What is "vikzhel"

The All-Russian Executive Committee of the Union of Railwaymen (Russian: Всероссийский исполнительный комитет железнодорожного профсоюза), commonly known in English by its Cyrillic acronym, Vikzhel, was the governing body of an industrial union established in revolutionary Russia during the summer of 1917. Inclined towards syndicalism and standing as one of the most radical Russian unions of the period, Vikzhel played a decisive role in stymying the attempted Kornilov coup in August 1917.

At the time of the October Revolution Vikzhel was the largest and best organized union in Russia. Simultaneously but independent of the Bolshevik Party's seizure of state power, Vikzhel would seize control of Russia's railways in the fall of 1917. Favoring a multi-party government, Vikzhel managed to leverage its position of strength through threat of a general transportation strike to force the Bolsheviks to add other socialist political parties to the previously all-Bolshevik government — a power play culminated by the provision of three ministerial portfolios to representatives of the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party.

Vikzhel's limited success in pushing the Bolsheviks towards compromise and moderation proved to be short-lived, however, as the fledgling Soviet government soon manufactured a split of the All-Russian Union of Railwaymen and establishment of a rival governing Executive Committee known as Vikzhedor. Supplanted by the new Bolshevik-friendly organization, Vikzhel was ultimately dissolved in March 1918 by decree of the governing Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom).