ABSTRACT
Ocially, the “workers’ militia” was created by the decree of the SNK on November 10, 1917, titled “About Workers’ Militia.”1 However, it was not considered a government institution per se, but rather a self-organization of armed people. is notion was based on the idealistic premise that in the Communist society, with no private property and equal rights for working people, there would be no crimes and over time the state and its institutions would wither away and became obsolete (Conquest, 1968a). According to the early theories of state by Lenin, instead of having police during the transitioning period to Communism, the entire working population should be armed and form a militia (Collins, 1976). us, the decree simply prescribed that local Soviet workers and soldiers’ deputies (local executive agencies) establish the militia. e decree instructed all civil and military authorities to cooperate with the workers’ militia and supply it with both materials and ammunition. e decree did not provide details of how the workers’ militia should be staed and funded, nor did it describe what the exact functions of the militia were, and it was le to the local Soviets to decide. e militia also was viewed as a part of the local executive authorities consisting of the Soviet people rather than a centralized law enforcement agency. Not surprisingly, the process of its creation varied by province and was quite cumbersome.
