FEATURES OF THE LAST STALINIST ELECTION CAMPAIGN IN TRANSCARPATHIA (ELECTIONS TO LOCAL COUNCILS ON FEBRUARY 22, 1953)

The article examines the last Stalinist election campaign in Transcarpathia – the local council elections, which were held on February 22, 1953, a few days before the death of the Soviet dictator. Unlike the first two waves of Soviet elections in the region in 1946-1947 and 1950-1951, they already took place without any excesses for the authorities. During this time, the Bolsheviks managed to completely Sovietize Transcarpathia, which manifested in the implementation of a personnel policy primarily based on the verification of "ideological loyalty" to the communists, numerous campaigning and propaganda measures, strict censorship, and repressive policies. These factors soon paid off. The Soviet government already achieved the cherished "99.9%" in the elections without much difficulty. The article highlights the course of the election campaign: the work of election commissions (event plans and their implementation, reports on their implementation), the procedure for nominating candidates, the tasks of campaigning and propaganda work for campaigning groups, points, and individual agitators (conducting lectures, discussion reports, reading newspapers and magazines) instructions to the local press, radio, clubs, and libraries), the election ritual on election day (honorary votes of the most worthy voters, delivering patriotic speeches in honor of the Communist Party, the Soviet Government and the "great leader of the peoples, Comrade Stalin," reports on the fulfillment of socialist obligations Yazan) and other attributes of the "national holiday." It should also be noted that the mechanisms for conducting elections developed by the authorities during Stalin's rule and the election traditions imposed on the population lasted almost until the collapse of the Soviet Union.