Electoral Behavior in Western Siberia (1937–1938): An Anthropological Dimension

The paper is devoted to the problems of electoral behavior of Soviet citizens during the elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR in 1937-1938.The actions of voters and party and state functionaries in Western Siberia are analyzed.The choice of the region is due to its specific position as one of the centers of mass economic and social processes in the 1930s.Work has been carried out to compare various forms and motivations of citizens' behavior with their gender, age, social and professional status, level of education and place of residence.A high level of loyalty and political diligence of functionaries and activists has been established in cities with established traditions and practices of implementing mass campaigns.At the same time, it was proved that in places with a low standard of living, high social tension and contradictions, the degree of conformism and protest activism was significantly higher.First of all, we are talking about rural areas, especially remote from the "hotbeds of modernization": MTS, railways, large enterprises.It was found that Soviet youth showed sincere loyalty much more often than mature citizens.This is due to the social experience of the Soviet people, who found a number of political regimes and changes in the official course of the country.This allowed adult citizens to develop a variety of behavioral strategies with the main goal of ensuring survival and, if possible, social success for themselves and their closest relatives.The scarcity of radical protest behavior has been proved; it has been established that such behavior also often meant personal devotion to the country and its microsocium, a desire to improve the current state of affairs.In addition, the significant role of religion and the traditional way of life in the formation of an alternative, individual point of view among citizens has been revealed.It is concluded that the electoral behavior of citizens as a whole satisfied the needs of the party state in strengthening its own legitimacy.