/lit/ - Literature

>>19593986
>Thirdly, communists hadn't won a major election then either
>because like I keep telling you it didn't have popular support.

Read books.

The electoral laws were promulgated in December 1905 and introduced franchise to male citizens over 25 years of age, and electing through four electoral colleges. The elections were therefore not universal as they excluded women, soldiers, officers and some nationalities.[7] Nor were they equal since the constituencies differed greatly in size, and six curia were established which gave much more weight to the votes of landowners and peasants (those most loyal to the Tsar) than workers.[7]

The voting system was further complicated by the fact that representatives were not always directly elected.[8] Only nobles elected their representatives directly to the duma, while the rest of voters elected representatives to an electoral 'college', which in turn elected duma members.[8] As a result, 1 noble's vote was equivalent to 2 townsman’s votes, 15 peasant votes and 45 urban worker votes.[8]

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Because this election was before the coup of June 1907 (which resulted in the changing of the electoral franchise) and because the Social Democratic Party and Socialist Revolutionaries ended their electoral boycott for this election, the Second Duma was the only one elected in the Russian Empire that included representatives of all the main parties in numbers that even remotely matched those parties’ popularity amongst the public.[5]

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This was the first election after the coup of June 1907, in which the Tsarist government purposely altered the voting system for elections so as to create more pro-Tsar Dumas.[2] Landowners were given much more voting power, the voting rights of peasants and workers were restricted, and the number of representatives of so-called 'national remote areas' (i.e. ethnic minorities) was also reduced.[1][2] Only the most affluent third of population was able to vote in this and future elections, and only one per cent of the electorate now elected at least 300 of the 435 deputies.[2][4] Thus, the Third Duma, and the Fourth Duma after it, was less radical and more flexible than the First and Second Dumas, and both were much more favourable to the government.[2] Despite this, the Duma continued to attempt to influence the Tsarist government and hold the government to account, questioning ministers and opposing certain legislation.[4]

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>second party
>No official electoral census exists. The estimated population of eligible voters at the time (excluding occupied territories) has been estimated at around 85 million; the number of eligible voters in the districts where polling took place has been estimated at around 80 million
>over 10 millions vote
>n-no popular support!