Caucasian Front electoral district (Russian Constituent Assembly election, 1917)

The Caucasian Front electoral district (Russian: избирательном округе Кавказского фронта) was a constituency created for the 1917 Russian Constituent Assembly election. The electoral district covered the Caucasian Front of the Russian Army.[1] Moreover, it included the Urmia-Van Flotilla.[1]

The Socialist-Revolutionaries domined the soldiers soviets in the Caucasian Front. They used their dominance of the soviets to campaign for national defence and against the Bolsheviks' 'peace now' line. In several locations, the SRs excluded the Bolsheviks from local electoral committees.[2] However, whilst the Caucasian Front soldiers supported the defencists line of the SR in the election, they nevertheless 'voted with their feet' and deserted the army en masse.[2]

Results

The SRs won a landslide victory in the constituency.[2] The Soviet historian L. M. Spirin's account of the election result only gives a rough estimate, with 360,000 votes for the Socialist-Revolutionaries and 60,000 votes for the Bolsheviks.[3] The account of U.S. historian Oliver Henry Radkey only includes votes from Erzerum fortress, with 16,824 votes.[4] However, the Ukrainian vote in Erzerum was missing in the source material available to Radkey.[5]

Caucasian Front: Erzerum Fortress Party Vote % Socialist-Revolutionaries 6,537 38.86 Bolsheviks 6,211 36.92 Armenian Revolutionary Federation 1,948 11.58 Mensheviks 1,113 6.62 Kadets 357 2.12 Georgians 51 0.30 Unaccounted 607 3.61 Total: 16,824 [6]

Deputies Elected Berezov SR Donskoy SR Mikhailov SR Pyzhev SR Tumanov SR Badaev Bolshevik [7]

References

1. Олег Иванович Чистяков (1994). Российское законодательство X-XX веков: Законодательство эпохи буржуазно-демократических ревоюций. Юридическая лит-ра. pp. 176–177.
2. Ronald Grigor Suny (12 March 2019). The Baku Commune, 1917-1918: Class and Nationality in the Russian Revolution. Princeton University Press. pp. 178–179. ISBN 978-0-691-65703-5.
3. Л. М Спирин (1987). Россия 1917 год: из истории борьбы политических партий. Мысль. pp. 273–328.
4. Oliver Henry Radkey (1989). Russia goes to the polls: the election to the all-Russian Constituent Assembly, 1917. Cornell University Press. p. 125. ISBN 978-0-8014-2360-4.
5. Oliver Henry Radkey (1989). Russia goes to the polls: the election to the all-Russian Constituent Assembly, 1917. Cornell University Press. p. 164. ISBN 978-0-8014-2360-4.
6. Oliver Henry Radkey (1989). Russia goes to the polls: the election to the all-Russian Constituent Assembly, 1917. Cornell University Press. pp. 148–160. ISBN 978-0-8014-2360-4.
7. Лев Григорьевич Протасов (2008). Люди Учредительного собрания: портрет в интерьере эпохи. РОССПЭН. ISBN 978-5-8243-0972-0.