Vitebsk electoral district (Russian Constituent Assembly election, 1917)

The Vitebsk electoral district (Russian: Витебский избирательный округ) was a constituency created for the 1917 Russian Constituent Assembly election. The electoral district covered the Vitebsk Governorate.[3] White Russian separatism was a negligible force in the electoral district.[4]

Vitebsk
Former Civilian Constituency for the All-Russian Constituent Assembly
Former constituency
Created	1917
Abolished	1918
Number of members	9
Number of Uyezd Electoral Commissions	11
Number of Urban Electoral Commissions	2
Number of Parishes	195
Sources:	[1][2]

On May 9–10, 1917 the 1st Latgallian Latvian Congress was held, which demanded the separation of Latgale from the Vitebsk governorate and integration with Latvian.[5] In the Latgale region, which had an ethnic Latvian population and would later get annexed to independent Latvia, the Bolsheviks received over 50% of the votes cast.[6] Nevertheless, Latgale had a notably weaker Bolshevik vote than neighbouring Livonia (with 72% Bolshevik vote) and the Latvian Rifles regiment (96% Bolshevik vote), possibly linked to opposition to Bolshevik policies from the Catholic Church and Jewish business sectors.[7] The socio-economic conditions were different in Latgale than other Latvian regions, having a less educated and more religiously oriented population.[8]

Grigorii (Zvi Hirsh) Bruk, Zionist and former Kadet deputy of the First Duma, stood as candidate of the Jewish National Electoral Committee.[9]

Results

Vitebsk Party Vote % Seats List 5 - Bolsheviks 287,101 51.22 6 List 1 - Socialist-Revolutionaries 150,279 26.81 3 List 11 - Socialist-Federalists and Peasants of Latgale 26,990 4.82 List 7 - Jewish National Electoral Committee 24,790 4.42 List 9 - Mensheviks-Bund 12,471 2.22 List 10 - United Polish Organizations 10,556 1.88 List 13 - Peasants of Vitebsk Governorate 9,752 1.74 List 6 - Vitebsk Belarusian People’s Union and Orthodox Parishes of the Faith of the Polotsk Diocese 9,019 1.61 List 3 - Kadets 8,132 1.45 List 8 - Landowners and Old Believers 6,098 1.09 List 12 - Lettish Democrats-Nationalists 5,881 1.05 List 4 - Latgallian Popular Committee and Latgallian Socialist Party of Working People 5,118 0.91 List 2 - Popular Socialists 3,599 0.64 List 14 - Citizens of Boletskii Volost of Gorodsky Uezd 752 0.13 Total: 560,538 9 [10][11][12]

Deputies Elected Boldysh SR Bulat SR Gizetti SR Ceshejko-Sochacki Bolshevik Dzerzhinsky Bolshevik Kamenev Bolshevik Pinson Bolshevik Rivkin Bolshevik Sarkisyants Bolshevik [13]

Vitebsk town

In Vitebsk town, the Bolsheviks got 11,875 votes (34.8%), the Jewish National Electoral Committee 5,772 votes (16.9%), the Menshevik-Bund list 3,822 votes (11.3%), the White Russian/Orthodox list 3,058 votes (8.9%), the SRs 3,053 votes (8.9%), the Kadets 2,365 votes (6.9%), the Polish list 2,169 votes (6.4%), the Popular Socialists 958 votes (2.9%), the Lettish Democrats-Nationalists 395 votes (1.1%), the Landowners/Old Believers list 375 votes (1.1%), the peasants' list 197 votes (0.5%), Latgallian Socialist-Federalists 68 votes (0.2%), Latgallian nationalists 20 votes (0.1%) and 12 votes for the Boletsky volost citizens' list.[12]

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. 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.
5. Aija Brasliņa; Latvijas Nacional̄ais mak̄slas muzejs (2008). Latvijai topot no de facto līdz de iure: māksla un laikmets. Latvijas Nacionālais mākslas muzejs. p. 216.
6. Andrew Ezergailis; Gert von Pistohlkors (1982). Die baltischen Provinzen Russlands zwischen den Revolutionen von 1905 und 1917: Internationales Marburger Symposium zu Problemen der baltischen Sozial- und Kulturgeschichte. Böhlau. p. 258. ISBN 978-3-412-01582-4.
7. Josifs S̆teimanis (April 2002). History of Latvian Jews. East European Monographs. pp. 54–55. ISBN 978-0-88033-493-8.
8. Revue Canadienne D'études Slaves. Sir George Williams University. 1969. p. 646.
9. Simon Rabinovitch (1 October 2016). Jewish Rights, National Rites: Nationalism and Autonomy in Late Imperial and Revolutionary Russia. Stanford University Press. p. 237. ISBN 978-0-8047-9303-2.
10. 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.
11. Leonard Mikhaĭlovich Gavrilov; Institut istorii (Akademii︠a︡ nauk SSSR) (1962). Borʹba za ustanovlenie i uprochenie sovetskoĭ vlasti: khronika sobytiĭ, 26 okti︠a︡bri︠a︡ 1917 g.-10 i︠a︡nvari︠a︡ 1918 g. Izd-vo Akademii nauk SSSR. p. 337.
12. Л. М Спирин (1987). Россия 1917 год: из истории борьбы политических партий. Мысль. pp. 273–328.
13. Лев Григорьевич Протасов (2008). Люди Учредительного собрания: портрет в интерьере эпохи. РОССПЭН. ISBN 978-5-8243-0972-0.