The article analyzes the evolution of the Soviets of workers, soldiers and
peasants deputies at the end of 1917–1918, when they were the main power on the ground.
The author shows how the Soviets went from bodies that had wide independence and
internal pluralism to politically monolithic units of the centralized party-state hierarchy.
Keywords
Soviets; Council of people's Commissars; Bolsheviks; Mensheviks; Esers; food dictatorship; civil war.
