POLITICAL VIOLENCE IT THE CITY ELECTIONS IN PETRO-GRAD IN THE SPRING – SUMMER OF 1917

Abstract

The aim of the article is to consider the change in the political culture of the revolution and the development of civil conflict through the prism of the manifestation of political violence in the elections to self-government of Petrograd in the spring and summer of 1917. Elections to the district dumas of the capital were organized by the Petrograd City Duma and the Provisional Government. The election campaign began in May 1917, and the elections themselves took place on May 27–29 and June 3–5, 1917. The elections to the district dumas were the first elections in the new Russia, summing up three months of democratic construction that began after the February Revolution. The election campaign for the Petrograd City Duma began in mid-August, and the elections took place on August 20. They marked the end of the municipal election campaigns that took place in Russia in the summer of 1917. As part of the case-study, the article reconstructs the manifestation of political violence against various actors participating in elections, and the impact of these practices on the transformation of civil conflict and the legitimization of political violence. In the elections to the district dumas of Petrograd, political violence became a traditional means of political struggle, legitimizing its use during elections in other cities of Russia. However, no political violence was used in the elections to the Petrograd City Duma. The author concludes that behind the apparent decrease in the level of political violence on the streets of Petrograd on the eve of the “Kornilov case” lies a process of even greater polarization of society and escalation of civil conflict, when one part of the society is noticeably radicalized with the tacit consent of the other, which led to the emergence of new, more tough and legitimate ultimatum forms of communication between various groups of the population and the authorities.