Radical Party Dominance in November 1917 Russian Elections

... to mention a curious moment, the result of the elections was a victory of the Socialist Revolutionaries, who received more votes, than the Bolsheviks indeed. At the same time though, in the elections to the Constituent Assembly, the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party ran with the (Right) Socialist Revolutionary Party on common lists. since organizationally the Left and Right Socialist Revolutionaries represented a single party up until their Congress in December 1917. The Left SRs constituted a minority in their party, at the time of compiling the election lists, so were also a minority in local organisations, because the lists were compiled by the right majority and their left opponents were placed at the end of the lists. As a result, the peasantry / the 'agrarian voters' that gave preference to the Left SRs, voting for the general list, provided mandates for the Right SRs. The Socialist Revolutionary list received an absolute majority of votes in non-industrial agrarian regions and the Bolsheviks won in the cities.

Another important detail is that the low age limit for participation in elections was 20 years. In comparison in Germany, only people aged 24 and over were allowed to vote. The Russian soldiers by the way voted from the age of 18 and there was a logic behind it, if you can fight, you have the right to choose the government. The Socialist Revolutionary Party was created on the basis of previously existing populist organizations and occupied one of the leading positions in political life in the beginning of XXth century. It was the largest and most influential non -Marxist socialist party. Its left wing before the split, Left Socialist Revolutionaries after the Congress were extremely popular among the soldiers, because they condemned the Great war as imperialistic and wanted to withdraw from it immediately. In comparison the Right wing wanted to continue the cooperation with the Provisional Government. In short, the war, they were popular, because of the war.