News from the story: elections in Russia

The presidential election in Russia runs until Sunday. The opportunity to look back on the elections that have taken place there for a century, with the Soviet period.

This weekend, Russian voters are called to elect their president. Without suspense, Vladimir Putin will win. This is an opportunity to look back at the history of elections in this part of the world. A story which shows that democracy there is old in its principles, but very fragile in its application. Because the very first elections in Russia took place in 1906. It was a concession made by the Tsar after the Revolution of the previous year. Only people who paid a fairly high tax, therefore the bourgeoisie and the nobles, could vote: we were not in a democracy.

Universal suffrage established at the time of the 1917 Revolution

Universal suffrage came later, at the time of the revolution of 1917. After Lenin took power, all the common people – peasants, workers – could vote but the Communist Party became dominant. Two parallel structures are required: on the one hand the State, with elections to the Supreme Soviet, the government. A bit like in our country, an executive and a legislature. In reality, very quickly, the only authorized party was the Communist Party and its hierarchy became the most important.

The members of the party elect the members of the central committee which designates the political bureau, the one which directs everything and which, since Lenin, imposes its will on everyone. This is the second structure.

The fragility of the democratic tradition in Russia

Those at the top are not really elected. First Lenin then Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Andropov and Gorbachev were the party bosses. It is from him that they derived their power and legitimacy. Ostensibly, the chairman of the Supreme Soviet was the highest person in the state. In reality, the first secretary of the party was really at the top. We were appointed rather than elected in fact. The elections became a sort of ritual where the unique candidates nominated by the Communist Party were endorsed.

Finally, a constitutional reform finally recognized political freedom at the initiative of Mikhail Gorbachev. The elections to parliament took place with an opposition between reformers and conservatives, in 1989. And it was this democratic congress which elected Gorbachev as the first president of the USSR, in March 1990. He is the only one to have held this position with an election democratic. But this system barely lasts a year. Because Boris Yeltsin and the reformers abolished the USSR after the coup d’état of August 1991.

Finally, on December 25, 1991, Gorbachev had no choice but to resign from a position of president which no longer corresponded to any country or state. The USSR was dead. Gorbachev’s resignation signed his death certificate.

Leaders are chosen from outside institutions

Then begins a short period with real elections for the presidency of Russia. It was Boris Yeltsin who won and was re-elected with very powerful economic support. He gave way to Putin in 2000 and even at that time, the electoral system seemed to work more or less. With scrutineers in the polling stations. This relative pluralism appears to last until 2008. Since then, prosecutions against opponents, their arrests, assassinations, fraud, as explained by franceinfo journalists, have been noted. All this proves the fragility of the democratic tradition in the country.

The Putin system shows that legitimacy still remains in the state. But as in the days of the Soviet Union, it is outside of these institutions that leaders are truly chosen. The dual structure was reconstituted for the benefit of the Putin clan. Strange return from the past.