Вне системы: как в 1920-е годы в Казахстане создавали категорию «лишенцев»

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the policy on restriction of electoral rights in the Kyrgyz/Kazakh Autonomous Republic during the Soviet election campaigns in the 1920s. The topic is relevant in terms of studying the process of modernization of traditional society, social engineering and political discrimination in the context of Soviet history. The authors focus on the problem of the relationship between society and the government in terms of creating the Soviet system and ensuring its sustainability through the use of discriminatory measures by the government against «non–Soviet» groups of the population. The purpose of the study was to identify the dynamics of the number and composition of population groups deprived of voting rights. To study the Soviet institution of disenfranchisement, regulatory and administrative acts of the Union, Russian and republican levels were used; accounting records of election commissions at various levels; electoral statistics. Significant documentary collections have been deposited in the archives of Russia and Kazakhstan, including records related to the course and results of election campaigns. Quantitative data on disenfranchised persons in the autonomy as a whole and in individual administrative units are presented. The article shows the formation of the framework of a discriminatory model in the form of the institution of disenfranchisement, which made it possible to exclude entire categories of the population from political life. A comparative analysis of published and unpublished data from the Central Election Commission of the KASSR and regional election commissions revealed that there was a significant discrepancy in statistical data both regarding election results and the number of persons disenfranchised. The relative figures for the number of deprived persons given in the statistics do not allow us to establish the dynamics of changes in specific digital indicators based on the results of election campaigns. Nevertheless, it can be argued that a sharp (three-fold) increase in the number of disenfranchised persons was recorded during the election campaigns of 1926/1927 and 1928/1929. It was found that there was an expansion of the circle of people discriminated against on political grounds, as well as stricter rules for accounting for these categories of the population. Based on the analysis of the instructions for holding elections to the councils, it was concluded that the
autonomy authorities were interested in increasing the number of persons deprived of voting rights, as this allowed them to take control of the electoral process and begin intensive Sovietization of the Kazakh population.