Candidates were to be allowed not only from the Communist Party1 but from other citizens’ groups as well, based on residence, affiliation (such as reli- gious groups), or workplace organizations. But this last provision was never put into effect. Contested elections were never held.

The democratic aspects of the Constitution2 were inserted at Stalin’s insist- ence. Stalin and his closest supporters fought tenaciously to keep these provi- sions. He, and they, yielded only when confronted by their rejection by the Party’s Central Committee, and by the panic surrounding the discovery of seri- ous conspiracies that collaborated with Japanese and German fascism to over- throw the Soviet government.

From the time of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the study of Soviet history has developed as an adjunct of political anticommunism. It has always had a dual character: that of discovering what happened, and that of defaming Stalin, the Soviet Union, and communism generally. The result is that academic historiography of the Soviet Union is rarely objective. It has “sacred cows,” tenets that are never questioned. This is the “anti-Stalin paradigm.” Academic historians of the USSR are pressured to conform to this paradigm, or at least not openly violate it.

In June 1934, the Politburo assigned the task of drafting a new Constitution to Avel’ Enukidze, long a leading figure in the Soviet government. Some months later, Enukidze returned with a suggestion for open, uncontested elections. Almost immediately, Stalin expressed his disagreement with Enukidze’s pro- posal, insisting on secret elections (Zhukov 2003, 116–121).

In a dramatic interview of March 1, 1936, with American newspaper mag- nate Roy Howard, Stalin declared that the Soviet constitution would guarantee that all voting would be by secret ballot. Voting would be on an equal basis, with a peasant vote counting as much as that of a worker; on a territorial basis, as in the West, and direct—all Soviets would be elected by the citizens themselves.

We shall probably adopt our new constitution at the end of this year. . .. As has been announced already, according to the new constitution, the suffrage will be universal, equal, direct, and secret.

Stalin also declared that all elections would be contested. Different citizens’ organizations would be able to put forth candidates to run against the Commu- nist Party’s candidates. Stalin told Howard that citizens would cross off the names of all candidates except those they wished to vote for.

Stalin also stressed the importance of contested elections in fighting bureaucracy.

You think that there will be no election contests. But there will be, and I foresee very lively election campaigns. There are not a few institutions in our country which work badly. . . . Our new electoral system will tighten up all institutions and organizations and compel them to improve their work. Universal, equal, direct and secret suffrage in the U.S.S.R. will be a whip in the hands of the population against the organs of government which work badly. In my opinion our new Soviet constitution will be the most democratic constitution in the world. (Stalin 1936a)

Stalin insisted that lishentsy, Soviet citizens who had been deprived of the franchise, should have it restored. These included members of former exploiting classes such as former landlords, those who had fought against the Bolsheviks during the Civil War of 1918–1921, and those convicted of certain crimes (as in the U.S. today). Important among the lishentsy were the “kulaks,” former rich peasants who had been the main targets of the collectivization movement a few years earlier.