ABSTRACT
Perhaps it is fitting that a volume that opened with Lenin’s revolutionary slogan “All Power to the Soviets!” should conclude by taking note of their demise. On October 9, 1993, Boris Yeltsin abolished the local soviets at the city level and below, and “invited” the oblast and republican soviets to dissolve themselves. A few weeks later, on October 22, he decreed new elections to “dumas” at the oblast level and below, to be held in the spring of 1994. 1 For someone like the author, who was a specialist on the local soviets, this was disconcerting news. Indeed, the next day a visiting Russian colleague stopped by my office to inquire how I felt about my new profession as an historian.
