SOVIET POLITICAL ELITE AND WAYS OF ITS FORMATION IN THE SPRING OF 1917 (BY MATERIALS
OF NIZHNY NOVGOROD PROVINCE) 

Kurakov Dmitry Vladimirovich, Postgraduate student, Nizhny Novgorod State Pedagogical University named after Kozma Minin (1 Ulyanova street, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia), kurakof.dmitriy@mail.ru

 94(47).084.3

 10.21685/2072-3024-2017-1-2

Background. At the present time the field of historical elite studying is of certain topicality. Within this field the formation of the political elite during the revolutionary crisis is of interest. The aim of the work is to examine the process of forming important is the study of the conditions of entry into the Soviet elite and retention of the achieved status.
Materials and methods. The research objectives were implemented through the use of documents retrieved from the collection of the State Archive of Nizhny Novgorod region, the State socio-political archive of Nizhny Novgorod region. The methodological potential included the historical system synthesis and personalistic methods. This combination has allowed to reveal the impact of particular persons in power, socio-political structures, to highlight the most important conditions for achieving and maintaining a political status by the revolutionary leaders of 1917.
Results. The author investigated the process of formation of the political elite from Soviets of workers’, soldiers’ and other deputies at the initial stage of the February revolution. The article considers the interrelation of the formation of “institutions of arbitrary democracy” with the nomination of the most active personalities in their structure, which formed a part of the new political elite.
Conclusions. The study of the formation of the new political elite allows to allocate not only stages and mechanisms of cadre selection, but also an extensive system of social elevators. Weakness and low-popularity of the new political leaders who had abandoned the left wing of the revolutionary democracy demanded creation of
their own corporate platform in the form of Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and other deputies. These bodies became one of the main institutes allowing to move up the social ladder. The society took the most direct part in the process of formation of the new elite. Their positive interaction was one of the leading factors in achieving and maintaining the political leadership.

February revolution; political elite; Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and other deputies; Social Democrats.

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