Smolensk electoral district (Russian Constituent Assembly election, 1917)

The Smolensk electoral district (Russian: Смоленский избирательный округ) was a constituency created for the 1917 Russian Constituent Assembly election.

Smolensk
Former Civilian constituency
for the All-Russian Constituent Assembly
Former constituency
Created1917
Abolished1918
Number of members10
Number of Uyezd Electoral Commissions12
Number of Urban Electoral Commissions1
Number of Parishes239
Sources:[1][2]

The electoral district covered the Smolensk Governorate.[3] 2 volost-level lists were barred from participating in the election.[4] List no. 3, endorsed by Smolensk Provincial Council of SR Party and the Smolensk Provincial Congress of Peasants Deputies, was headed by E.K. Breshko-Breshkovskaia and Andrei Argunov.[5] The Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik lists formed an electoral bloc. Likewise Lists 2 and 4 formed an electoral bloc.[6]

In Smolensk city, there was a significant Jewish population. However, Jewish parties did not field lists of their own in the constituency and Russian parties did not field Jewish candidates in significant numbers. The Smolensk City Committee of Zionist Organizations endorsed the Popular Socialist list, but without having any candidates of its own on the list. The Socialist-Revolutionary list included the Fareynikte leader Solomon Gurevich. The Menshevik list included Arn Vaynshteyn (a national General Jewish Labour Bund leader) and S.P. Shur (a local Bund leader).[7]

In Smolensk city the Bolshevik list was the most voted, with 11.339 votes (winning the vote in three out of four working-class precincts, as well as the military garrison). The Kadet list got 8,097 votes. The Menshevik and Socialist-Revolutionary lists got a 6,643 votes combined. However, the Menshevik list was the most voted in Precinct 8 (which had a large Jewish population).[7]

The Bolsheviks won some 75% of the vote in the rural Sychevka uezd, obtaining 23,984 out of 32,007 votes cast in the uezd.[8] In the 911 villages in the uezd, there were only 120 Bolshevik party members.[8]

Results

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Smolensk
Party Vote % Seats
List 7 - Bolsheviks 361,062 54.85 6
List 3 - Socialist-Revolutionaries and
Soviet of Peasants Deputies
250,134 38.00 4
List 1 - Kadets 29,274 4.45
List 6 - Mensheviks 7,901 1.20
List 8 - [Orthodox] Parish Non-Party Group 5,300 0.81
List 4 - Popular Socialists 2,210 0.34
List 5 - Nationalist Bloc 1,708 0.26
List 2 - Group Allied with Socialist Parties 645 0.10
Total: 658,234 10

[4][6]

Deputies Elected
Argunov SR
Egorov SR
Kutuzov SR
Podvitsky SR
Bobiński Bolshevik
Ivanov Bolshevik
Leszczyński Bolshevik
Lunacharsky Bolshevik
Pokrovsky Bolshevik
Remizov Bolshevik

[9]

References

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  1. ^ И. С. Малчевский (1930). Всероссийское учредительное собрание. Гос изд-во. pp. 140–142.
  2. ^ Б. Ф Додонов; Е. Д Гринько; О. В.. Лавинская (2004). Журналы заседаний Временного правительства: Сентябрь-октябрь 1917 года. РОССПЭН. pp. 206–208.
  3. ^ Татьяна Евгеньевна Новицкая (1991). Учредительное собрание: Россия 1918 : стенограмма и другие документы. Недра. p. 13.
  4. ^ a b Oliver Henry Radkey (1989). Russia goes to the polls: the election to the all-Russian Constituent Assembly, 1917. Cornell University Press. pp. 104–105. ISBN 978-0-8014-2360-4.
  5. ^ Michael C. Hickey (2011). Competing Voices from the Russian Revolution. ABC-CLIO. pp. 401–402. ISBN 978-0-313-38523-0.
  6. ^ a b Л. М Спирин (1987). Россия 1917 год: из истории борьбы политических партий. Мысль. pp. 273–328.
  7. ^ a b Hickey, M. C. (1998). Revolution on the Jewish Street: Smolensk, 1917. Journal of Social History, 31(4), 823–850. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789303
  8. ^ a b Donald J. Raleigh (1 September 2001). Provincial Landscapes: Local Dimensions of Soviet Power, 1917-1953. University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 36, 54. ISBN 978-0-8229-7061-3.
  9. ^ Лев Григорьевич Протасов (2008). Люди Учредительного собрания: портрет в интерьере эпохи. РОССПЭН. ISBN 978-5-8243-0972-0.