Bessarabia electoral district (Russian Constituent Assembly election, 1917)

The Bessarabia electoral district (Russian: Бессарабский избирательный округ) was a constituency created for the 1917 Russian Constituent Assembly election.

Bessarabia
Former Civilian Constituency for the All-Russian Constituent Assembly
Former constituency
Created	1917
Abolished	1918
Number of members	13
Number of Uyezd Electoral Commissions	8
Number of Urban Electoral Commissions	2
Number of Parishes	225
Sources:	[1][2]

The electoral district covered the Bessarabia Governorate.[3] Radkey's account is substantially incomplete.[4] According to Radkey, only the results from Kishinev and 3 out of 8 uezds could be gathered by scholars.[5] The 5 uezds left out of the count were more populous.[6] Two other sets have been published: one by Moldovan historian Gheorghe Cojocaru, providing a detailed account of the civilian votes, covering almost two thirds of the ones cast in Bessarabia, and a reportedly complete set provided by Soviet author G. Ustinov.[7] 17 lists were in the fray in Bessarabia. The demographics of the district were divided between Rumanians (48%), Ukrainians (20%) and Russians (8%). Among the elected deputies, SR deputies were Jewish or Russian, whilst the peasant soviet deputies were Rumanian.[5]

Results

Bessarabia Party Vote (Radkey) % (Radkey) % (Rus) List 2 - Socialist-Revolutionaries 85,349 33.63 31.6 List 1 - Soviet of Peasants' Deputies 69,085 27.22 35.3 List 9 - Jewish National Electoral Committee 28,785 11.34 10.2 List 8 - Bolsheviks- Menshevik-Internationalists 25,569 10.07 8.2 List 5 - Kadets 16,545 6.52 n/a List 6 - Moldovan National Party and the Bessarabian Union of Credit and Savings Associations 6,643 2.62 2.1 List 3 - Union of Landowners 5,246 2.07 n/a List 11- Ukrainian Socialist Organizations 4,241 1.67 4.1 List 4 - Bund-Mensheviks 1,438 0.57 n/a List 10 - Bessarabian Popular Socialist Labour Party 376 0.15 n/a List 7 - Socialist Party of the Workers of the South-East Railway ? n/a List 12 - Union of Citizens of German Nationality ? n/a List 13 - Cooperative Group ? n/a List 14 - 3rd section of the Telitsky volost of Bendery uezd ? n/a List 15 - Inhabitants of Telitsky volost ? n/a List 16 - 4th section of the Telitsky volost ? n/a List 17 - Poalei Zion ? n/a Unaccounted 10,536 4.15 n/a Total: 253,813 n/a [8][9][7]

Deputies Elected Cojocari Peasants Soviets Erhan Peasants Soviets Inculet Peasants Soviets Katoros Peasants Soviets Rudev Peasants Soviets Aleksandrov SR Imas SR Slonim SR Sukhovikh SR Sukhovikh SR Lurie Menshevik-Bund Urusov Kadet [10]

As per Victor Serge, some 600,000 people took part in the vote, with the Peasant soviet obtaining some 200,000 votes, SRs 229,000 votes, Jewish national list 60,000, Kadets 40,000 and the Moldavian National Party 14,000.[11]

In Kishinev city the Jewish National Electoral Committee got 9,054 votes (31.3%), SRs got 5,617 votes (19.4%), the Bolsheviks 5,449 votes (18.8%), the Kadets 3,024 votes (10.5%), the Union of Landowners 1,956 votes (6.8%), the Menshevik-Bund alliance 1,441 votes (5%), the Ukrainian list 1,088 votes (3.8%), the peasants list 472 votes (1.6%), the Moldovan National Party 407 votes (1.4%), the Popular Socialists 276 votes (0.9%), Poalei Zion 51 votes (0.2%), the German list 47 votes (0.2%), the Socialist Party of the Railway Workers 33 votes (0.1%), the cooperative list 11 votes and 16 votes for the remaining 3 lists.[9] Some 12,000 votes were cast in the Kishinev garrison (60% voter turnout); The Internationalist list got 4,859 votes, the SRs 4,689 votes, 845 for the Ukrainian socialists and 704 for the Kadets.[12]

References

1. И. С. Малчевский (1930). Всероссийское учредительное собрание. Гос изд-во. pp. 140–142.
2. Б. Ф Додонов; Е. Д Гринько; О. В.. Лавинская (2004). Журналы заседаний Временного правительства: Сентябрь-октябрь 1917 года. РОССПЭН. pp. 206–208.
3. Татьяна Евгеньевна Новицкая (1991). Учредительное собрание: Россия 1918 : стенограмма и другие документы. Недра. p. 13.
4. Oliver Henry Radkey (1989). Russia goes to the polls: the election to the all-Russian Constituent Assembly, 1917. Cornell University Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-8014-2360-4.
5. Oliver Henry Radkey (1989). Russia goes to the polls: the election to the all-Russian Constituent Assembly, 1917. Cornell University Press. pp. 107–110. ISBN 978-0-8014-2360-4.
6. Oliver Henry Radkey (1989). Russia goes to the polls: the election to the all-Russian Constituent Assembly, 1917. Cornell University Press. pp. 161–163. ISBN 978-0-8014-2360-4.
7. Rus, Ionaș Aurelian (2009). "The Roots and Early Development of Moldovan-Romanian Nationalism in Bessarabia (1900–1917)". Romanian Review of Political Sciences and International Relations. VI (2): 17–19. ISSN 2285-2107.
8. Oliver Henry Radkey (1989). Russia goes to the polls: the election to the all-Russian Constituent Assembly, 1917. Cornell University Press. pp. 148–160. ISBN 978-0-8014-2360-4.
9. Л. М Спирин (1987). Россия 1917 год: из истории борьбы политических партий. Мысль. pp. 273–328.
10. Лев Григорьевич Протасов (2008). Люди Учредительного собрания: портрет в интерьере эпохи. РОССПЭН. ISBN 978-5-8243-0972-0.
11. Victor Serge (15 January 2017). Year One of the Russian Revolution. Haymarket Books. p. 432. ISBN 978-1-60846-609-2.
12. Leonard Mikhaĭlovich Gavrilov; Institut istorii (Akademii︠a︡ nauk SSSR) (1962). Borʹba za ustanovlenie i uprochenie sovetskoĭ vlasti: khronika sobytiĭ, 26 okti︠a︡bri︠a︡ 1917 g.-10 i︠a︡nvari︠a︡ 1918 g. Izd-vo Akademii nauk SSSR. p. 282.