File No. 861.00/3311
The Ambassador in Russia ( Francis ) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 30.]
… Since the above was dictated, I have received the detailed results of the municipal election of last Sunday. The total registered vote was 21,613, but only 8,733 votes were cashed [sic], little more than 40 per cent. The following was the result:
| Ticket | No. | 1 | (union of house renters) | 102 | votes |
| “ | “ | 2 | (socialists) | 4,610 | “ |
| “ | “ | 3 | (bourgeoisie) | 3,769 | “ |
| “ | “ | 4 | (Jews) | 195 | “ |
| “ | “ | 5 | (fire brigade) | 57 | “ |
The number to be elected was 60, of which—
| Ticket | No. | 1 | elected | 1 | candidate |
| “ | “ | 2 | “ | 32 | candidates |
| “ | “ | 3 | “ | 26 | candidates |
| “ | “ | 4 | “ | 1 | candidate |
| “ | “ | 5 | did not elect any candidate | ||
This election is looked upon as a bourgeois victory, because the socialists have only 53, or 4/10 per cent [sic], of the new Duma while they had 70 per cent of the former Duma. There are very few bourgeois in Archangel City and the proportion of that vote in Archangel Province is still less than it is in the city. The socialists claim that the workmen did not vote, which accounts for the diminished socialist vote, while some of the bourgeoisie claim that the workmen are dissatisfied with the present provisional government [Page 559] and other bourgeois say that the workmen are really Bolsheviks. The same vote is another indication that if the Allies should abandon Archangel many socialists and many non-voters would turn to the Bolsheviks.
The condition at Murmansk is critical. The provisional government has dissolved the Murmansk Soviet and appointed a governor general, Ermolov. Yuriev, an ignorant but honest sailor with judgment, was the president of the Murman Soviet when the Allies landed there and he was the leader in the movement of the Murmansk Soviet renouncing allegiance to the Central Soviet at Moscow. Yuriev and Vesselago paid me a visit of about two hours this forenoon. Vesselago is an educated Russian and by some is thought to be “too smart”; his integrity is questioned and Yuriev has demanded a thorough investigation of the acts of the Murmansk Soviet. President Chaikovski calls on me daily and when asked yesterday whether he feared a coup d’état at Murmansk when the Soviet was dissolved, replied negatively, provided the new governor general can take 5,000,000 rubles when he goes to Murmansk to assume office. Yuriev will bring Ermolov, the new governor general, to see me to-morrow. …
I have [etc.]