Coalitions of the Volost Soviets and Zemstvos
from the end of 1917 through the first half of 1918
(On the Materials of the Vladimir
and Yaroslav Regions)

E. M. Petrovicheva
Vladimir State University after Alexander and Nikolay Stoletovs
87 Gorky St, Vladimir, 600000, Russia
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The presented work is devoted to the study of such an important socio-political practice, which became the Soviet-Zemstvo coalition from the end of 1917 though the first half of 1918. The purpose of the article is to identify the features of the interaction of these bodies in two central industrial provinces, Vladimir and Yaroslavl gubernias, in the first months of the October Revolution. The analysis of a wide range of sources, mainly unpublished, gleaned from the central and local archives, with the help of the methods of the new political history, institutional and discursive approaches allowed us to draw the following conclusions. Despite the short period of existence, the Soviet-Zemstvo coalitions were a justified compromise on the part of the Bolshevik government. This intermediate form allowed to use the rich experience of self-government, accumulated by zemstvo institutions, to attract trained zemstvo cadres, as well as wider sections of the population to the side of Soviet power. However, this policy, flexible and expedient from the state point of view, was interrupted by the escalation of the civil war and the beginning of foreign intervention in Soviet Russia. By the beginning of summer 1918 in the vast majority of counties and volosts, Zemstvo institutions were liquidated.

Keywords: volost and district zemstvo assemblies, Soviet-zemstvo coalitions, the first months of Soviet power

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