Social and cultural characteristics of the siberian deputies of the state duma at the beginning of the 20th century

The author aims to identify peculiarities and dynamics of the electoral sentiments in Siberia at the beginning of the 20th century basing on the analysis of the social and cultural characteristics of the Siberian deputies in the first four State Dumas. The empirical base of the research was formed by the improvement and systematization of the odd bits of information on the Siberian deputies from the scientific literature. To reconstruct the socio-cultural image of deputies, the author developed a form containing the following personal characteristics: name, date and place of birth, nationality, confession, education, occupation, social activity experience, political orientation. The analysis showed that, in many aspects, the specificity of composition of the Siberian deputy corps was determined by the public sentiments that were dominating in the region. In all elections, voters always supported those candidates who had liberal and social-revolutionary views. Such electoral behavior was mostly motivated by dissatisfaction with the discriminatory policy of the central authorities towards the region. In comparison to other deputies of the Duma, Siberian representatives were younger. It can be explained by the desire of the voters to delegate authority to people who had enough energy and ambitions to defend regional interests. Comparative analysis of the sociographic characteristics of the corps of Siberian deputies in the first four State Dumas allows for the conclusion that voters' preferences shifted in favor of the candidates who had more intellectual resources and some experience in public activity. It is evident from the higher level of education that deputies of the Third and Fourth Duma had compared to their forbearers, and from the notable increase of the number of deputies who were famous for their reputation of active members of cultural, educational, professional, and charity organizations. In addition to that, the process of the political self-identification of voters intensified. On the elections to the first State Duma, 5 of the 15 winning candidates did not have clear political preferences, and, during the Second Duma campaign, 7 of the 20 elected deputies stated their political neutrality. But, among the elected deputies of the Fourth Duma, there were no Siberian representatives who had not made their political affiliations or interests clear to the voters. In the whole, basing on the analysis of the socio-cultural characteristics of the corps of Siberian deputies in the first four Dumas, the author concludes that the parliamentary culture in Russia was progressively developing in the beginning of the twentieth century. Among other things, it showed itself in the increase of rational motives in electoral preferences and behavior.

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