The Bolsheviks viewed themselves as representing an alliance of workers and peasants and memorialized that understanding with the Hammer and Sickle on the flag and coat of arms of the Soviet Union.

On the other hand, Bakunin saw the most important element of the Commune as being the Parisian workers' rejection of the State in all its forms and continued to call for a revolutionary alliance of workers and peasants in a decentralized organization.