Soviet scientists pay great attention to studying the history of the formation of the USSR 1 . Further development of this topic requires the involvement of new sources, primarily those that give an idea of the patterns of mass processes that took place during the creation of a single multinational Soviet state. Such information is available, in particular, in the materials of the highest authorities of the USSR, including in the questionnaires of delegates to the congresses of Soviets.

Within the framework of the scientific program for processing personal data of delegates to all congresses of Soviets, in which a large team of researchers takes part2, the author of this work analyzed the composition of delegates to the First and Second Congresses of Soviets of the USSR 3 . Data on the composition of delegates are published in appendices to verbatim reports (preliminary summaries) and in separate publications (updated results) .4 Researchers rarely turn to their analysis, and yet the information capabilities of this source are very significant .5
Some modern methods of processing this data, including computers and mathematical methods, were used to make more extensive use of data on the composition of delegates to congresses. After performing a series of preparatory operations (preliminary analysis of the questionnaire form and the nature of delegates ' responses, preparation of coding classifiers, encoding of questionnaire data, and transferring these data to computer storage media), we were able to judge the circumstances of the lives and activities of people who voted for the formation of the USSR a little more than 60 years ago and adopted the first all-Union Constitution. We processed 2,241 applications for the First Congress, and 2,136 applications for the second Congress .

The results of processing the questionnaires give the following picture of representation in the four Union republics: at the First Congress

1 See Khromov S. S. Historical experience of education and development of the USSR and problems of its study. - Voprosy istorii, 1983, N 6.

2 The processing of personal data is carried out by the Problem Group on the History of the Working Class of the USSR (head V. Z. Drobizhev) in order to create a single automated database, which has a complex character and is designed to solve various research tasks (see Borodkin L. I., Sokolov A. K. Experience in creating a database based on personal data about delegates to Congresses of Soviets. - History of the USSR, 1984, N 2).

3 A. K. Sokolov and E. G. Suntsova took part in processing the questionnaires of delegates to these congresses. The database has a multi-purpose purpose, so everyone turns to it with their own tasks. A. K. Sokolov and E. G. Suntsova studied the life paths of delegates and the influence of this factor on the patterns of promotion to the management sphere (Sokolov A. K. Suntsova E. G. Working delegates at the First Congress of Soviets Analysis of life paths and their impact on the formation of the congress composition,- Working Class and the modern world, 1984, N 4). The author of this paper was interested in some general patterns of influence of the formation of the USSR on changes in the composition of congresses.

4 I Congress of Soviets of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Stenogr. ogch. M. 1923; Statistical data on the composition of the Congresses of Soviets: II Congress of the Union and XI All-Russian Congress. M. 1924; Composition of I, II, III Congresses of Soviets of the USSR. M. 1925; etc.

5 The authors of the questionnaire for delegates to the First Congress of Soviets identified about 25 questions concerning various aspects of the delegates ' biographies over the previous 10 to 15 years. After a preliminary study of the nature of the delegates ' responses, we introduced additional features by detailing the questionnaire questions. The layout of the coding of the questionnaires of delegates to the First Congress included a little more than 40, and the Second Congress - about 30 signs: education, party membership, party experience, classes before the First World War, during the war, in the period before the October Revolution, after it, at the time of the congress, participation in party and Soviet bodies, etc.

6 The difference in the number of delegates is related to the work carried out by the Central Election Commission of the USSR in the period between the First and Second Congresses to clarify statistical data on the number of the population and the correspondence of the system of representation at the congresses to it (see the Central Election Commission of the USSR, f. 1235, op. 10, d.17).

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delegates from the RSFSR accounted for 61.8%, from the Ukrainian SSR - 16.1%, from the BSSR - 1.3%, from the ZSFSR - 3.8%; at the Second Congress, respectively - 64%, 17%, 2.3% and 5.5% 7 . At the same time, the share of delegates from the autonomous regions of the RSFSR increased at the Second Congress: if at the First Congress it was 15.2%, then at the Second Congress it was 15.7%. Consequently, the formation of the USSR and the strengthening of relations between the republics led to an increase in the share of their representation and an increase in the number of republican delegations, especially from the BSSR and ZSFSR, as well as to the streamlining of relations between the autonomous republics and regions.

As a result of the formation of the USSR and the measures taken by the party and the Soviet government to streamline national and state representation, the national composition of delegates to the first union congresses changed. At the first stage, Russians accounted for 65.2%, while at the second stage, their share decreased to 59.7% due to the numerical growth of delegates of other nationalities. So, the number of Ukrainians increased from 151 to 205, Belarusians-from 22 to 45, Georgians - from 18 to 34, Armenians - from 32 to 40, Azerbaijanis - from 7 to 31, Kazakhs - from 26 to 32, Uzbeks-from 16 to 21.

A comparison of the composition of delegates to the First and Second Congresses on such grounds as" occupation "and" social status " shows that the majority belonged to representatives of various organs and organizations that exercise the dictatorship of the proletariat. The bulk of the delegates are employees of Soviet organs, representatives of Soviets, mainly provincial and uyezd councils. Among the delegates were many party and trade union workers. Representatives of the highest and central bodies and organizations were also present at the congresses; as a rule, these delegates had mandates for the right to an advisory vote .8 Thus, at the First Congress, only 8% of delegates from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the SNK(bodies accountable to the Congress) had the right to a decisive vote; 20% of delegates-employees of the All - Russian Central Committee and the Central Committee of Trade Unions, 37% - employees of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), 45% - managers of trusts and syndicates-also had this right. At the same time, the delegates elected at the republican and provincial congresses mostly had decisive votes.

The above-mentioned work of A. K. Sokolov and E. G. Suntsova shows that the majority of the delegates to the First Congress are recent immigrants from the working class, representatives of its vanguard strata, active participants in the struggle for the victory of the socialist revolution, for the establishment of Soviet power. In the period preceding the congress, they joined the composition of state authorities, the leadership of party and public organizations. The data obtained indicate the role played by the working class in the construction of a new power apparatus and the formation of management personnel .9 It has been noted in the literature that under the conditions of the first revolutionary transformations, the degree to which the working class mastered various levels of state administration was directly determined by the proportion of people from the working class in the composition of state bodies .10 The data obtained from processing the questionnaires of delegates to the First and Second Congresses of Soviets indicate that the working class devoted its best efforts to the creation of a new state.

Having joined the bodies of state administration, the workers found themselves outside the sphere of direct production. However, in their appearance, in their worldview, they continued to be representatives of the working class (it is no coincidence that the overwhelming majority of them, filling out the column of the questionnaire "Social status", called themselves workers). According to their social characteristics, they can reasonably be attributed to the representatives of the working class, who were the largest group among the delegates.

The share of workers in the delegations of republics, districts, and oblasts was not the same. Since industrial production, and therefore individual detachments

7 Delegates representing all-Union central bodies and organizations were not included in the count.

8 Due to their legal status, members of the Central Election Commission of the USSR and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee had the right to participate in the work of the newly convened Congress with the right to an advisory vote without prior election. The working bodies of the Congress prepared a preliminary list, which included prominent figures of the party and the state, for the right to receive mandates with an advisory vote (see TsGAOR USSR, f. 1235, op. 10, d. 23).

9 Sokolov A. K., Suntsova E. G. UK. soch., p. 116.

10 Drobizhev V. Z. Some issues of studying the history of the Soviet working class in Soviet historiography. In: Questions of Methodology and History of Historical Science. Issue 3. Moscow, 1981, p. 15.

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The working class, inheriting its structure from pre-revolutionary Russia, was extremely unevenly distributed geographically, and the existing electoral system in practice led to a higher rate of representation for those regions and provinces where the concentration of cities, industry, and the working class was higher. Thus, at the First Congress of Soviets of the USSR, the delegations of industrial provinces were very representative: in the RSFSR from Moscow-63 delegates, Petrograd - 46, Nizhny Novgorod-41, Tula-36; in the Ukrainian SSR from Kharkiv - 79 delegates (together with senior employees of state bodies of the republic), Ekaterinoslav-35, Odessa-35, Donetsk - 33; and so on. The provinces of the Central Industrial District gave 20% of the congress membership. The three industrial provinces of the Ukrainian SSR - Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Yekaterinoslav-accounted for almost 40% of the republic's delegates .11
In a number of national regions of the country, indigenous workers were few or non-existent, which could not but affect the national composition of delegates. In the delegations of the Union republics, autonomous republics, and oblasts to the First Congress of Soviets of the U.S.S.R., the proportion of Russian workers was considerable. The delegation of the Ukrainian SSR included 45% Russians, the BSSR - 41%, and the ZSFSR - 30%. Among the delegates from the autonomous republics and regions of the RSFSR, Russians accounted for 44%.

In a number of national districts, the best representatives of the peasant masses and working intelligentsia from indigenous nationalities, who were members of local government bodies, were elected to the congresses. Along with former teachers, the delegates included many pre-war students, employees of accounting and trade, and other specialists. In the republics of Transcaucasia and the North Caucasus, the participation of former handicraftsmen and artisans in the work of Soviet bodies was more significant than in other republics. The long party experience of many representatives of this group of delegates indicates their long-standing connection with party work and the revolutionary struggle in the underground.

The measures taken to organize the state apparatus of the Soviet republics and to elect the best representatives of the national detachments of the working class and all working people to the Soviets, which were carried out in the country after the formation of the USSR, have brought real results. This is indicated by the data on delegates to the Second Congress of Soviets. In comparison with the First Congress, the share of representatives of the central organs of the Soviet state, responsible employees of public organizations, has decreased from 10.8% to 8.3%. The share of delegates elected at republican and provincial congresses has increased. The number of representatives from the governing bodies of autonomous republics and regions has increased. The share of national cadres increased among the secretaries of provincial party committees and chairmen of provincial control commissions (local Central Control committees) from 38 to 55%, secretaries of county and city party committees-from 25 to 37%, employees of republican executive committees of Soviets - from 58 to 70%, chairmen of provincial executive committees - from 33 to 42%, employees of provincial executive committees - from 38 to 39%, chairmen of county executive committees - from 23 to 31%, chairmen of volost and village councils - from 30 to 38%, responsible employees of trade union and Komsomol bodies in the field - from 34 to 40%.

As we can see, the greatest changes in the direction of rooting have taken place in the most critical areas of management. As a result of the rooting of the state apparatus and the adjustment of electoral lists to the size of the population in a number of republics where the working class was dominated by Russians, the share of workers ' delegates at congresses decreased. Thus, in the delegation of the Ukrainian SSR, the share of workers by social status decreased from 55 to 47%, while the share of delegates elected from non-industrial but densely populated provinces increased; in the delegation from the BSSR-from 52 to 49%. The number of workers in the delegations of a number of national-state formations of the RSFSR located in the territories of the North Caucasus and southern Russia decreased from 39 to 23%; the North, Siberia, and the Far East - from 43 to 6%; and the Volga Region - from 28 to 27%. At the same time, the opposite trend was observed: the share of workers in the ZSFSR delegations increased from 24% to 36% due to Azerbaijani workers in the Baku oil Industry region; in the autonomous regions of the Urals - from 40% to 48%; and in Central Asia - from 40% to 49%.

11 The delegations from the densely populated agricultural provinces were also very representative: Tambov was represented by 45 delegates, Poltava - 42, Voronezh - 36, etc.

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At the Second Congress, there was also a significant redistribution of the composition of delegations from areas with a predominantly Russian population. In the delegations from the Central Industrial Region, the share of working class representatives increased from 52 to 62%, the Urals-from 59 to 64%, the North-Western Region - from 59 to 60%, the Volga region - from 49 to 59%, and the South of Russia-from 33 to 45%. The exception was the delegations of the provinces of Siberia and the Far East, where the share of workers decreased from 45 to 39%.

Despite some weakening of the base of the proletarian state caused by the loss of the working class during the Civil War, the decline in the size of the factory proletariat, and other circumstances, the foundations of the political system remained unshakable. This is confirmed by the social composition of the Congresses of Soviets. Thus, at the First Congress, workers accounted for 47%, and at the Second - 49% of all delegates. Thus, we can conclude that in the course of national-state construction during the formation of the USSR, the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat was strengthened.

Revealing the qualitative side of this process, it is necessary to emphasize that by the mid-20s, the role of local people's representatives in all government bodies, including the highest ones, is significantly increasing. In particular, we can point to an increase from 21 to 22% of the total number of delegates to the congresses of Soviets of the USSR, representing the middle level of Soviet bodies - city and county councils; from 3 to 5% - the share of representatives of the lower level of management: employees of volost and village Councils, secretaries of volost committees of the RCP (b) and party committees. cells, employees of FZMK. industrial enterprises of the country 12 . Finally, the tendency of the delegates to increase the number of advanced workers and peasants directly employed in production is clearly visible. If 33 workers "from the machine" (1.5%) and 30 peasants "from the plow" (1.3%) came to the First Congress, then 118 (5.5%) and 87 (4.1%) came to the Second Congress, respectively.

In the first years after the revolution, the arrival of advanced workers in the sphere of administration, due to the difficulties of wartime, famine and devastation, took place in an environment of partial declassification of the proletariat: a reduction in the number of workers in production, a deterioration in its class composition, and the gradual loss of class characteristics by some of the workers. One of the tasks of the restoration period was to combat the declassification of the proletariat. The question arose of strengthening the social base of the dictatorship of the proletariat and bringing State administration closer to the working masses. The restoration of the strength of the working class and the consolidation of its ranks were accompanied by the promotion of an increasing number of workers "from the machine" to representative bodies of power, including the highest - the congresses of Soviets.

Factories and factories nominated their best representatives to the government bodies. More than 70% of the delegates - workers "from the machine" at the First and 42% at the Second Congress were metalworkers elected in the major industrial centers of the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR. More than 10% of these workers had more than 10 years of work experience in production. A significant number (33% and 59%, respectively) were non - partisan. This was probably due in part to the reduction of the party stratum in enterprises and to the party and state policy of attracting an increasing number of non-party workers and peasants to management. At the First and Second Congresses, there were even more non-party peasants "from the plow". A significant number of non-partisans were also among the representatives of the lower level of government-the chairmen of volost and village councils.

Of great interest are the data describing the party experience of delegates - workers "from the machine": of their members at the 1st congress, 6% joined the RSDLP during the first Russian Revolution, 24% became party members in 1917, 33% - during the civil war and imperialist intervention. The partisanship of delegates is the most important feature that determines the political characteristics of the congress composition. As a result of attracting non - party workers and peasants to the Second Congress, the share of Communists in its membership slightly decreased compared to the First Congress-from 94 to 90%. However, the qualitative composition of the RCP (b) members remained virtually unchanged. Communists who joined the party before 1917 accounted for 31% at both congresses; in 1917 -23% for the first and 21% for the second; in 1918-1920 - 44% and 45%, respectively. At the time of the formation of the USSR, Communists made up the overwhelming majority in the Soviet Union.

12 The overall low proportion of representatives at the lower level of Councils is a consequence of the multi-stage electoral system.

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At the First Congress, eight delegates, and only one at the second, represented other political parties. The old party cadres, the organizers of the working-class movement during the period when the Bolshevik party was founded, spoke at the congresses as representatives of the senior management of the highest and central party, Soviet and trade union bodies. Among the responsible workers at the provincial level, there were many communist workers with pre-revolutionary party experience. At the Second Congress, among this category of delegates, there were several more who joined the party during the revolution. However, the greatest changes in the period between congresses related to the participation of Communists in government bodies occurred at the level of cities and counties. Thus, at the First Congress of Soviets, among the members of the RCP (b) since 1917, there were 14% secretaries of city party committees and 23% chairmen of executive committees of Soviets; at the Second Congress, 13% and 26%, respectively; among the members of the RCP (b) since 1918, 12% and 27%, respectively, and at the First Congress, respectively. II - 11 and 33%. These data indicate an increase in the leading role of the party in the activities of the Soviets during the formation of the USSR.

Changes in the composition of the highest authorities of the U.S.S.R., which are revealed by processing the questionnaires of delegates to the First and Second Congresses of Soviets, reflect the success of national-state construction, the processes of rooting out the governing bodies of the Soviet republics, the strengthening of the leading role of the working class and the Communist Party in the Soviets, the democratization of public administration and

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