The Soviet democratic system, a thread:

The Soviet democratic system was based on Soviets, which were councils directly elected by the people. They were responsible to their electors and bound by their instructions using delegate model of representation. Delegates could be dismissed from their post or be voted out.

Delegates were sent to the local councils in plenary assemblies. These, in turn, could delegate members to the next level. The system of delegation continued to the Congress of Soviets at the state level. So the electoral processes took place from the bottom upwards.

The Soviets were first created in 1905, and then recreated in 1917, as defensive organizations of workers. Workers and members of the local community would elect delegates to attend the local Soviet, which would debate matters pertaining to the revolution and make the decisions.

In March 1917 when the Tsar abdicated and Grand Duke declined the throne, and the Duma was forced to assume the reins of the government, the Council of Workers’ Deputies gained control. In November 1917, the Soviets, with the Bolsheviks in control, overthrew the Coalition Govt.

After the October Revolution, no party could coexist in rivalry with the Communist Party. At the 7th Congress of the Russian Communist Party in 1918, Lenin issued the following 10 principles:

Each 100 peasants in the villages elected a representative to the Township Soviet. These Township Soviets sent delegates to the County Soviets, which in turn sent delegates to the Provincial Soviet, to which also were elected delegates from the Workers’ Soviets in the cities.

At least twice a year delegates were elected from all over Russia to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets. These delegates were chosen by direct popular election: from the provinces, one for each 125,000 voters, from the cities, one for each 25,000.

An extraordinary session of the Congress could be called at any time upon the initiative of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, or upon the demand of Soviets representing one third of the working population of the SSR.

The All-Russian Central Executive Committee met in Moscow at the great Soviet, and settled upon the essentials of national policy. It elected a Central Executive Committee, which invited delegates from the central committees of all democratic organizations.

The Central Executive Committee elected from its midst eleven Commissars, to be chairmen of committees in charge of the different branches of government. The Commissars elected a chairman. If their leadership was unsatisfactory, the chairman could be recalled by popular vote.

Overall, it's pretty contradictory to claim that the USSR was completely undemocratic, when, as the results of the 1991 referendum on the preservation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics show, its dissolution was one of the most antidemocratic events of all Soviet history.

Find the extended version along with the references in my WordPress article: https://oktyabrvperedi.wordpress.com/2020/07/31/the-soviet-democratic-system/