The Democracy versus Democracy: Representation and Politics in Odessa during the 1912 State Duma Election

Abstract

This article explores how Russians in the Duma period (1905–17) understood issues of democratic politics and representation through a microhistory of the 1912 Duma election in Odessa. It focuses on conflict between two Odessa newspapers, Odesskaia pochta and Iuzhnaia mysl’, over whether to support the ‘progressive’ candidate or the ‘workers’’ candidate, and on a workers’ boycott organized against Odesskaia pochta after right-wing candidates swept the election. This conflict sheds light on the divide among Russian progressives between politics as ongoing pragmatic compromise and politics as a clash of group interests. As Russians explored how to interact with new institutions like the Duma, ideas of democracy and representation intersected with class and other forms of identity in uncertain and unstable ways. Although the language of class identity often dominated, it was also used to express support for representative democracy and pragmatic coalition-building politics. Russians found more than one way to interpret democracy, and many chose to interpret it through the lens of parliamentary politics, even if they expressed those politics in class terms.