Did Industrialization increase support for the radical left? Evidence from the 1917 Russian revolution

• The geography of popular support for the radical left in Russia in 1917 is uneven. • A greater presence of industrial workers strengthens support for the radical left. • Radicalization is stronger in places that exhibit markers of late industrialization. We analyze the 1917 Constituent Assembly elections – the only free universal elections in Russia before the 1990s – to estimate the effect of industrialization on the radicalization of the electorate in a late industrializing economy. Our empirical strategy exploits IV estimation based on the proximity of Carboniferous strata and other initial conditions of industrialization. We find that a larger share of industrial workers increases voting for the radical left, and the effect is stronger in places that exhibited more pronounced features of late industrialization. We also show that industrialization increases electoral polarization rather than simply shifting the electorate to the left.