‘You Don't Treat Parliaments That Way!’ Revolutionary Practices of Representation at Samara's Peasant Congress, May–June 1917

Abstract

Examining practices and visions of political representation on provincial congresses in Russian Samara, this article positions the failed democratic revolution of 1917 as part of a European democratic laboratory marked by the Great War. Samara's late-spring congress is often cited as a culture clash: moderate intellectuals' hopes trampled by parochial peasants determined to claim land. This study, instead, highlights cross-bench efforts to establish common agency, centring on various concepts of democratic representation. Intellectual visions of relentless activist dedication were interwoven with localist demands side-lining government agency, but also with rural delegates' efforts to construct a potent legislature. Competitive practices of representation emerged, encouraging challenges to declaratively optimistic visions by coordinated interest groups. While ultimately upholding a fragile and high-pitched persuasion politics, the representative practices developed at the congress also facilitated acceptance of far-reaching arrangements.