work of the Council of Peoples' Commissars is subject to the veto of the Central Executive Committee, and both of these bodies are responsible to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets.
The law-making of the Soviet Government is direct and final. In Russia one does not see, as in the United States, thousands of legislators solemnly passing laws all over the country and then a handful of old fogies in a Supreme Court calling them unconstitutional. Once the workers' Government has spoken that settles the matter. I say this bearing in mind what I have said in another chapter about the Communist Party. The Communist Party works through the Government, but not instead of it.
There being no other Government built similar to that of Russia, it is difficult, without undue elaboration, to convey an idea of the power and rank of the respective superior Soviets and officials. It may be said, however, that the Central Executive Committee roughly corresponds to a Senate, and its President, Kalenin is often referred to as the President of Russia. And as the Council of Peoples' Commissars may be called the national Cabinet, its chairman, Lenin, is equivalent to Prime Minister. As in France, so in Russia: the Prime Minister being the more closely identified with and responsible for the policies of the Government, his position is a much more important office than that of President.
Many writers have declared that the Soviets are structures peculiarly Russian in character. But this is open to grave doubt. The fact is that there was very little understanding of them or propaganda made for them before they sprang up during the great revolutionary upheaval of 1905. They were natural products of the fierce struggle, even as they were of the revolutions of 1917. For a working class that has broken with capitalism and that finds itself on the road to power, it is perfectly logical, if not inevitable, for it to discard the old state machinery and parasitic social elements, and to select its governmental representatives, Soviet fashion, directly in the workshops, fields, and barracks. Indeed, Soviets are the sign-manual of the revolution. When the great crash comes in any country, the workers are always confronted with the supreme question of whether they shall seize all
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