Election of 1875
The 1875 election was dominated by one man – Vladimir Lenin. He secured a massive swing in support towards himself within the party as so many flocked to his exhilarating banner. Meanwhile it was the fear of Lenin that mobilized his opposition. There was talk of the man himself clouding people’s eyes to the true stand of his faction but there was also the promise that he was the man to lead the Republic to untold greatness.
The 1875 election was also to be the first for the new Constituent Assembly. For too long the Republic had been dominated by Chairmen who could not call upon the majority of voters to support them. Indeed prior to 1875 there had never been an election with a clear majority winner. This was to be changed in 1875.
Party Vote
Marxist-Leninists: 24
Anarchists: 13
Militarists: 7
United Front: 3
Moderates: 3
Workers’ Vote
Marxist- Leninists: 13
Anarchists: 12
Militarists: 10
United Front: 9
Moderates: 6
The results of the election were very different within the Party than amongst the Workers. 24 of the 50 seats awarded by the People’s Party were won by Lenin’s surging Marxist-Leninist faction. The Anarchists saw one of their worst results within the Party itself for years whilst the Moderates and United Front also received a kicking. For the United Front in particular this was particularly damaging as the Front had traditionally relied upon a strong showing within the Party in elections. The emergence of the Militarists was another intriguing change as 7 seats were snapped up by the new faction.
Amongst the Workers’ things were much more even. The Marxist-Leninists, Anarchists, Militarists and United Front all scored very similarly. Unsurprisingly the Militarists dominated the soldier’s vote (taking away many traditionally Marxist votes) but they also raised many head by securing support outside of this power base. The moderate position was definitely damaged by the split of that vote between the United Front and the Moderates. Overall the amount of votes won by the moderate factions actually grew (at the expense of the Anarchists and Marxist-Leninists) whilst the rise of the Militarists snatched many votes from the traditional big two.
In the end the Marxist-Leninists fell short of the needed 50 seats to appoint Lenin as Chairman without a coalition as they secured just 37. The Anarchists secured a solid but ultimately disappointing 25 seats, the Militarists became the third faction with 17, Engels’ United Front suffered humiliation as they won just 12 seats whilst the Marxist splinter faction – the Moderates – secured a paltry 9 seats.
There was initially a great push from the less extreme members of the Lenin’s faction for the Marxist-Leninists to find some common ground with both the United Front and the Moderates. However these calls never had a realistic chance of swaying the faction from its course. Lenin had no intention in aligning himself with those who had openly rejected him and left his faction whilst they had little desire to ally themselves with him. Instead Lenin looked to the rising power of the Militarists for support and formed a Marxist-Leninist – Militarist Alliance. Schlieffen’s faction promised the support of the armed forces and, on the whole, support across the board for Lenin’s vision of the Republic. With just a few compromises he granted himself the opportunity to shape the Republic towards his own vision of Communism.
Following the election the Central Committee experienced yet another period of great change. By the end of January 1875 only 6 of the 10 members of the Central Committee on January 1st 1870 would remain (Malatesta and Lenin had entered the Committee over the course of the 5 years between that date and the most recent election).
First of Lassalle decided to retire from the Central Committee to take on a lesser role in the Party. Lassalle had been the youngster who picked up the pieces of the German Socialists following Wilhelm Weitling’s electoral defeat and subsequent shaming. However the faction had battled against obscurity since. Prior to the 1875 election he had joined forces with the breakaway moderate Marxists to form the Moderate faction; however this force failed to capture the imagination of the people and fared disappointingly in the election. Following this defeat the Marxists within the Moderate faction quickly bandied together and in the name of ensuring a more coherent front they quietly ejected Lassalle. He was truly a politician who could have been, in his younger days he had all the ingredients of a great leader for the Republic yet never succeeded in restoring the German Socialists to their 1850 level of popularity.
The greatest casualty of 1875 was not a single person but an entire faction. Even before the election the United Front had started to crumble. The former Anarchist Necazian, of all people, had jumped ship from the Front and joined the Marxist-Leninists in the belief that by bringing a large dose of moderation to Lenin’s faction he could disarm the extremist parts and force them to toe an undestructive line. The support of the respected Necazian drew many Marxists towards Lenin and indeed many who had never considered voting Marxist before. This undermined an important base of support for the Front whilst the lack of an Anarchist in its leadership further weakened the Front’s position. When the final results came in the Front’s life was effectively terminated. Shortly after Lenin formed his government alongside the Militarists Engels announced his retirement from the faction and two hours later Liebknecht announced its dissolution. Most of the faction moved to unite with the Moderates however Liebknecht decided to return to the position he occupied prior to the formation of the United Front – he became an Independent socialist and was joined by a small group in this position separate from the major factions.
Friedrich Engels was still a political titan and both the Moderates and Marxist-Leninists sent out requests for his support; however the 55 year old decided to instead enter into a state of semi-retirement. His old friend Karl Marx had spent the past decade reacquainting himself with philosophy and sent a request to Engels to help him formulate his great work – Das Kapital. It was a request, graciously accept. This was how the two co-authors of the Communist Manifesto would reunite to create another work of titanic significance for the Leftist movement.
With the rise of his faction to major significance Alfred Schlieffen was an obvious replacement for one of the leaving Central Committee members. It was decided that he would take on the obvious position of Commissar for Military Affairs – thus forcing Kadon into changing his position. This move would encourage Lenin to perform a major shakeup of positions within the Central Committee.
However, whilst the first new arrival had been largely expected, the second gave Lenin an opportunity to make a real statement of intent. He intended to change things, and he didn’t care if he ruffled a few feathers along the way. Whilst women had theoretically enjoyed equal rights with men since the revolution this had simply not been the case. In industry very few women were allowed to go to work outside of the likes of the textile industry whilst in politics they were an extreme minority. In the Red Army, meanwhile, they were not allowed to serve for fear that their ‘’frail bodies would be unable to take the strains of combat’’. In order to convince the young Clara Zetkin to join the Central Committee Lenin had to immediately push through a few reforms – namely the repealing of all laws that restricted women from working in the same positions as men (outside of the military the main gain for women was the right to work in steel mills) whilst it was also made illegal for anyone to try to prevent someone else from voting (a law designed to prevent the endemic problem of men preventing their wives and daughters from voting in elections). Placing Zetkin in the Central Committee proved to the women of the Republic that for the first time the boy’s only club of government was reaching out its hand to them.
Malatesta, Necazian and August Bebel all retained their former positions. Being a rather junior figure Zetkin was started low as the Commissar for Foreign Affairs. This was rather controversial as several major figures (including coalition partner Schlieffen) feared that other countries would laugh at the Republic if their Foreign Office was headed by a girl but Lenin believed it would show the rest of the world that anyone could indeed succeed in the Republic in a manner they simply could not anywhere else on earth. Zetkin’s appointment allowed Iglesias to rise up the ranks to the powerful position of Chair of the Comintern, Kadon meanwhile became Party Secretary for the Ruhr. These movements in turn allowed Kropotkin and Liebknecht to proceed upwards as the Anarchist became Commissar for Finance and the Independent became General Secretary. Finally, Vladimir Lenin, of course, took the position of Chairman of the United Socialist People's Republic
The events in the immediate aftermath of the election had changed the make-up of the Constituent Assembly somewhat. The ruling Marxist-Militarist coalition held 54 seats. The Moderates had expanded to 17 seats whilst a new block of Independents had formed to hold just 4 seats. On the whole the 3 opposition factions would be relatively cohesive although they would stop along way short of forming a full coalition in opposition.