The Gorky City Soviet (Gorsovet) was the supreme state authority in Nizhny Novgorod (renamed Gorky in 1932), operating from 1918 to 1993. It was the predecessor of the Nizhny Novgorod City Duma.[3]

Founding and Early Years

Following the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks abolished the City Duma but retained its executive body — the city council board — subordinating it to the Nizhny Novgorod Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies and renaming it "soviet." The Nizhny Novgorod Soviet was initially shared by the entire governorate. In the autumn of 1918, it was decided to establish a separate soviet for the governorate's capital. The first session of the Nizhny Novgorod City Soviet of Workers' and Red Army Deputies was held on 6 October 1918 at the premises of the Soviet Club (now 39 Bolshaya Pokrovskaya). The soviet comprised 196 deputies elected by factories and military units.[1] Its first chairman was Nikolay Grigoryevich Kozitsky, a deputy representing workers of the Siemens and Halske plant (now NITEL).[1]

The Gorsovet took over from the soviet city council board, which was replaced by a city executive committee (gorисполком). Both bodies were housed in the former City Duma building — the Bugrov Charitable Block.[1]

Reorganizations of 1919–1930s

On 4 August 1919, the city executive committee was merged with the Nizhny Novgorod Uyezd Executive Committee into a unified Nizhny Novgorod Uyezd-City Executive Committee, and the Bugrov Block was transferred to the trade unions. The merger, however, proved unsuccessful: the economic needs of the governorate's capital and those of the rural surrounding districts diverged. In July 1920, the uyezd executive committee was re-established, while the city executive committee was not restored — the management of Nizhny Novgorod's affairs was assumed by the governorate executive committee, which significantly curtailed the Gorsovet's powers.[1]

Alongside this, fragmentation took hold: the former Makaryev section formed the Kanavinsky workers' district in 1921, with its own city soviet (in 1924 it even proposed renaming Kanavino the city of Ulyanov), while Sormovo had its own city soviet.[1] In August 1925, the chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Executive Committee, A. I. Muralov, proposed merging all three territories. Following coordination with the Nizhny Novgorod, Kanavino, and Sormovo city soviets, as well as with the provincial party and soviet authorities, on 9 January 1928 the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decreed the merger of Nizhny Novgorod, Kanavino, and Sormovo into a single city. The former cities became districts — Sverdlovsky, Kanavinsky, and Sormovsky — each with its own district soviet.[1] In 1930, the first elections to the unified city soviet of Greater Nizhny Novgorod were held.[1]

Elections in the Soviet era were not universal: those classified as exploiters, private traders, clergy, former police officers, and a number of other categories were disenfranchised. The list of persons deprived of voting rights in 1928 in Nizhny Novgorod numbered 7,436 people. Voting was conducted openly — by a show of hands for or against candidates, often for an entire slate at once; candidates were nominated in advance by party, Komsomol, and trade union organizations.[1]

Following the adoption of the USSR Constitution of 1936, the system of governance was reorganized: elections once again became secret, and the Gorky City Soviet of Workers' Deputies regained its own executive committee.[3]

The late Soviet period and dissolution

During the perestroika years, local soviets gained greater leverage. The Gorky (from 1990, Nizhny Novgorod) City Soviet of People's Deputies operated with considerable activity. During the acute political crisis of 1993, the soviet system was dissolved throughout the country; the city soviet was succeeded by the Nizhny Novgorod City Duma.[3]

Archival documents of the city soviet are held in the Central Archive of the Nizhny Novgorod Region (TsANO) in fond R-5832, which also includes materials of the Gorky City Soviet of Industrial Cooperatives and its branch unions.[2]

Sources

  1. gordumannov.ru — Chapter 4. The Soviet Era — City Duma of Nizhny Novgorod
  2. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Deputy Sergey Abyshev: Why Renaming Gorky to Nizhny Novgorod Was a Mistake
  3. Vremya N — Urban "Naming": 31 Years Ago Gorky Became Nizhny Novgorod
  4. names52.ru — Sokolov Aleksandr Aleksandrovich
  5. lib-avt.ru — School No. 126 Building Is Now Under State Protection — Centralized Library System of the Avtozavodsky District of Nizhny Novgorod
  6. nizhcbs.rf — A. P. CHEKHOV LIBRARY