Question by : What kind of elections were planned in Russia in December 1917?
I was watching Nicholas and Alexandra, and Alexander Kerensky said that “if the people want Lenin, they can vote for him in December [1917]”.
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Answer by Board Certified Scrotologist
Kerensky was the temporary democratic leader between Czar Nicholas II and the Bolsheviks. The interesting thing about the election of 1917 was the V.I. Lenin and the Bolshevics actually lost by a fairly large margin to the Social Democrats (Socialists), and their leader Viktor Chernov. However, the Bolshevics refused to deal with the defeat, and seized power regardless in early 1918, and banned all other parties.
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Spellbound says
The elections were to the Constituent Assembly. The elections to this body was promised by the Provisional Government, but they decided to defer them until after the end of WWI. The Bolsheviks stated that they would hold elections soon after they gained power. So, in December 1917, the elections were held. The Bolsheviks lost the elections, coming second to the Socialist Revolutionary Party gained 41% of the seats – 380 – with 17,100,000 votes, the Bolsheviks gained 23% of the seats – 168 – with 9,800,000 votes.
Lenin decided that because the Bolsheviks represented the working class, and that the Supreme Soviet was elected by the people, then he could shut down the assembly – he did so at gunpoint.
Political parties were not banned because of these elections, the first ban was in later in 1918, when the Socialist Revolutionary Party was banned, because of the assassination attempt on Lenin.