Historical Experience of Protecting Citizens’ Electoral Rights Using the Example of Peasants’ Complaints About Incorrect Elections in the Livland Province (1877–1917)

The materials from the late 19th — early 20th centuries were deposited in the Estonian National Archives in the form of 90 peasant complaints about unfair elections (1877–1917). The article provides a comparative analysis of the database which was created by SQL. There are few studies on peasant complaints, and the topic of complaints regarding the election procedure has not been sufficiently studied. The author of the article comes to the following conclusions. Mainly, peasants filed complaints, but there were also complaints from other categories of people. Complaints were most often fi led regarding the elections of volost officials. Of the complaints examined, the largest number came from the Staro-Karista volost, which was due to the fact that wealthy peasants lived there and were interested in the outcome of the elections. The Estonian language was used at the very beginning of the period under study. Cases in Russian were drawn up at the beginning of the 20th century, under Nicholas II. Complaints not only remained without consequences, but were also satisfied. The bulk of the cases did not exceed 20 pages. In the context of working with complaints, the author of the article also tests the following hypotheses: did the term for considering a complaint and what the decision was, depend on who fi led the complaint, were complaints considered “satisfactorily” or “unsatisfactorily”, could a complaint affect the election results. The hypotheses were not confirmed. The dependence was on the date of fi ling the complaint. Complaints were considered in accordance with the approved Regulation on Volost Public Administration of February 19, 1866. Decisions on complaints were important not only for the peasants themselves, but were also an effective mechanism for putting local affairs in order in the volosts.