Ресей Конституциялық Ассамблеясы сайлауы: Тарих және нәтижелер

Election in the Russian Republic

Elections to the Russian Constituent Assembly were held on 25 November 1917, although some districts had polling on alternate days, around two months after they were originally meant to occur, having been organized as a result of events in the February Revolution. They are generally recognised to be the first free elections in Russian history. The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly was also approved by the Left Socialist Revolutionaries and anarchists; both groups were in favour of a more extensive democracy. Various academic studies have given alternative results. However, all indicate that the Bolsheviks were clear winners in the urban centres, and also took around two thirds of the votes of soldiers on the Western Front. Nevertheless, the Socialist Revolutionary party topped the polls, winning a plurality of seats (no party won a majority) on the strength of support from the country's rural peasantry, who were for the most part one issue voters, that issue being land reform. Some modern Marxist theoreticians have contested the view that a one party state was a natural outgrowth of the Bolsheviks' actions. George Novack stressed the initial efforts by the Bolsheviks to form a government with the Left Socialist Revolutionaries and bring other parties such as the Mensheviks into political legality. Tony Cliff argued the Bolshevik Left Socialist Revolutionary coalition government dissolved the Constituent Assembly due to a number of reasons. They cited the outdated voter rolls which did not acknowledge the split among the Socialist Revolutionary party and the assemblies conflict with the elected Russian Congress of the Soviets as an alternative, democratic structure.

The convocation of a Constituent Assembly had been a long standing demand of the democratic and popular movements in Tsarist Russia. In the later phase of the February Revolution, Tsar Nicolas II abdicated on March 2, 1917. The Russian Provisional Government was formed and pledged to carry through with holding elections for a Constituent Assembly. Consensus emerged between all major political parties to go ahead with the election. Nevertheless, the various political parties were divided over many details on the organization of the impending election. The Bolsheviks demanded immediate elections, whilst the Socialist Revolutionaries wanted to postpone the vote for several months for it not to collide with the harvest season. Right wing forces also pushed for delay of the election. On March 19, 1917 a mass rally was held in Petrograd, demanding female suffrage. The march gathered some 40,000 participants. The protest was led by Vera Figner and Poliksena Shishkina Iavein. It moved from the Petrograd City Duma to the Tauride Palace, and the demonstrators refused to vacate the palace grounds before the Provisional Government and the Soviet committed to female suffrage. On July 20, 1917, the Provisional Government issued a decree awarding voting rights for women aged 20 years and above. In May the political parties agreed on main principles of the election (proportional representation, universal suffrage and secret ballot). A special electoral commission was set up, composed of multiple lawyers and legal experts. The following month September 17, 1917 was set as the election date. The new Constituent Assembly was supposed to have its first meeting on September 30, 1917. Between the finalization of candidate lists and the election, the October Revolution broke out. The October Revolution ended the reign of the Provisional Government. A new Soviet government took charge of the country, the Council of People's Commissars. Nevertheless, the new government pledged to go ahead with the election and that its rule remained provisional until its authority would be confirmed by the Constituent Assembly. Electoral districts were generally set up on (pre revolutionary) governorate or ethnic oblast boundaries. Moreover, there were electoral districts for the different army groups and fleets. No official electoral census exists. The estimated population of eligible voters at the time (excluding occupied territories) has been estimated at around 85 million; the number of eligible voters in the districts where polling took place has been estimated at around 80 million. Each party had a separate ballot with a list with names of candidates, there was no general ballot. The voter would either have received copies of different party lists in advance or at the polling station. The voter would select one list, place it in an envelope, seal it and place it in the box. If any name was scratched, the vote would be invalid.

The voting began on November 12–14, 1917. However, only in 39 districts did the election take place as scheduled. In many districts the voting occurred in late November or early December, and in some remote places the vote took place only in early January 1918.

The Socialist Revolutionaries emerged as the most voted party in the election, swaying the broad majority of the peasant vote. The agrarian programmes of the SR and Bolshevik parties were largely similar, but the peasantry were more familiar with the SRs. The Bolsheviks lacked an organizational presence in many rural areas. In areas where the Bolshevik electoral campaign had been active (for example, near to towns or garrisons) the peasant vote was somewhat evenly divided between SRs and Bolsheviks. Moreover, whilst the SRs enjoyed widespread support among the peasantry, the party lacked a strong organizational structure in rural areas. The party was highly dependent on peasant union, zemstvos, cooperatives and soviets. On the issue of war and peace, the SR leadership had vowed not to enter into a separate peace with the Central Powers. The SR leadership condemned the peace talks initiated by the Bolsheviks, but to what extent the SR's were prepared to continue the war was unclear at the time. Along with the Mensheviks, the SRs supported the notion of engaging with other European socialist politicians to find a settlement to the ongoing World War. But whilst by the time of the election the Left SRs had constituted a separate party, the split was not completed in local SR party branches until early 1918. This was despite the Left SR's eventual opposition to the closure of the Constituent Assembly by the Bolsheviks. Per Serge's account, 40 of 339 elected SR deputies were leftists and 50 belong to Chernov's centrist faction.

In 1917 the Central Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) had begun to allow mass membership, without consulting with Lenin. On July 1, 1917 the Central Committee sent out an instruction to local party organizations to build a broad democratic unity ahead of the elections, to reach out to Menshevik Internationalists, left wing SRs and trade unions. The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) campaigned for bread, peace and a government of Soviets. The election result confirmed the marginalization of the Mensheviks, obtaining a little over a million votes. In a fifth of the constituencies, pro war Mensheviks and Internationalists ran on competing slates and in Petrograd and Kharkov the defencists had set up their own local organizations. Nearly half of the Menshevik vote came from Georgia. Kadets campaigned for national unity, law and order, honour commitments to the allies of Russia and 'honorable peace'. The Kadets condemned Bolsheviks in election campaign. Whilst the Kadets emerged as the main losers in the election, they did take a sizable share of the votes in the largest cities. They had also lost a large share of their habitual Jewish intelligentsia vote to Jewish national coalition lists.

The cooperative societies held an emergency congress on October 4, 1917, at which it was decided that they would contest the Constituent Assembly elections directly.

Most non Russian voters opted for national minority parties. In the case of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Socialist Revolutionary Party dominated the 4 electoral districts of the Ukrainian peasantry. Non Ukrainian urban populations largely voted for Russian parties. Over half a million soldiers and officers in the army and navy voted for Ukrainian parties supporting the Central Rada, making the Ukrainians the third force among military voters. However, in Belarus, Belarusian nationalist groups gathered less than 1% of the votes. In Transcaucasus the vote was divided between Georgians (voting for Mensheviks), Armenians (voting for the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, also known as Dashnaksiun) and Azeris (voting for Musavat and other Muslim groups). Tatar and Bashkir lists gathered 55% of the votes in Ufa. In July 1917 the First All Kazakh Congress was held, establishing the Alash Party as a national political party. The party called for the 'liberation of the Kazakh people from colonial yoke'. Ahead of the election, party committees were formed in Semipalatinsk, Omsk, Akmolinsk and Uralsk. In the Semirechie, Syr Darya and Horde electoral districts Alash did not field lists of their own, but placed candidates of other Muslim lists. Four days ahead of the vote the newspaper Qazaq published the Alash programme, including a call for a democratic federal republic with equality of nationalities. In 14 electoral districts, 2 or more Jewish lists were in the fray. The Jewish national lists were confronted by the various Jewish socialist parties; the General Jewish Labour Bund, the Jewish Social Democratic Labour Party (Poalei Zion) and the United Jewish Socialist Workers Party (Fareynikte). The Bund carried out 200 electoral meetings in White Russia (with a total attendance of about 127,000), and in the Ukraine the party held 2 3 electoral meetings weekly. In Odessa confrontations between socialist and non socialist Jewish parties led to physical violence. Jewish national lists elected Iu. D. Brutskus, A. M. Goldstein, the Moscow rabbi Yaakov Mazeh. V. I. Temkin, D. M. Kogan Bernsthein, N. S. Syrkin and O. O. Gruzenberg (who was then close to Zionist circles). David Lvovich was elected on SR Fareynikte list and the Bundist G. I. Lure was elected on a Menshevik Bund list. The Buryat National Committee had previously been linked to the SRs, but ahead of the election relation was broken. Buryat SRs were not given prominent places on candidate lists, and the Buryat National Committee ended up contesting on its own.

Radical Democrats (rightists) got some 19,000 votes.

No fully complete account of the results of the 1917 election exists, as in several districts the holding of the election or the tallying of votes was interrupted. The numbers in the table below represent accounts from the voting in 70 out of 81 electoral districts, although not all of those districts have complete voting tallies. The tally of elected deputies stems from 74 districts. PartyVotes%ListscountedSeatsParty of Socialist RevolutionariesIncludes lists such as the joint SR Menshevik list in [[Olonets electoral district (Russian Constituent Assembly election, 1917) 17,256,911 37.61 67 324BolsheviksIncludes all joint Bolshevik/Menshevik Internationalist lists. Includes the joint Bolshevik Menshevik list in [[Vologda electoral district (Russian Constituent Assembly election, 1917) 10,671,387 23.26 64 183Ukrainian Socialist Revolutionary Party and alliesIncludes all Ukrainian SR led lists in Ukraine as well as the Ukrainian SR led lists in the army districts 5,819,395 12.68 16 110Kadets 2,100,262 4.58 63 16MensheviksIncludes joint Menshevik Bund lists, and the joint Menshevik Bolshevik list in [[Tobolsk electoral district (Russian Constituent Assembly election, 1917) 1,385,500 3.02 61 18Cossacks 908,326 1.98 9 17Alash Orda 767,632 1.67 4 15Musavat Party 615,816 1.34 1 10Jewish national lists 575,007 1.25 18 6Armenian Revolutionary Federation 558,400 1.22 1 10Other Muslim listsIncludes the Astrakhan Muslim Group, the Kazan Governorate Muslim Assembly, the Orenburg Muslim Association, the Perm Muslims Bashkirs, Perm Muslims, Taurida Muslims, Tobolsk Muslims, Western Transcaucasus Muslims, the Muslim National Council in Ufa, the Muslim Democrats in Steppes, the Tatar list in Steppes, and the Muslim Union of Vyatka Governorate. 439,611 0.96 9Muslims (Socialist Revolutionaries) 304,864 0.66 1 5Popular SocialistsIncludes the joint list with the Cheremi National Union in Vyatka, which elected the sole Popular Socialist deputy nationwide. The various alliances with cooperative movements and other socialist groups are listed separately. 240,791 0.52 39 1Chuvash 235,587 0.51 3 3All Russian Union of Landowners and Farmers 229,264 0.50 20 0Polish lists 211,272 0.46 7 2Orthodox lists 210,973 0.46 18 0Bashkir Federalists 200,161 0.44 3 5Germans 194,623 0.42 9 1Muslim Shuro Islamia 183,558 0.40 2 5Peasants lists 165,097 0.36 13 10Muslim Socialist Bloc 159,770 0.35 1 3Muslim Socialist Committee of Kazan 153,151 0.33 1 2Russian rightistsIncludes the different rightist and monarchist lists. 146,067 0.32 13 1Old Believers 118,362 0.26 11 0Other Muslim socialist listsIncludes the All Muslim Socialist Bloc of Nizhny Novgorod, the Muslim Socialists in the Romanian Front, the Socialist Group of Muslim Soldiers of the South Western Front, the Kirghiz Socialists in the Steppe district, the Party of the Muslim Socialist Democratic Bloc in Tambov and the Muslim Socialist on the Western Front. 100,890 0.22 6 0SR DefencistsIncludes dissident right wing SR lists that contested against the official SR party lists 99,542 0.22 5 0Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour PartyIn many constituencies the party contested on the Ukrainian SR led lists. This count is only for the 2 districts where the Ukrainian Social Democrats contested alone. 85,772 0.19 2 0Hummet 84,748 0.18 1 1Right wing socialist blocsVarious local alliances of Popular Socialists, cooperatives, right wing Mensheviks, right wing SRs, Plekhanov's Unity group, etc. 82,673 0.18 8 0All Fergana List of Soviet of Deputies of Muslim Organizations 77,282 0.17 1 9Muinil Islam Society 76,849 0.17 1 2Estonian Democratic Bloc 68,085 0.15 1 2Ittehad 66,504 0.14 1 1Estonian Labour Party 64,704 0.14 1 2Buryat National Committee 56,331 0.12 2 2Union of Ukrainian Peasants, Ukrainian Refugees and the Organization of Tatar Socialist Revolutionaries 53,445 0.12 1 0Peasants Union Popular Socialists alliance 50,780 0.11 1 1German socialists 42,148 0.09 1 0Lettish Peasant Union 35,112 0.08 2 1United Jewish Socialist Labour Party (S. S. and E. S.) 34,644 0.08 7 0BundIn most constituencies where the Bund was active, it contested on joint lists with the Mensheviks. This line only counts the 3 constituencies were the Bund ran its own lists. 32,986 0.07 3 0National Bloc (Ukrainians, Muslims, Poles and Lithuanians)29,8210.0610Uighur Dungan alliance 28,386 0.06 1 0Commercial Industrial lists 27,198 0.06 8 0Popular Socialist Cooperative lists 27,014 0.06 5 0Socialist Federalists and Peasants of Latgale 26,990 0.06 1 0Poalei Zion 26,331 0.06 10 0Unity 24,272 0.05 10 0Menshevik Defencists 23,451 0.05 2 0Georgian National Democrats 22,499 0.05 1 0Ukrainian Socialist FederalistsOn 2 out of 3 lists, contested jointly with the Popular Socialists 22,253 0.05 3 0Menshevik InternationalistsDoes not include any results for joint lists with the Bolsheviks 21,814 0.05 6 0Cooperative movement 19,663 0.04 7 0Georgian Socialist Federalists 19,042 0.04 1 0Estonian Socialist Revolutionary Party 17,726 0.04 1 0Estonian Radical Democratic Party 17,022 0.04 1 0Estonian List 15,963 0.03 1 0All Russian Peasants Union 15,246 0.03 2 0Finnish Socialists 14,807 0.03 1 0International Unity of Christian Democrats (Roman Catholics) 14,382 0.03 1 0Dissident leftist SR listsIncludes the leftist dissident lists, that contested against the official SR party lists. In locations where the left faction of the SRs dominated the official party list, the result is included in the main SR count. 14,148 0.03 4 0Armenian Populist Party 13,099 0.03 1 0Non Partisan Public Figures 12,050 0.03 1 0Leftist SRs Ukrainian SRs Polish Socialist Party alliance 11,871 0.03 1 0Estonian Social Democratic Association 9,244 0.02 1 0Siberian Autonomists 9,224 0.02 2 0Greeks in Mariupol 9,143 0.02 1 0Belarusian Socialist Assembly 8,445 0.02 3 0FolksparteiIn many locations the Folkspartei joined Jewish national lists. 8,185 0.02 2 0Other UkrainiansIncludes 4 Ukrainian lists, outside of Ukraine, with unclear party identity. 7,838 0.02 4 0All Russian League for Women's Equality 7,676 0.02 2 0Landowner Old Believer lists 7,139 0.02 2 0Moldovan National Party 6,643 0.01 1 0Petrograd organizations of the Ukrainian Soc. Dem. Labour Party, the Ukrainian SRs and the United Jewish Socialist Labour Party (S. S. and E. S.) 6,216 0.01 2 0Lettish Democrats Nationalists 5,881 0.01 1 0Latgallian Popular Committee and Latgallian Socialist Party of Working People 5,118 0.01 1 0Independent Union of Workers, Soldiers and Peasants 4,942 0.01 1 0Tsentroflot 4,769 0.01 1 0Local citizens' groups 4,725 0.01 3 0Democratic Non partisan Group of Members of District Committees of Sergiev Posad 4,497 0.01 1 0Bloc of Traders, Industrialists, Artisans and Homeowners 4,421 0.01 1 0Ukrainian Toilers List 3,810 0.01 1 0Christian Democratic Party 3,797 0.01 1 0E. Abramov 3,776 0.01 1 0Lettish Soldiers 3,386 0.01 1 0White Russian Organizations 2,523 0.01 1 0National Socialist Bloc (Ukrainian Socialist Bloc and Nationalist Bloc) 2,346 0.01 1 0Pskov United Democratic Groups of Townspeople, Peasants and Workers 2,337 0.01 1 0Officers' Union 2,018 0.00 1 0Agricultural Artisan Commercial Industrial group 2,001 0.00 1 0Non Partisan Group 1,948 0.00 1 0Nationalist Bloc 1,708 0.00 1 0List without title 1,657 0.00 1 0Homeowners and Landowners of Novgorod Governorate 1,178 0.00 1 0Ukrainian National Republican Group 1,070 0.00 1 0Toiling Peasants 1,020 0.00 1 0Employees of Government Agencies 1,005 0.00 1 0Other lists with less than 1000 votes 5,833 0.01 13 0Muslim Organizations of Samarkand Oblast ? 1 4Yakutian Labour Union of Federalists ? 1 1Kalmyk ? 1 1Unaccounted 294,530 0.64Total 45,879,381 100.00 629 767Sources: Radkey (1989), Spirin (1987), Hovannisian (1967), Vestnik Evrazii (2004)

There are various different accounts of the election result, with varying numbers. Many accounts on the election result originate from N. V. Svyatitsky's account, who was himself elected as an SR deputy to the Constituent Assembly. + Lenin's account of the 1917 Russian Constituent Assembly result(54 districts) Bloc Votes %Party Votes %Party of the Proletariat9,023,96325Bolsheviks9,023,96325Petty bourgeoisie democratic parties22,616,06462Socialist Revolutionaries20,900,00058Mensheviks668,0642Popular Socialists312,0001Unity25,000Cooperative51,000Ukrainian Soc. Dem.95,000Ukrainian Socialists507,0001German socialists44,000Finnish Socialists14,000Parties of landowners and bourgeoisie4,539,63913Kadets1,856,6395Association of Rural Proprietors and Landowners215,0001Right groups292,0001Old Believers73,000Jews550,0002Muslims576,0002Bashkirs195,000Letts67,000Polish155,000German130,000White Russians12,000Lists of various groups and organizations 418,0001

More recent studies often use Svyatitsky's 1918 account as their starting point for further elaboration. Radkey uses a number of uses broad categories in presenting the result party wise: SRs (sometimes distinguished between left/right), Bolsheviks, Mensheviks (sometimes divided between Menshevik Internationalists and Right wing pro war Mensheviks), Other Socialists (with subcategories) Kadets, Special interests (including subcategories peasants, landowners, Cossacks, middle class, others), Religious (Orthodox, Old Believers, others), Ukrainian (with subcategories), Turkic Tatar (with subcategories), Other Nationalities (with subcategories).

Protasov (2004) presents the party affiliation of 765 deputies elected from 73 electoral districts: 345 SRs, 47 Ukrainian SRs, 175 Bolsheviks, 17 Mensheviks, 7 Ukrainian Social Democrats, 14 Kadets, 2 Popular Socialists, another 32 Ukrainian socialists (possibly SRs or social democrats), 13 Muslim Socialists, 10 Dashnaks, 68 from other national parties, 16 Cossacks, 10 Christians and one clergyman. Another 55 deputies were supposed to have been elected from another 8 electoral districts. Of the over 700 deputies known by name, over 400 participated at first session and only session of the Constituent Assembly (240 of the assembled belonged to the SR bloc). Several prominent politicians had stood as candidates in multiple electoral districts. The Central Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) had named Lenin as their candidate in 5 districts: Petrograd City, Petrograd Province, Ufa, Baltic Fleet and Northern Front. Lenin was also nominated from Moscow City. On November 27 (December 10) the All Russia Committee for Elections to the Constituent Assembly requested members of the Constituent Assembly who had been returned by several areas to present a written statement indicating the electoral district for which they accepted election. Having been elected by several areas, Lenin, too, presented such a statement.

The All Russian Constituent Assembly (Всероссийское Учредительное собрание, Vserossiyskoye Uchreditelnoye sobraniye) convened only for 13 hours, from 4 p. m. to 5 a. m., 18–19 January 1918 [O. S. 5–6 January 1918], whereupon it was dissolved by the Bolshevik controlled All Russian Central Executive Committee, making the Bolshevik Third All Russian Congress of Soviets the new governing body of Russia.