the procedure for the formation of supervisory bodies, which, in addition to factory committees and special commissions, were also councils of elders. All these structures were created on an elective basis. According to the adopted regulation, they should also include employees, the number of which depended on the quantitative ratio of workers and engineering and technical personnel at a given enterprise.
In addition, the same document prescribed the creation in all cities and provinces of local Councils of Workers' Control. In terms of their administrative structure, these newly formed bodies completely reproduced the structure of the Soviets of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies. It was especially emphasized that the decisions of any local working committee are binding on the owners of enterprises and can only be canceled on the basis oforders from a higher supervisory authority.
Production Control Force
The introduction of workers' control was only slightly ahead of the creation in the country of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK) - an organization that, among other things, exercised forceful pressure on those owners of enterprises who did not want to obey the requirements of the workers' committees. In the period preceding the complete nationalization of industrial enterprises, there were often cases when their owners refused to present technical and financial documentation to the control authorities.
According to the laws established by the Bolsheviks, such actions were considered as sabotage, and the perpetrators were subject to arrest and subsequent prosecution. Thus, unwilling to obey the demand of their workers, the owners of the factories risked falling into the hands of the Chekists, whose style of dealing with socially alien elements was well known.
Additional functions of control bodies
The adoption of the law on workers' control in production pursued an extremely important goal - to suppress the attempts of the former owners to close or sell their enterprise, and to transfer all capital abroad. In addition, the control authorities did not allow them to evade compliance with the new labor legislation. It was also assumed that the workers' committees would be able to ensure proper order in the enterprises and prevent the anarchist part of the workers from plundering property under the pretext that they are now the "true masters of life."
Unforeseen complications
This is how the creators of the Decree on the establishment of working committees at enterprises saw the future. However, real life made their own adjustments to their plans. First, the process they outlined began to develop spontaneously and led to the most unexpected results at a number of enterprises.
There are examples of how members of the committees, not limited to just controlling the workflow and cash flow, simply kicked the former owner out of the gate, they themselves tried to perform administrative functions. However, it soon became clear that they were not able to establish production, as a result of which the fulfillment of orders failed and everyone was left without a salary, and therefore without a livelihood. I had to bow to the former owner, tearfully repent before him and ask him to come back. In most cases, the hosts took their seats again, but at the same time they set conditions, the fulfillment of which prevented the action of the control bodies.
Decree that fell short of expectations
Analyzing the results of the adoption of the Decree on working committees, the researchers conclude that it did not have any significant impact on the situation in the country. Control at enterprises was carried out in most cases by persons who did not have sufficient training, and therefore were extremely incompetent and unable to make any constructive decisions.
This document went down in history mainly because it was often the reason for the nationalization of enterprises,carried out under the pretext that the owner allegedly evaded the execution of the decisions of the control committees. However, this was only at first. Very soon the Bolsheviks felt themselves full masters of life and waved their hand at external conventions. They simply took away the property from the previous owners, and they themselves were "put into waste" as "bourgeois and contra".
In the mid-1920s, when the “followers of Lenin's cause” finally seized the monopoly on power, the so-called partocratic centralism was established in the country, and workers' control committees became dependent on the Council of People's Commissars and trade union officials. Since that time, they have completely lost their meaning.
Theory of syndicalism
Based on the characteristic features that were inherent in the institution of workers' control, the conclusion suggests itself that such a scheme corresponds not so much to the principles of socialism as to syndicalism - a doctrine based on the primacy of trade unions. In the second half of the 19th century, it became widespread both in the advanced, industrialized states of Europe and in a number of countries in South and North America.
Syndicalists argued that the economic growth of states can only be ensured if the workers, united in syndicates and confederations, take full control over industry. In this case, a certain structure should become the governing body, which, in addition to workers, will include qualified specialists in each specific area.
An economic system unacceptable under socialism
It is easy to see that the committees of workers' control, created in post-revolutionary Russia, in many respects corresponded to the principles that the syndicalists professed. It is for this reason that they could not have a future under socialism, where the dominant party exercised sole control in all areas of social and economic life.
Being the creators of the working committees, the Bolsheviks very soon felt the danger emanating from them, since they themselves put a very dangerous weapon into their hands - the right to make independent decisions without looking back at the apparatus of the central government. In the future, this could lead to the most unpredictable consequences, up to the loss of control over industry by the party organs. Therefore, little by little, the functions of the committees of workers' control narrowed, and they themselves were supplanted by the trade unions, which were obedient puppets in the hands of the totalitarian government.
Swan Song of Working Committees
An attempt to revive the committees was made during the years of perestroika, since one of the concepts promoted by its ideologists was precisely the syndicalization of industry. To this end, in May 1989, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted the "Regulations on Workers' Control", which significantly expanded the powers of the trade unions and gave them the opportunity not only to exercise control over production, but to a certain extent manage it. However, the partyocracy, still strong at that time, sabotaged it in every possible way.execution.
Only in Kuzbass did the working committee, formed on the initiative of the director of the Raspadskaya mine F. E. Yevtushenko, manage to declare itself in full voice. Its members were able to make an inventory of local coal mining enterprises and, having taken them out of the control of the USSR Ministry of Coal Industry, transferred them to the jurisdiction of Russian authorities. Thus, Russia carried out the privatization of part of the all-Union property. However, that is where it all ended. After the August putsch of 1991, large-scale privatization began in all areas of the national economy, and the workers' control groups created at that time lost their relevance.
