Power and society in the elections to the iv State Duma (based on the materials of the Vologda province)
Authors:   Cherepovets State University, Yegorov Andrey N. 
Published: December 2024

The article considers the interaction of the power and the society during the election campaign to the IV State Duma of the Russian Empire. The research was based on the Vologda province materials. The research source was the Russian State Historical Archive special paperwork materials for the elections to the State Duma, the documents of the Vologda Region State Archives and the local periodicals. The article shows the socio-political situation in the province at the beginning of the twentieth century, which determined the elections results to the Duma of the first and third convocations. The decline in public activity after the end of the First Russian Revolution led to the population’s shrinking attention to the election campaigns, and the interest to the parliament as a new political institution was definitely fading. However, by 1912, on the eve of the elections to the Fourth Duma in the Vologda province, there was a revival of social and political life, a rise in public sentiment, which caused the concern of the authorities at all levels. The article describes the actions of the Vologda governor M.N. Shramchenko to ensure the election to the Duma of the right-wing candidates necessary for the authorities. Since the Union of the Russian People local department did not suit the provincial authorities with their political attitude towards A.I. Dubrovin, a branch of the All-Russian National Union was established in Vologda, which was aimed at uniting all right-wing forces. However, the Vologda department of the ANS turned out to be a stillborn organization, and that explained unpopularity of nationalist ideas in almost mononational Vologda province. The authorities also counted on the support of the clergy, who in many counties had a majority in the Curia landowners due to the poorly developed landowner tenure. On the eve of the elections in the province there was a polarization of political forces - the opposition opposed the right-wing forces, uniting the cadets and moderate socialists in their ranks. The Cadets formally did not have their own organization, but acted in concert and had an authority among the voters of the urban and, in part, peasant curia. The article analyzes the election slogans of the right wing and the opposition, the course of the election campaign and its results. The mechanisms of support for the right-wing candidates provided by the provincial administration, the techniques and methods of administrative influence on the course of the elections are also analyzed. It is shown that the measures taken by the authorities to hold right wing candidates in the Duma had rather limited results. Of the five elected deputies from the Vologda province, only one joined the right-wing faction, the other two deputies chose the Center faction, and the two more deputies joined the opposition factions of the Cadets and Progressives. The conclusion is drawn about the apparent tendencies for the opposition increase and the officials' authority decline during the provincial elections. The elections of the IV State Duma, despite all the restrictions of the election law of June 3, 1907, showed an obvious request from the society for reforming the country. However, provincial authorities in the Vologda Province not only failed to respond to this request, participating in a limited dialogue with the opposition, but also failed to even properly consolidate right-wing forces. Applying a wide range of administrative measures against the opposition, the provincial administration drove the situation even further into a dead end, which led to an increase in contradictions between the government and the society.