Soviet (council)

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The word soviet (Russian: 'совет', lit. "council") is used in English to refer to the elective councils of workers and soldiers which first arose in the Russian Empire during the events of 1905 and which later formed the backbone of the Soviet Union. Having dissolved quickly in 1905, the soviets arose with renewed strength in the February Revolution of 1917 and formed a serious rival to the bourgeois Provisional Government. Vladimir Lenin argued that these soviets could and should seize total power and form a radically democratic new form of government, now termed soviet democracy, which was carried out in the October Revolution. The word has since been extended to refer to workers' councils inspired by the Russian example, including the Irish soviets and the Bavarian Soviet Republic.