Page:Russian Realities and Problems - ed. James Duff (1917).djvu/51

 You see from this plan that in order to become an elector in that assembly one must pass through different stages of election, and the more democratic the voter is, the more stages have to be passed. The peasants choose their electors in the village, these electors are sent to the townships, in the township they elect to the district the second degree electors, who in the district choose the third degree electors, who finally go to the provincial assembly and elect members for the Duma from the province. There are three stages of election for small landed proprietors—the preparatory, the district, and the provincial assemblies, but only two for the large landowners, who choose their electors in the district to elect deputies in the province. It is the same for the wealthy class of the capitalists. They choose their electors, who choose the deputies in their provincial assembly. It is the same for the middle class of citizens. But for the working-men there are again three stages: they choose their electors in the factories, and these come to the district assemblies where they choose their electors for the provincial assemblies. Thus six groups of electors meet in the general assembly of the province, and they elect members of the Duma from their majority, which chiefly consists of landlords and capitalists, sometimes with the addition of small landowners and middle-class citizens. The influential group of large landed proprietors and capitalists, before electing members of their own class, is obliged to elect, one peasant and one working-man member from each province. Thus neither peasant electors nor working-men within the assembly have the right to elect separately, whom they like best: