Minsk electoral district (Russian Constituent Assembly election, 1917)

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

Minsk
Former Civilian Constituency for the All-Russian Constituent Assembly
Former constituency
Created	1917
Abolished	1918
Number of members	16
Number of Uyezd Electoral Commissions	11
Number of Urban Electoral Commissions	2
Number of Parishes	204
Sources:	[1][2]

The electoral district consisted of the Minsk Governorate and the parts of the Vilna Governorate and the Kovno Governorate that were not under German occupation.[3][4] Notably, the soldiers based in the garrison in Minsk voted in the Western Front electoral district rather than the Minsk electoral district.[5]

White Russian separatism was a negligible force in the electoral district.[6] The conservative press reported a quiet and orderly election in the province.[7]

The most voted list in the city of Minsk was the Jewish National Electoral Committee, which obtained 12,688 votes (35.5%), followed by the Bolsheviks with 9,521 votes (26.7%), the Polish list 4,242 votes (11.9%), Menshevik-Bund 2,870 votes (8%), Kadets 2,057 votes (5.8%), Poalei-Zion 1,463 votes (4.1%), Russian Democrats 1,446 votes (4.1%), SRs 977 votes (2.7%), United Jewish Socialist Labour Party 278 votes (0.8%), Gromada 160 votes (0.4%) and Landowners 49 voters.[5]

Results

According to U.S. historian Oliver Henry Radkey, whose account is used for the results table below, stated that his count of the result in Minsk was largely complete, only lacking 3 out of 25 volosts in Mozyrsky Uyezd. These 3 volosts had 16,755 eligible voters.[8] Per Soviet historian L. M. Spirin, there were two lists (List no. 4 - Kalinkavichy Soviet of Peasants Deputies and List no. 7 - Unity) that were registered but did not figure in the vote count.[5]

Minsk Party Vote % List 9 - Bolsheviks 579,087 63.13 List 12 - Bloc of Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Soviet of Peasants Deputies 181,673 19.81 List 2 - Jewish National Electoral Committee 65,046 7.09 List 8 - Polish Electoral Committee 36,882 4.02 List 5 - Mensheviks-Bund 16,277 1.77 List 6 - Kadets 10,724 1.17 List 11 - Russian Democratic Party 10,040 1.09 List 10 - Jewish Soc.-Dem. Labour Party (Poalei Zion) 6,184 0.67 List 1 - United Socialist Jewish Labour Party (S.S. and E.S.) 4,880 0.53 List 3 - Union of Landowners 3,465 0.38 List 13 - Belorussian Socialist Gromada 2,998 0.33 Total: 917,256 [9][5]

Deputies Elected Balay SR Drizo SR Gamzagurdi SR Nesterov SR Brutzkus Jewish National Electoral Committee Alibekov Bolshevik Freiman Bolshevik Gromashevsky Bolshevik Kozhuro Bolshevik Krivoshein Bolshevik Lander Bolshevik Schlegel Bolshevik Seleznev Bolshevik Taganov Bolshevik [10]

References

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. Минск (Беларус). Институт хисторый парти (1957). Великая Октябрьская социалистическая революция в Белоруссии; документы и материалы. Гос. изд-во БССР. p. 235.
5. Л. М Спирин (1987). Россия 1917 год: из истории борьбы политических партий. Мысль. pp. 273–328.
6. Oliver Henry Radkey (1989). Russia goes to the polls: the election to the all-Russian Constituent Assembly, 1917. Cornell University Press. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-8014-2360-4.
7. Oliver Henry Radkey (1989). Russia goes to the polls: the election to the all-Russian Constituent Assembly, 1917. Cornell University Press. pp. 48–49. ISBN 978-0-8014-2360-4.
8. Oliver Henry Radkey (1989). Russia goes to the polls: the election to the all-Russian Constituent Assembly, 1917. Cornell University Press. pp. 161–163. ISBN 978-0-8014-2360-4.
9. 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.
10. Лев Григорьевич Протасов (2008). Люди Учредительного собрания: портрет в интерьере эпохи. РОССПЭН. ISBN 978-5-8243-0972-0.