CONSIDERATIONS ON THE LEGITIMACY OF THE COUNTRY COUNSEL IN THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

• Main Author: Ion ȘIȘCANU
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Academy of Sciences of Moldova 2017-10-01
• Series: Akademos: Revista de Ştiinţă, Inovare, Cultură şi Artă
• Subjects: soviet (council); political legitimacy; russian revolution; deputy; the country council; bessarabia; territorial autonomy; constituent assembly; temporary government; independence
• Online Access: http://akademos.asm.md/files/Considera%C8%9Bii%20privind%20legitimitatea%20Sfatului%20%C8%9A%C4%83rii%20in%20cadrul%20Revolu%C8%9Biei%20Ruse.pdf

Political legitimacy is a principle according to which a system of government/political power is exercised on the basis of a right granted by those who are governed/citizens, derived from legalized agreements. During the Russian Revolution of 1917, the process of de-legitimizing the Czarist regime came to an end. None of the governmental institutions which were created in Russia during February / March – October / November 1917 had a full legitimacy, in accordance with the actual meaning of this notion. The Soviets (councils) represented a manifestation of the spontaneous mass movement. In the time of the Revolution, the captive nations that inhabited the European part of the Russian Empire, while pursuing the goal of self-determination, have created their own revolutionary organs as supreme legislative institutions on national territories, with the responsibility to govern the people and the territories in question, until the formation of constituent assemblies. The Country Council was the expression of the revolutionary situation which had spread throughout Bessarabia after the tsar’s overthrow. Its legitimacy was originating from the democracy installed in Russia and, consequently, in Bessarabia. Its powers were granted by the masses, especially the soldiers – most of them were descendants of the Bessarabian peasantry. Its credibility and “unrepresentativeness” were similar to those of other organs created on the territories where people fought for self-determination (Finland, Ukraine. Belarus, the Baltic States) and its revolutionary legitimacy was much more realistic than that of the Petrograd Soviet or Lenin’s Council of People’s Commissars