Russian Constituent Assembly election, 1917
Encyclopedia
The elections to the Russian Constituent Assembly
Russian Constituent Assembly
The All Russian Constituent Assembly was a constitutional body convened in Russia after the October Revolution of 1917. It is generally reckoned as the first democratically elected legislative body of any kind in Russian history. It met for 13 hours, from 4 p.m...

that were organised as a result of events in the Russian Revolution of 1917
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...

 were held on November 25, 1917 (although some districts had polling on alternate days), around 2 months after they were originally meant to occur. The Bolsheviks believed that it would consolidate their power in the aftermath of the October Revolution, and prove that they were the majority holders of the public's popularity. It is generally reckoned as the first truly free election in Russian history.

The result was a clear victory for the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SRs) who polled far more votes than the Bolsheviks. However, the Bolsheviks had captured power in the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...

. The Bolsheviks allowed the Constituent Assembly to convene on 5 January 1918. However, the other parties refused to give their support to Lenin's idea of a Soviet Republic. He persuaded the rest of the Bolsheviks to leave in protest with him and later that day, it emerged that he had dissolved the Constituent Assembly after only one day. A short while after these events, oppositional political parties in Russia were banned. This action is considered to be the onset of the dictatorship of the proletariat
Dictatorship of the proletariat
In Marxist socio-political thought, the dictatorship of the proletariat refers to a socialist state in which the proletariat, or the working class, have control of political power. The term, coined by Joseph Weydemeyer, was adopted by the founders of Marxism, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, in the...

. Following the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, no elections based on party-lists would be held in Russia until the 1990 republic election
Russian legislative election, 1990
Legislative elections were held in the Russian SFSR on 4 March 1990. It was the first relatively free parliamentary election in Russia since 1917....

.

Various academic studies have given alternative results but all clearly indicate that whilst the Bolsheviks were clear winners in the urban centres, as well as taking around two-thirds of the votes of soldiers on the "Western Front", it was the SRs who topped the polls having won the massive support of the country's rural peasantry.

A study by Oliver Henry Radkey
Oliver Henry Radkey
Oliver Henry Radkey, Jr. was an American historian of Russian and Soviet history. He was a professor of Russian history at the University of Texas at Austin....

 found the following breakdown. (Note that the figures for Socialist Revolutionaries includes the Ukrainian Socialist Revolutionaries, while the Cadet figure includes other "rightists
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...

" as well. The total number of deputies returned for "Others" includes 39 Left Socialist-Revolutionaries
Left Socialist-Revolutionaries
In 1917, Russia the Socialist-Revolutionary Party split between those who supported the Provisional Government, established after the February Revolution, and those who supported the Bolsheviks who favoured a communist insurrection....

 and four Popular Socialists, as well as 77 others from various local groups.)
Party Votes Percent Deputies
Socialist-Revolutionary Party
Socialist-Revolutionary Party
thumb|right|200px|Socialist-Revolutionary election poster, 1917. The caption in red reads "партия соц-рев" , short for Party of the Socialist Revolutionaries...

 (SRs)
17,100,000 41.0 380
Bolsheviks
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...

9,800,000 23.5 168
Constitutional Democratic Party
Constitutional Democratic party
The Constitutional Democratic Party was a liberal political party in the Russian Empire. Party members were called Kadets, from the abbreviation K-D of the party name...

 (Cadets)
2,000,000 4.8 17
Menshevik
Menshevik
The Mensheviks were a faction of the Russian revolutionary movement that emerged in 1904 after a dispute between Vladimir Lenin and Julius Martov, both members of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party. The dispute originated at the Second Congress of that party, ostensibly over minor issues...

s
1,360,000 3.3 18
Others 11,140,000 26.7 120
Total (turnout 48.44%) 41,700,000 100 703


Results from a webpage published by Bryan Caplan
Bryan Caplan
Bryan Caplan is an American economist, a Professor of Economics at George Mason University, Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center, adjunct scholar of the Cato Institute, and blogger for Econlog. He is best known for his work in public choice theory and for his libertarian ideology.-Personal...

 of George Mason University
George Mason University
George Mason University is a public university based in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, south of and adjacent to the city of Fairfax. Additional campuses are located nearby in Arlington County, Prince William County, and Loudoun County...

: http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/bcaplan/museum/his1d.htm
Party Votes Percent
Socialist-Revolutionary Party
Socialist-Revolutionary Party
thumb|right|200px|Socialist-Revolutionary election poster, 1917. The caption in red reads "партия соц-рев" , short for Party of the Socialist Revolutionaries...

 (SRs)
17,943,000 40.4
Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....

s
10,661,000 24.0
Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionary Party
Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionary Party
Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionary Party was a political party in the Russian Empire from 1907-1917. It was simply referred as Essery and was one of the most influential in Ukraine as it was representing the interest of the major social class - peasants...

3,433,000 7.7
Constitutional Democratic Party
Constitutional Democratic party
The Constitutional Democratic Party was a liberal political party in the Russian Empire. Party members were called Kadets, from the abbreviation K-D of the party name...

 (Cadets)
2,088,000 4.7
Georgian Social Democratic (Menshevik) Party
Georgian Social Democratic (Menshevik) Party
200px|thumb|Menshevik Flag of Georgia, created by Iakob NikoladzeThe Social Democratic Labour Party of Georgia was a political party in Georgia. It was founded as the Georgian branch of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party separated itself from the Russian mother-party.The party dominated...

662,000 1.5
Musavat (Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...

)
616,000 1.4
Armenian Revolutionary Federation
Armenian Revolutionary Federation
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation is an Armenian political party founded in Tiflis in 1890 by Christapor Mikaelian, Stepan Zorian, and Simon Zavarian...

 (Dashnaktsutiun) (Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

)
560,000 1.3
Left Socialist-Revolutionaries
Left Socialist-Revolutionaries
In 1917, Russia the Socialist-Revolutionary Party split between those who supported the Provisional Government, established after the February Revolution, and those who supported the Bolsheviks who favoured a communist insurrection....

 (Borotbists
Borotbists
The Borotba Party was a peasant based left-nationalist political party in Ukraine. It arose in May 1918 after the split in the Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionary Party on the basis of supporting Soviet power in Ukraine. Similar to Russian Left-SR it got its name from the central organ of the...

)
451,000 1.0
Alash Orda
Alash Orda
Alash Orda was the name of the provisional Kazakh government between 13 December 1917 and 26 August 1920.The Alash Party proclaimed the autonomy of the Kazakh people in December 1917. Membership consists from 25 members and 15 member candidates...

 (Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...

)
407,000 0.9
Various liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

 parties
1,261,000 2.8
Various national minority
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...

 parties
407,000 0.9
Various socialists
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

401,000 0.9
Unaccounted 4,543,000 10.2


Region Bolshevik vote %
Total 23.4
Baltic Fleet 62.6
Black Sea Fleet 20.5
Northern Front 56.1
Western Front 66.9
Southwestern Front 29.8
Romanian Front 14.8
Petrograd 45
Moscow 47.9
Transcaucasia 4.6
Estonia 40.4
Livonia 71.9
Vitebsk 51.2
Minsk 63.1
Smolensk 54.9
Belorussia (previous 3) 57.5
Siberia 9.9
Workers 86.5


Party % Caucasian vote
Mensheviks  30.1
Dashnaks (Armenian nationalists)  18.5
SRs
Socialist-Revolutionary Party
thumb|right|200px|Socialist-Revolutionary election poster, 1917. The caption in red reads "партия соц-рев" , short for Party of the Socialist Revolutionaries...

 
5.6
Bolsheviks  4.6
Kadets  1.3
Unclassified 39.8
See Oliver Henry Radkey, The Election to the Russian Constituent Assembly.
The Mensheviks got just 3.3% of the national vote, but in the Transcaucasus they got 30.2% of the vote. 41.7% of their support came from the Transcaucasus. In Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

c.75% voted for them.
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