Don Great Military Krug of the Fourth Convocation (1918–1920): Elections, Composition of the Deputy Corps, Main Political Factions

The article is devoted to the study of the elections to the Great Military Krug of the Fourth Convocation in August 1918. The author describes the composition of the deputy corps of the Krug and the political factions in it. The author provides a detailed analysis of the electoral legislation, the course of the campaign, and the electoral struggle between Ataman Pyotr Krasnov and the opposition. The Great Military Krug on the Don was formed after the expulsion of the Bolsheviks from the Don territory. In fact, it played the role of the Don Constituent Assembly, even though it was elected exclusively by the local Cossacks and all the non-Cossack population was deprived of the right to vote. The elections were held under a plurality system of relative majority in single-mandate and multi-mandate districts in Cossack stanitsas and in single-mandate districts in front-line regiments. The author of the article describes the number of the Krug deputies and shows their social and religious composition. The elections held under a plurality system and the absence of established parties made it difficult to determine the results of the elections. Therefore, in order to understand the political composition of the Krug, the author turns to the description of informal factions that emerged during the work of the Don “parliament.” Although officially there were no party factions in the Krug and it was divided into ten districts according to the territorial principle, the “left” and “right” wings and the “center” still emerged among the deputies. Having studied these factions, the author comes to the conclusion that all of them were characterized by the desire to preserve the privileged position of the Cossacks on the Don, and the reason for the confrontation was not so much ideological as different attitudes to certain personalities. For this reason, quite paradoxical combinations were formed in the Krug: the “leftists” and “centrists” initially jointly fought against the “right” P. Krasnov, and after his resignation, the “leftists” and “rightists” got united against the “centrists” and supporting General A. Denikin.

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