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Soviet Union [USSR] Elections to the Congress of People's Deputies
In 1989 three categories of deputies were selected to the
Congress of People's Deputies: those representing the CPSU and
officially recognized organizations; those representing the
population as divided into residential electoral districts; and
those representing the population as divided into national
territories. In 1989 one-third (750) of the deputies were elected
in each category. Quotas for deputies were assigned to the various
official organizations, electoral districts, and nationalterritorial electoral districts. The largest organizational quotas
were reserved for the CPSU, trade unions,
collective farms (see Glossary),
Komsomol (see Glossary), veterans, retired workers, and
the Committee of Soviet Women. Minor but officially sanctioned
groups such as stamp collectors, cinema fans, book lovers, and
musicians were also represented. Because individual voters belonged
to several different constituencies, they could vote in elections
for several deputies.
In principle, voters in nationwide elections had the freedom to
vote for the party-endorsed candidate or for other candidates on
the ballot (if any), to write in the name of another candidate, or
to refrain from voting. In the early 1989 elections, some of the
candidates officially endorsed by the CPSU were rejected by the
voters, including high-level party officials, such as Iurii
Solov'ev, the party secretary of Leningrad.
The regime considered voting a duty rather than a right.
Citizens age eighteen and older voted in soviet elections, and
those age twenty-one and older were eligible to be elected to the
Congress of People's Deputies. Persons holding governmental posts,
however, could not be elected deputy to the soviet that appointed
them. Citizens had the right to participate in election campaigns
and the right to campaign for any candidate.
Data as of May 1989
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