Ambassador Meyer to the Secretary of State .
St. Petersburg , March 19, 1906 .
Sir: In my dispatch of February 28, I announced that the Douma was to be definitely convened on April 27/May 10. I now beg leave to report that the elections are taking place in various parts of the country, and as the machinery is rather complicated I have thought it advisable to describe the system more fully than would otherwise be necessary.
The total number of members of the Douma, when the elections shall have finally been completed, will be 501. The elections are, however, not carried on the same day throughout the country. Governors and vice-governors, prefects of cities and their lieutenants can not vote in their departments, nor can members of the army or navy who are on active service, or persons doing police duty in governments or cities when elections are taking place.
The voters are divided into classes, and that it may be more clearly shown I have made the following table:
| Peasants. | |||||
| Clergy |
|
Electors | Douma members. | ||
| Cities not in special list | |||||
| Volosts | |||||
| Workmen | |||||
| Landed proprietors and special cities | Electors | Douma members. |
From this it will be seen that the peasants are in a class by themselves and, as a matter of fact, in the present elections are not given an opportunity of expression, as it is the volosts (elected at the mir, in most instances, before the Douma was even granted) that chose the delegates. The volosts, workmen, clergy (not landed proprietors), voters of cities (not in special list), and class C of landed proprietors, all choose delegates. These delegates, in turn, select electors, as do also landed proprietors and qualified voters of cities on the special list. The electors vote for Douma members in their appropriate [Page 1253] electoral college, and their choice is confined to a member of their own body. Therefore in every instance, in order to become a member of the Douma, a candidate must be an elector and previous to that a delegate, except in the case of landed proprietors and voters of special cities.
On overleaf will be found tables showing apportionment of electors and Douma members in the governments, territories, and cities in European Russia, also in the Kingdom of Poland, Siberia, Caucasus, Turgai, Ural, etc.
It is noticeable that the large cities in European Russia are limited to one member of the Douma, with the exception of Moscow and St. Petersburg, the former having an allotment of four and the latter of six.
There is an exceptional provision with regard to the procedure of the peasant electors. When their electors assemble at the electoral college, they first sit by themselves and elect from their own numbers a Douma member. They then dissolve and join the rest of the electoral college, taking part in the election of the Douma members allotted to that particular electoral college. The special privilege given to the peasant electors is not granted to any other group of electors. The workmen may or may not be able to elect a single member from their own class, while no combination can prevent the election of at least one member of the Douma from every governmental electoral college, of which there are 51.
Elections to the Douma, with the exception cited as to the privilege of peasant electors, are finally effected in the governments and territories by the government electoral college, and in the cities by the municipal electoral college. The government electoral colleges are presided over by the marshal of nobility of the government in question. The municipal electoral college by the mayor of the city.
The number of electors in the government electoral colleges varies from 32 to 200; the municipal electoral college, of St. Petersburg and Moscow, 160; and in other special cities, 80.
Government electoral colleges are composed of electors chosen by landed proprietors and clergy landowners, by delegates from those cities not in the special list (that is, those not entitled to a municipal electoral college) by delegates of workmen who do not vote in a municipal electoral college, and by delegates from all the volosts.
Municipal electoral colleges are composed of electors chosen by the qualified resident voters of the cities and by the delegates of the workmen of the same cities, i. e., cities entitled to a municipal electoral college.
The workmen in every factory, mining enterprise, or railway shop of not less than 50 workmen elect one delegate for every thousand men employed.
The delegates from all the factories of each city or government meet together in the city in question, or in the chief town of the government in question, and choose electors from their own number.
The electors so chosen join the representatives (electors) of the other classes in the city in question or in the government in question and vote in the municipal or governmental electoral college for members of the Douma. The number to be so elected is fixed by a special table.
[Page 1254]In choosing their delegates the workmen in each factory, etc., hold a meeting under a chairman elected by themselves from their own number.
The proprietor must put at their disposal a suitable place of meeting.
All workmen may vote at the age of 25, and if they have been six months in the establishment in which they desire to vote. The list of delegates elected by each factory is given to the proprietor signed by the chairman of the elections and by at least 10 of the workmen.
This list is then posted and a copy of it sent to the governor of the government or the prefect of the city, as the case may be, and then published.
The meetings of the delegates, instead of being presided over by a workman, as are the first elections, are presided over by the mayor of the town. The procedure and system of voting is in the meetings of the delegates decided upon by the presiding officer, whereas in the meeting of the workmen the method of voting is a secret ballot.
The number of electors to be chosen by the workmen’s delegates to the government or municipal electoral college is apparently determined in each government or city by the election committee. The delegates and electors may, if they choose, claim traveling expenses to the extent of 5 copecks per verst, which also applies to the peasant delegates going and coming for attending the meetings of the delegates or of the electors.
The landed proprietors of each district meet together under the chairmanship of the district marshal of nobility and choose from among their own number electors. The electors thus chosen from the districts of every government meet together in the chief town of each government with the electors from the peasants and the district cities and choose Douma members.
All parish priests of any denomination who themselves or whose churches or chapels possess land in the district meet together and, under the chairmanship of the marshal of nobility of the district, choose delegates on the same level as those chosen by the workmen. These delegates join the landed proprietors and the delegates from the volosts, as well as the delegates of the workmen, in meeting assembled of the government electoral college and elect Douma members.
The persons enumerated in Section C of the laws, under the head of landed proprietors, are, like the clergy, three degrees from the representatives in the Douma.
The district cities have no municipal electoral college and consequently have no special representation of their own. Each have a certain number of delegates allotted by the district electoral commission in charge of the elections. The delegates elected in each dictrict then meet together in the chief town of the district and choose electors who in turn join the electors of the landed proprietors and of the volosts and elect members to the Douma.
In special cities (those that have municipal electoral colleges) the qualified voters vote directly for the electors. The delegates of workmen in those cities choose electors. The electors selected by the delegates assemble in the municipal electoral college with electors of the qualified voters, who together choose Douma members for the city.
[Page 1255]For Poland, the Ural, Turgai, the Steppes, Turkestan, Siberia, the Caucasus, and the nomad tribes special regulations and qualifications have been made.
The meetings for the election of delegates, electors, or members of the Douma are attended and watched by the police to see that they adhere rigidly to the business in hand and do not digress to the slightest extent in discussing political questions. The power delegated to the police has already been abused and is liable on many occasions to subject delegates and even electors to unjust arrest and imprisonment.
It is impossible to form any opinion as to the personnel of the future Douma. The voters have no chance, as in America, to vote directly for the delegates of the candidates for, as I have already shown, any individual desiring to become a member of the Douma must first be elected a delegate. The next step is to become an elector, and finally to be chosen a member of the Douma.
The only exceptions are landed proprietors or qualified voters (not workmen) that reside in cities on the special list. They are spared the stage of becoming first a delegate.
Only a small percentage of workmen in many of the cities are participating in the elections; in some cases owing to fear of arrest and in others to an agreed boycott.
There are apparently well-informed people that believe the Government is manipulating the elections to such an extent that the first Douma will probably be Conservative and the upper house, known as the “Council of the Empire,” Liberal.
All surmises of this nature at the present time are mere guesswork and the Douma will remain an unknown quantity until it assembles and organizes.
I have, etc.,