Electoral Corps of Soviet Cities: Problems of Social Identification and Reflection in Electoral Statistics of the 1920s

Soviet electoral statistics of the 1920s.in addition to information about the progress and results of elections, it contained indicators that reflected socio-economic and political processes, and its quality largely determines ideas about society and Soviet bodies.The article analyzes the size and structure of the urban electoral corps of the 1920s.in relation to census data of 1923 and 1926.Analysis of census data and election statistics revealed significant discrepancies (overstatement of the number of workers by 14 %, understatement of the number of employees by 26 %, and small town owners by 45 %).The reasons for the distortion of electoral statistics were the artificial construction of the electoral corps, which did not reflect the real social structure of society, continuous changes in the criteria for recording various groups of voters and pressure on election organizers to achieve high rates of participation of the proletarian strata.Soviet electoral statistics reflected the general problems characteristic of statistical accounting in the country in the 1920s and 1930s, providing distorted data for decision-making based on ideologically formed indicators and a schematic vision of social processes by the country's leadership, which led to erroneous decisions in various fields.