1917 Moscow District Duma elections explained

Elections to Moscow District Dumas were held on . It was the second of the three general elections in Moscow in 1917, between the City Duma election of June 1917 and the All-Russian Constituent Assembly election in November 1917. The Bolshevik Party won a landslide victory, obtaining an absolute majority in 11 out of 17 districts and a plurality in another 3 districts. The Kadet Party finished in second place, able to retain most of their support base from the June 1917 Moscow City Duma election whilst the support for the moderate socialists who had won the June 1917 election collapsed. The electoral participation was low.

1917 administrative district reform

Following the 1917 February Revolution, roles previously performed by the Czarist police and city administration in Moscow were taken over by local citizens committees. These citizens committees in turn operated as local organs of the . Over fifty such committees existed by mid-1917. After the election of a new City Duma in June 1917 a process to regulate the local administrations in the city began. On, the Commission on District Dumas was created, in which all major political parties were represented. The Commission on District Dumas was tasked with the reorganization of districts into larger units and technical preparations for district-level elections. The Commission on District Dumas outlined the plan for creating 17 new administrative districts. On the Commission on District Dumas adopted a resolution stating that it was 'considered desirable to hold elections to district dumas on the basis of universal, direct, secret and equal suffrage in September'.

On the Moscow City Duma adopted a resolution deciding to replace the now defunct pre-revolutionary police sectors with 17 administrative districts 'in order to organize the public city life'.[1] Notably, these geographic boundaries of these 17 new administrative districts did not line up with the boundaries of the 11 soviet districts that had emerged in March 1917.[2]

By the decision of the Moscow City Duma on, elections for District Dumas (municipal assemblies) to govern the 17 new administrative districts were scheduled for - thus providing roughly a month for the political parties to conduct their election campaigns. Administrative districts with a population of up to 75,000 eligible voters would elected a District Duma consisting of 30 members, districts whose population ranged from 75,000 to 100,000 voters would elect 35 members, districts with from 10,000 to 125,000 eligible voters 40 members, districts with 125,000 to 150,000 eligible voters would elect 45 members, and lastly districts with more than 150,000 eligible voters would elect District Dumas with 50 members.

Areas from the previous Czarist administrationNew district name№ of District Duma seatsMap of the new districts
1.Myasnitskaya Sector in Bely Gorod, Yauzskaya Sector in Zemlyanoy Gorod, Sretenskaya SectorMyasnitsko-Yauzsky District50
2.Tverskaya Sector in Bely GorodGorodskoi District45
3.Prechistenskaya Sector and Arbatskaya Sector in Zemlyanoy GorodPrechistensko-Arbatsky District 45
4.Yakimanskaya Sector in Zemlyanoy GorodKaluzhsky District40
5.Pyatinitskaya Sector in Zemlyanoy Gorod, without Pyatnitsky District50
6.Third Precinct of the Rogozhsky Sector, Simonovsky Precinct in the suburbsSimonovsky District35
7.The First and Second Precincts of the Rogozhsky Sector, a part of the Third Precinct of the Lefortovo Sector, Novoandronyevsky Precinct in the suburbsRogozhsky District45
8.Second Precinct of Lefortovo Sector, Cherkizovo, BlagushaPreobrazhensky District35
9.Second and Fourth Precincts of the Meshchansky Sector, a part of the First Precinct of Lefortovo Precinct, Bogorodsky Precinct, the Pogonny-Losiny Ostrov suburbSokolnichesky District40
10.Second Precinct of the Yauzsky Sector in Zemlyanoy Gorod, Basmannye Sector, parts of the First and Third Precincts of the Lefortovo Sector, SyromyatnikiLefortovo District50
11.Alekseevsky Precinct in the suburbs, as well as the suburbs,,,,, MarfinoAlekseevsky District30
12.First and Third Precincts of the Meshchansky Sector, First and Third Precincts of the Sushchevsky SectorMeshchansky District45
13.Sushchevsky Sector and Mar'insky Precinct in the suburbsSushchevsky-Mar'insky District50
14.Petrovsko-RazumovskoyeButyrsky District30
15.new entityPetrovsky District30
16.Presnensky SectorPresnensky District45
17.Khamovnicheskaya Sector, and suburbs Poklonnaya Gora and Khamovnichesky District45
[2] [3] [4]

Parties in the fray and electoral campaigning

Overall the electoral campaigns were dull and muted, as both the political parties and the electorate showed little interest in the District Duma elections. The Moscow press (dailies like Zemlya i Volya, Vlast Naroda, Vpered, Trud and Svobodny Narod) provided very limited coverage on the election campaign. Most of the high-ranking political leaders were too busy with other national political issues to spend time campaigning a local-level election. Some political parties had presented their slate of candidates in the last minute before the deadline.

On the District Duma Election Commission approved the submitted lists of candidates, marking the formal beginning of the election campaign. 18 lists were registered, but List 9 was removed to avoid confusion with List 6. The parties with the largest numbers of candidates were the Socialist-Revolutionaries (648 candidates), Bolsheviks (558 candidates), Kadets (518 candidates) and the Mensheviks (347 candidates). In two districts there was no Menshevik list in the fray.

By the time of the District Duma election campaign the United Social Democratic faction was in shambles. They had stopped publishing their newspaper Proletary in June 1917 due to financial problems and many of their leaders had now defected to other factions. Nevertheless they fielded their own slate in 8 districts. They had initially adopted a resolution calling for forming a joint electoral bloc with the Bolsheviks. But the Moscow Committee of the Bolshevik Party vehemently rejected the invitation. The United S-D leader Nikolai Rozhkov then reached out to the Mensheviks, but they also rejected an electoral alliance with Rozhkov's faction (based on experiences of having had a joint electoral bloc with the United S-D in the June 1917 City Duma election). On the right, the Octobrists were still trying to recover from their set-backs in the June 1917 City Duma election and opted not to field any candidature of their own. Instead the Octobrists threw their weight behind the Kadets, supplying the Kadet electoral campaign with significant financial resources.

A notable feature of the Moscow District Duma election was the emergence of several 'non-party' lists; Home-Owners Union (list 7), Business Group (list 11), Union of Apartment Tenants (list 12), Association of Tenants of Rooms, Corners and Beds (list 13), Non-Party Group (list 14), Union of Parents of Students (list 15, for which no votes were recorded in any district), Economic and Business Group (list 16), Group of Public Workers (list 17) and Group of Residents of the Khamovnichesky District (list 18). These groups tended to play on slogans of 'less talk, more action', and arguing that the business acumen of their leaders would make them better representatives than the main political parties. Commenting on the phenomenon of the 'non-party lists' in the Moscow District Duma election, Josef Stalin wrote that that "[t]here is no doubt that under the flag of non-party lists are hiding pro-Cadet bourgeois who are afraid to come out openly and who are trying to sneak into district dumas by contraband".

The group that attached more significance to the District Duma election was the Bolshevik Party. The Bolsheviks felt emboldened by the results of the recent Petrograd City Duma election. Following the political line laid out by the Sixth Party Congress, the Moscow Committee of the Bolshevik Party sought to use the election campaign to promote the party line among the masses and mobilized all of its capacities for agitation and propaganda. Bolshevik candidates were reviewed by the Municipal Commission of the Moscow Committee of the party, to be confirmed by a general meeting of the Moscow Committee and Bolshevik deputies.

Mikhail Vladimirsky led the Bolshevik electoral campaign. The trade union leader Mikhail Tomsky helped organize the campaign. The Bolshevik election campaign sought to link the general political line of the party with the every-day issues of workers, soldiers and the urban poor. The Bolshevik election campaign included slogans on housing shortage, bread queues and capitalist sabotage of the Moscow economy. The campaign argued that through local governance, problems of food and economy could be resolved locally in Moscow. The party organ Sotsial-Demokrat reported in detail on work of the District Duma Election Commission. Sotsial-Demokrat would repeatedly publish calls for vigilance on electoral irregularities, calling on readers to report any complaints. In parallel to the District Duma election campaign, the Bolsheviks won control over the Moscow Soviet in the election of soviet deputies on .

Bolshevik candidates in the 1917 Moscow District Duma election!№!District!Top candidate of the Bolshevik Party
1 Myasnitsko-Yauzsky District
2 Gorodskoi District
3 Prechistensko-Arbatsky District Vadim Podbelsky
4 Kaluzhsky District Georgy Oppokov (Lomov)
5 Pyatnitsky District Josef Fradkin (Boris Volin)
6 Simonovsky District Nikolai Bukharin
7 Rogozhsky District Ivan Skvortsov
8 Preobrazhensky District
9 Sokolnichesky District
10 Lefortovo District Vasily Yesin
11 Alekseevsky District I. P. Frolov
12 Meshchansky District Josef Fradkin (Boris Volin)
13 Sushchevsky-Mar'insky District )
14 Butyrsky District
15 Petrovsky District
16 Presnensky District Yemelyan Yaroslavsky
17 Khamovnichesky District
[5]

Results

Voting took place on, a Sunday.[6] [7] [8] [9] There was a high degree of voter abstention.[6] Out of the 1,028,700 eligible voters, some 37% cast their ballots in the election.

Bolshevik victory

The result of the District Duma election was a decisive victory of the Bolsheviks.[6] [8] Their vote had increased by 162% since the June 1917 City Duma election.[7] The working-class areas tended to have higher rates of participation, which contributed to increasing the Bolshevik share of votes.[8] The Bolsheviks won an absolute majority of the votes in 11 out of the 17 districts.[8] In these 11 districts, where the Bolshevik vote ranged to 50.8% to 69.4%, there was a working-class majority and many military garrisons were located there.[10] In the remaining 6 districts (Myasnitsko-Yauzsky, Gorodskoi, Prechistensko-Arbatsky, Alekseevsky, Meshansky and Presnensky) where there were large numbers of aristocratic and petty bourgeoisie elements among the voters.[10] The Bolsheviks obtained about a third of the votes in these 6 districts.[10] Only in 3 inner-city districts did the Kadets win more votes than the Bolsheviks. In the 'silk-stocking' Prechistensko-Arbatsky District the Kadets won an absolute majority of the votes and the Bolsheviks scored their lowest vote share compared to all other Moscow districts.[7] Bolsheviks leaders elected to the District Dumas included Rosalia Zemlyachka, Yemelyan Yaroslavsky, Ivan Skvortsov-Stepanov, Mikhail Vladimirsky,), Mikhail Olminsky,, Vadim Podbelsky and .[9]

Per Koenker (2014) there was a notable turnout among chemical industry workers (who represented some 7% of the Moscow work force), among whom the Bolsheviks had a strong support.[8] But on the other hand she argues that districts with metal and textile industry workers tended to have lower participation, even though the metal industry workers was a group known to support the Bolsheviks.[8]

Polarization of the electorate

The Kadets received a similar amount of votes in each district as in the June 1917 City Duma election.[6] [8] Per Koenker (2014) it is probable that the Kadets continued to appeal to literate and female voters, which were groups among whom the Bolsheviks were weaker.[8] In the period between the June and September elections (during which the July Days and the Kornilov Affair had occurred), the electorate had been polarized along class lines between the Kadets and the Bolsheviks.[8] [7] Parties that had a more mixed class character were routed.[8]

In the June 1917 City Duma election, the Socialist-Revolutionaries had been the most-voted party in all sectors of the city. Now the SR vote had collapsed, losing votes everywhere.[8] The sharpest decline of SR votes took place in the Preobrazhensky District, an area of recent industrial expansion.[8] The smallest decline of SR vote occurred in the Petrovsky District, which had a significant population of soldiers.[8] The Menshevik vote also collapsed.[6] But according to Koenker (2014) the Bolshevik vote had grown mainly at the expense of the SRs, as in areas with the greatest increases of Bolshevik votes where places where the Mensheviks had a weak performance in the June 1917 City Duma election.[8]

Evacuees

Per Koenker (2014) there is correlation between the number of evacuees from the western provinces. In districts were the evacuees was a larger group (at most they consistuted 16% of the electorate in a single district) the SRs and Mensheviks fared better. However, Koenker states that it is not certain whether the evacuees were more likely to vote for the SRs and Mensheviks or whether the presence of large numbers of refugees prompted other residents to be swayed towards defencist positions.[8]

Military votes

Commenting on the election result the Kadet newspaper Russkie Vedomosti complained that "[t]he victory of the Bolsheviks was significantly facilitated by [the voting at] military units".[9] Sotsial-Demokrat published results from the voting at 15 out the 24 military units in the city. At these 15 military units the Bolsheviks obtained 14,467 votes out of 17,819 total votes cast.[9] [11] At a number of military units the Bolsheviks obtained more than 90% of the votes cast.[9] At the heavy artillery workshops 2,286 votes went to the Bolsheviks out of a total of 2,347 votes cast (97.4%).[9] [11] [12]

Detailed results

Summary of election result

List №PartyVotes%Seats
5Bolsheviks199,33751.47%359
1Kadet Party101,82626.29%184
3Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries54,41014.05%103
4Mensheviks15,7944.08%32
10Council of Working Intelligentsia Deputies4,0071.03%6
2Popular Socialist Party3,8010.98%7
8United Social Democrats2,3140.60%4
12Union of Apartment Tenants1,5190.39%4
14Non-Party Group1,4820.38%7
7Home-Owners Union8830.23%1
13Association of Tenants of Rooms, Corners and Beds4890.13%1
16Economic and Business Group4850.13%1
17 Group of Public Workers433 0.11%1
6Unity4130.11%0
11Business Group620.02%0
18 Group of Residents of the Khamovnichesky District12 0.00%0
There are some minor discrepancies between different sources regarding the exact vote count between some of the contemporary reporting on the election.

Votes per list and district

DistrictLists
Name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 11 12 13 14 16 17 18 Total
1 Myasnitsko-Yauzsky District 11,547 507 4,435 910 8,109 101 295 25,904
2 Gorodskoi District 9,814 363 3,057 676 7,306 197 21,413
3 Prechistensko-Arbatsky District 13,238 563 2,315 836 4,407 251 87 997 22,694
4 Kaluzhsky District 7,182 196 2,386 1,007 13,554 101 186 24,612
5 Pyatnitsky District 6,762 280 4,231 1,489 24,334 883 96 353 62 38,490
6 Simonovsky District 2,254 2,287 9,979 348 343 23 514 15,748
7 Rogozhsky District 4,259 151 3,864 15,831 519 94 368 83 485 25,654
8 Preobrazhensky District 2,774 2,130 995 14,055 301 20,255
9 Sokolnichesky District 3,603 100 3,909 2,071 12,171 445 383 22,682
10 Lefortovo District 6,772 177 4,639 972 20,759 61 296 319 33,995
11 Alekseevsky District 949 317 1,870 200 667 4,003
12 Meshchansky District 9,183 227 3,886 1,252 10,803 201 252 25,804
13 Sushchevsky-Mar'insky District 8,954 487 4,045 1,443 16,406 500 250 191 32,276
14 Butyrsky District 1,671 177 1,308 288 5,256 8,700
15 Petrovsky District 1,493 1,926 420 8,632 98 433 13,002
16 Presnensky District 6,230 295 5,842 1,835 10,499 372 25,073
17 Khamovnichesky District 6,090 278 3,201 1,283 15,366 462 270 12 26,962
Total 101,826 3,801 54,410 15,794 199,337 413 883 2,314 4,007 62 1,519 489 1,482 485 433 12 387,267
[8] [9] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21]

Percentage of votes per list and district

DistrictLists
Name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 11 12 13 14 16 17 18
1 Myasnitsko-Yauzsky District 44.58 1.96 17.12 3.51 31.30 0.39 1.14
2 Gorodskoi District 45.83 1.70 14.28 3.16 34.12 0.92
3 Prechistensko-Arbatsky District 58.33 2.48 10.20 3.68 19.42 1.11 0.38 4.39
4 Kaluzhsky District 29.18 0.80 9.69 4.09 55.07 0.41 0.76
5 Pyatnitsky District 17.57 0.73 10.99 3.87 63.22 2.29 0.25 0.92 0.16
6 Simonovsky District 14.31 14.52 63.37 2.21 2.18 0.15 3.26
7 Rogozhsky District 16.60 0.59 15.06 61.71 2.02 0.37 1.43 0.32 1.89
8 Preobrazhensky District 13.70 10.52 4.91 69.39 1.49
9 Sokolnichesky District 15.88 0.44 17.23 9.13 53.66 1.96 1.69
10 Lefortovo District 19.92 0.52 13.65 2.86 61.06 0.18 0.87 0.94
11 Alekseevsky District 23.71 7.92 46.71 5.00 16.66
12 Meshchansky District 35.59 0.88 15.06 4.85 41.87 0.78 0.98
13 Sushchevsky-Mar'insky District 27.74 1.51 12.53 4.47 50.83 1.55 0.77 0.59
14 Butyrsky District 19.21 2.03 15.03 3.31 60.41
15 Petrovsky District 11.48 14.81 3.23 66.39 0.75 3.33
16 Presnensky District 24.85 1.18 23.30 7.32 41.87 1.48
17 Khamovnichesky District 22.59 1.03 11.87 4.76 56.99 1.71 1.00 0.04
All 17 districts 26.29 0.98 14.05 4.08 51.47 0.11 0.23 0.60 1.03 0.02 0.39 0.13 0.38 0.13 0.11 0.00
[14]

Seat distribution per District Duma

District 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 10 12 13 14 16 17 Total
1 Myasnitsko-Yauzsky District 22 1 8 2 16 1 50
2 Gorodskoi District 21 1 6 2 15 45
3 Prechistensko-Arbatsky District 26 1 5 2 9 2 45
4 Kaluzhsky District 12 4 2 22 40
5 Pyatnitsky District 9 6 2 32 1 50
6 Simonovsky District 5 5 22 1 1 1 35
7 Rogozhsky District 7 7 28 1 1 1 45
8 Preobrazhensky District 5 4 2 24 35
9 Sokolnichesky District 6 7 4 21 1 1 40
10 Lefortovo District 10 7 2 31 50
11 Alekseevsky District 8 3 11 2 6 30
12 Meshchansky District 16 7 2 19 1 45
13 Sushchevsky-Mar'insky District 14 1 6 2 26 1 50
14 Butyrsky District 6 1 4 1 18 30
15 Petrovsky District 4 4 1 20 1 30
16 Presnensky District 11 1 10 3 19 1 45
17 Khamovnichesky District 10 1 5 2 26 1 45
Total 184 7 103 32 359 1 4 6 4 1 7 1 1 710
[17] [18] [21] [22] [23] [16] [24] [25]

Comparison with June 1917 City Duma election

BolshevikKadetsSoc-Rev.MenshevikOthersTotal
DistrictVotes+/–%+/–Votes+/–%+/–Votes+/–%+/–Votes+/–%+/–Votes+/–%+/–Votes+/–
1 Myasnitsko-Yauzsky District 8,109 +5,669 31.30 +25.77 11,547 -638 44.58 +16.94 4,435 -20,579 17.12 -39.62 910 -2,080 3.51 -3.27 903 -554 3.49 +0.18 25,904 -18,182
2 Gorodskoi District 7,306 +5,579 34.12 +29.29 9,814 -398 45.83 +17.30 3,057 -17,111 14.28 -42.08 676 -2,011 3.16 -4.35 560 -433 2.62 -0.16 21,413 -14,374
3 Prechistensko-Arbatsky District 4,407 +3,172 19.42 +16.31 13,238 -1,852 58.33 +20.29 2,315 -15,251 10.20 -34.09 836 -3,399 3.68 -6.99 1,898 +362 8.36 +4.49 22,694 -16,968
4 Kaluzhsky District 13,554 +6,732 55.07 +37.77 7,182 +1,369 29.18 +14.44 2,386 -18,901 9.69 -44.30 1,007 -3,907 4.09 -8.37 483 -105 1.96 +0.47 24,612 -14,812
5 Pyatnitsky District 24,334 +15,967 63.22 +46.75 6,762 -493 17.57 +3.29 4,231 -24,829 10.99 -46.22 1,489 -3,881 3.87 -6.70 1,674 +930 4.35 +2.88 38,490 -12,306
6 Simonovsky District 9,979 +7,481 63.37 +54.73 2,254 -406 14.31 +5.12 2,287 -17,144 14.52 -52.66 -2,664 -9.21 1,228 -440 7.80 +2.03 15,748 -13,173
7 Rogozhsky District 15,831 +13,082 61.71 +53.78 4,259 +372 16.60 +5.38 3,864 -17,220 15.06 -45.78 -5,870 -16.94 1,700 +639 6.63 +3.56 25,654 -8,997
8 Preobrazhensky District 14,055 +6,379 69.39 +50.21 2,774 -846 13.70 +4.65 2,130 -20,613 10.52 -46.33 995 -4,761 4.91 -9.47 301 +86 1.49 +0.95 20,255 -19,755
9 Sokolnichesky District 12,171 +8,668 53.66 +43.03 3,603 -811 15.88 +2.49 3,909 -13,697 17.23 -36.21 2,071 -4,374 9.13 -10.43 928 -46 4.09 +1.13 22,682 -10,260
10 Lefortovo District 20,759 +11,543 61.06 +43.90 6,772 -950 19.92 +5.54 4,639 -21,461 13.65 -34.98 972 -4,822 2.86 -7.93 853 -3,995 2.51 -6.52 33,995 -19,685
11 Alekseevsky District 1,870 +952 46.71 +35.12 -704 -8.89 949 -4,362 23.71 -43.37 317 -617 7.92 -3.88 867 +816 21.66 +21.01 4,003 -3,915
12 Meshchansky District 10,803 +7,779 41.87 +33.65 9,183 +2,433 35.59 +17.25 3,886 -18,035 15.06 -44.49 1,252 -3,252 4.85 -7.38 680 +69 2.64 +0.98 25,804 -11,006
13 Sushchevsky-Mar'insky District 16,406 +9,645 50.83 +40.22 8,954 -742 27.74 +12.53 4,045 -32,975 12.53 -45.55 1,443 -7,766 4.47 -9.98 1,428 +382 4.42 +2.78 32,276 -31,456
14 Butyrsky District 5,256 +3,306 60.41 +48.30 1,671 -395 19.21 +6.37 +1,308 -8,722 15.03 -47.29 288 -1,518 3.31 -7.91 177 -65 2.03 +0.53 8,700 -7,394
15 Petrovsky District 8,632 +7,524 66.39 +58.65 1,493 -2,886 11.48 -19.11 1,926 -5,679 14.81 -38.32 420 -653 3.23 -4.27 531 +382 4.08 +3.04 13,002 -1,312
16 Presnensky District 10,499 +7,621 41.87 +35.27 6,230 -106 24.85 +10.32 5,842 -23,988 23.30 -45.11 1,835 -2,099 7.32 -1.70 667 +39 2.66 +1.22 25,073 -18,533
17 Khamovnichesky District 15,366 +11,749 56.99 +48.03 6,090 +195 22.59 +7.98 3,201 -21,971 11.87 -50.49 1,283 -3,787 4.76 -7.80 1,022 +409 3.79 +2.27 26,962 -13,405
Total 199,337 +132,848 51.47 +40.80 101,826 -6,858 26.29 +8.84 54,410 -302,538 14.05 -43.26 15,794 -57,461 4.08 -7.68 15,900 -1,524 4.11 +1.55 387,267 -235,533
[8]

Aftermath

The Bolshevik victory in the District Duma election contributed to the decline of political power of the Moscow City Duma.[7] As the newly-elected District Dumas gathered, the Bolshevik deputies participated in a unified and disciplined way.[26]

On the Council of District Dumas was constituted at the initiative of the Bolsheviks.[7] The Council of District Dumas denounced the Moscow City Duma for 'taking the side of the counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie', and called for the building a inter-district organization to challenge the power of City Duma.[7] The District Dumas and the Council of District Dumas were abolished in March 1918, as the Moscow Soviet began to function as the sole city government.[44]

Elwood (1976) argued that the 1917 Moscow District Duma elections "loom large in [Soviet] Russian historiography because Lenin attached so much importance to them and used them as proof that the time for the seizure of power had come, or, if you like, that a Bolshevik government would be, not only possible, but also legitimate, because it would have mass support in Petrograd and Moscow.[45] A few days after the election, Lenin wrote the article This Crisis Has Matured, in which he stated that the "vote in the elections to the district dumas in Moscow is in general one of the most striking symptoms of the profound change which has taken place in the mood of the whole nation. [...] There can be no shadow of doubt that we, together with the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, now have a majority in the Soviets, in the army, and in the country."[45] [46] Trotsky would later write that "throughout all these [municipal] elections there appears like a red thread one unchanging fact: the growth of the Bolsheviks. The elections to the district dumas of Moscow astonished the country especially with the sharp change they indicated in the mood of the masses."[47] In 1933 Osip Piatnitsky wrote in Communist International that "[t]he sharpening of the revolutionary crisis and the drift of the proletarian and semi-proletarian masses of Moscow in the direction of Bolshevism were revealed most strikingly during the municipal elections to the district dumas held on September 24. [...] The elections to the district dumas revealed a particularly striking change of sentiment amongst the soldier masses, 90 per cent of whose votes were given to the Bolsheviks. This shift among the soldiers, which was a direct result of agitation and organisation, carried out, despite all obstacles, in the garrisons by the Military Bureau of the Bolshevik Party, reflected at the same time the growing revolutionary sentiments amongst the toiling masses of the peasantry".[48]

The Kadets also framed the Moscow District Duma elections as a victory for their party, as they had routed their moderate socialist opponents.[49] The Kadets saw the low electoral participation as an indication of the seriousness of the national problems Russia were facing, whereby the populace would be preoccupied with other matters than municipal politics.[6]

Effectively, the local governance reform that the District Duma elections were supposed to produce was never fully implemented.[2] The Moscow City Duma, dominated by the now routed Socialist-Revolutionaries, blocked all attempts to formalize the legislative powers or transfer funds to the newly-elected District Dumas.[7] After the October Revolution the Moscow City Duma and the District Dumas would be abolished.[2] In the November 1917 Constituent Assembly election in Moscow the Bolsheviks obtained 366,148 votes (47.88%) and the Kadets 263,859 votes (34.50%).[50]

Notes and References

  1. Управа района Южнопортовый города Москвы. Формирование района
  2. И. Г Тараканова. Центральные архивы Москвы: путеводитель по фондам, Vol. 1. Мосгорархив, 1999. pp. 285-286
  3. https://books.google.at/books?id=0mcfAQAAMAAJ Листовки Великого Октября: каталог Центрального музея революции СССР
  4. Nikolaæi Nikolaevich Ovsëiìannikov. Октябрьское восстание в Москве: сборник документов, статей и воспоминаний под редакцией Н. Овсянникова. Gosudarstvennoe izdatel§stvo, Moskovskoe otdelenie, 1922. p. 101
  5. http://elib.shpl.ru/ru/nodes/43264-locale-nil-166-24-sen Список наших кандидатов, предложенных в гласные Районных Дум
  6. Rosenberg, William G. The Russian Municipal Duma Elections of 1917: A Preliminary Computation of Returns. Soviet Studies, vol. 21, no. 2, 1969, pp. 131–63. JSTOR
  7. Timothy J. Colton. Moscow: Governing the Socialist Metropolis. Harvard University Press, 1995. pp. 84-85, 92, 819
  8. Diane P. Koenker. Moscow Workers and the 1917 Revolution. Princeton University Press, 2014. pp. 136-137, 210, 212-214
  9. В. В. ДЕМИДОВ. Борьба московских большевиков за массы в период выборов в городскую и районные думы в 1917 году. Издание Томского государственного университета, 1952. pp. 74-75, 77, 79, 83, 91-92
  10. https://books.google.at/books?id=D0sKAAAAIAAJ Вопросы истории КПСС: орган Института марксизма-ленинизма при ЦК КПСС, Issues 7-12
  11. http://elib.shpl.ru/ru/nodes/43266-locale-nil-168-27-sen#mode/grid/page/1/zoom/8 Солдаты за большевиков
  12. http://elib.shpl.ru/ru/nodes/40870-locale-nil-167-27-sen Муниципальная жизнь
  13. Victor Serge. Year One of the Russian Revolution - The Insurrection of 25 October 1917
  14. http://elib.shpl.ru/ru/nodes/40871-locale-nil-168-28-sen Результаты выборовъ
  15. http://elib.shpl.ru/ru/nodes/40878-locale-nil-175-6-okt Итоги выборовъ въ районныя думы
  16. http://elib.shpl.ru/ru/nodes/32786-locale-nil-213-28-sen Московская Хроника
  17. http://elib.shpl.ru/ru/nodes/30332-locale-nil-154-28-sen результаты выборовъ въ районныя думы
  18. http://elib.shpl.ru/ru/nodes/30333-locale-nil-155-29-sen районныя думы
  19. http://elib.shpl.ru/ru/nodes/77435-locale-nil-219-28-sen выборовъ въ районныя думы
  20. http://elib.shpl.ru/ru/nodes/77436-locale-nil-220-29-sen результаты выборовъ въ районныя думы
  21. http://elib.shpl.ru/ru/nodes/40209-locale-nil-221-28-sen результаты выборовъ въ районныя думы
  22. http://elib.shpl.ru/ru/nodes/43533-locale-nil-233-28-sen Итоги выборовъ въ районныя думы
  23. http://elib.shpl.ru/ru/nodes/43534-locale-nil-234-29-sen Выборы въ районныя думы
  24. http://elib.shpl.ru/ru/nodes/43535-locale-nil-235-30-sen Итоги районныхъ выборовъ
  25. https://books.google.at/books?newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&id=ElMvAAAAMAAJ Год 1917, Россия, Петроград: очерки, статьи, воспоминания
  26. Александр Янович Грунт. Москва 1917-й: революция и контрреволюция. Nauka, 1976. p. 234
  27. https://books.google.at/books?id=GmQ7AQAAIAAJ Летопись героических дней, 1917: хроника важнейших историко-партийных и революционных событий в Москве и Московской губернии
  28. Константин Васильевич Островитянов. Думы о прошлом: из истории первой русской революции, большевистского подполья и октябрьских боев против контрреволюции в Москве. Наука, 1967. pp. 216, 220
  29. https://books.google.at/books?id=_N8eAAAAMAAJ Великая Октябрьская социалистическая революция: енциклопедия
  30. Мордух Бениаминович Погребинский. Председатель ВРК. Московский рабочий, 1986. p. 51
  31. Константин Островитянов. Избранные произведения: Политическая экономия досоциалистических формаций. Наука, 1972. p. 15
  32. Н. И Родионова. Герои Октября: книга об участниках Великой Октябрьской социалистической революции в Москве. Московский рабочий, 1967. p. 58
  33. https://books.google.at/books?newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&id=Rm0wAQAAIAAJ Еврейская военная энциклопедия
  34. https://books.google.at/books?id=PFofAQAAMAAJ Деятели революционного движения в России: Семидесятые годы: вып.1. А-Е. вып.2. Ж-Л. вып.3. М-Р. вып.4. С-Я
  35. Moskovskii voenno-revoliutsionnyi komitet: Dokumenty. 1968. p. 68
  36. https://books.google.at/books?id=9SwvAAAAMAAJ История советского рабочего класса в шести томах: Рабочий класс в Октябрьской революции и на защите ее завоеваний, 1917-1920 гг
  37. http://elib.shpl.ru/ru/nodes/25042?query=++%22%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B9+%D0%B4%D1%83%D0%BC%D1%8B%22+1917#mode/inspect/page/36/zoom/4 Октябрь на Красной Пресне : воспоминания к X годовщине
  38. https://books.google.at/books?newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&id=ppGtpHvhZzwC Исторический архив, Issues 4-6
  39. https://books.google.at/books?newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&id=ppGtpHvhZzwC Исторический архив, Issues 4-6
  40. Мамаев А.В.. Переход Московского городского самоуправления под контроль большевиков (конец 1917 – начало 1918 гг.) . Вестник «История и политология» . 2013 . 4 . 44–56 .
  41. Alekseĭ Leontʹevich Narochnit͡skiĭ. Москва--энциклопедия. Sov. ėnt︠s︡iklopedii︠a︡, 1980. p. 636
  42. Дмитрий Дмитриевич Кувшинский. Очерки истории советской военной медицины: под ред. Д.Д. Кувшинского и А.С. Георгиевского. Медицина, 1968. p. 43
  43. Eduard Aleksandrovich Kornilevich. Liudi reveliutsiennege podviga.... 1985. p. 165
  44. Mauricio Borrero. Hungry Moscow: Scarcity and Urban Society in the Russian Civil War, 1917-1921. Peter Lang, 2003. p. 59
  45. Ralph Carter Elwood. Reconsiderations on the Russian Revolution. Slavica Publishers, 1976. p. 53
  46. V. I. Lenin. The Crisis Has Matured
  47. Leon Trotsky. The attempted counter-revolution. V. Gollancz, 1933. p. 287
  48. [Osip Piatnitsky]
  49. William G. Rosenberg. Liberals in the Russian Revolution. Princeton University Press, 2019. p. 248
  50. Book: Oliver Henry Radkey. Russia goes to the polls: the election to the all-Russian Constituent Assembly, 1917. registration. 1989. Cornell University Press. 978-0-8014-2360-4. 148–160.