“Granting... the Rights of Broad Democracy” or “a Certain Maneuver of the Communists”? Re-elections of Rural Councils in Siberia (October 1924 – March 1925)

The article explores the history of rural council elections in Siberia, which took place from October 1924 to March 1925.The election campaign was quite extraordinary, with a combination of different processes such as primary elections, cancellation of results in some areas, and early re-elections.The study is based on detailed analysis of regulations, party and Soviet bodies' meeting transcripts, statistical and information reports, and materials from various periodicals.It finds out that in mid-October 1924, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee approved several regulations regarding rural councils' competence, organization principles, and financing sources.At the same time, the high-ranking party and Soviet leadership unexpectedly changed their political course to significantly increase the proportion of non-party members in the composition of rural councils.The USSR Central Election Commission failed to get local election commissions to take into account new directives, and this resulted in the councils' executive committees cancelling the results of already-held elections and appointing new ones.In Siberia, almost all larger administrative divisions, except the remote ones, were affected by the cassation.In consequence of the snap elections by the end of March 1925, the total number of rural councils in Siberia increased from 3,485 to 3,677, but their membership decreased from 61,901 to 60,169 people.Compared to the autumn campaign, on average, the share of peasants in rural councils increased from 93.7 to 94.6 %, and non-party members increased from 87.1 to 94.5 %.The article concludes that the election campaign was experimental, and this caused a contradictory and wary attitude towards it among the peasantry.At the same time, snap elections had crucial ideological significance since they contributed to the establishment of ideas about the democratization of the electoral process in the RSFSR in the public mind.