Elections to the Soviets in the RSFSR under the Conditions of the NEP: Features and Results of Election Campaigns in 1922–1929

The article considers the functioning of the Soviet electoral system under the conditions of the NEP.For this purpose, a detailed analysis of the conduct of election campaigns to city and rural soviets in the RSFSR in 1922-1929 was carried out.The author identified the changes in the election law and electoral practices, the peculiarities of the behavior of various social groups during elections, the quantitative results of campaigns.Three main stages of the development of the electoral system in the study period were revealed.In the early 1920s anti-democratic election practices prevailed.The resulting decline in the authority of the soviets caused massive evasion from participating in elections among urban and rural residents.In the middle of the decade attempts were made to liberalize the electoral system.Rural and city soviets began to turn into real local self-government bodies.However, the decrease in the party's influence on the low-level authorities predetermined changes in electoral practices.At the end of the 1920s the methods of political and administrative pressure on voters prevailed again.It is concluded that the changes in the composition of the soviets that took place by 1930 were an indicator of the curtailment of the NEP that began on the initiative "from above".Rural soviets and district executive committees, from which persons undesirable to the authorities were eliminated, turned into reliable conductors of the agrarian policy of the Bolshevik Party and actively involved in forced collectivization and dekulakization.Deputies of city soviets and members of higher executive committees were also ready for "the great break".