The article is devoted to the reconstruction and analysis of the legal framework for elections to the Moscow Soviet in the first decades after the October Revolution. Based on a study of constitutional provisions, regulatory acts of the USSR and the RSFSR, resolutions and instructions of the Moscow Soviet and its Executive Committee, including those extracted from the funds of the Central State Archive of the Moscow Region, the process of developing electoral legislation and its application in Moscow in 1918–1939 is examined. The characteristic features of Moscow electoral legislation before and after the adoption of the 1936 Constitution are shown. The features of the implementation in Moscow of the principles of class electoral legislation enshrined in the Constitutions of the RSFSR of 1918 and 1925 and specified in regional regulations are considered. The changes made to the Moscow election system after the constitutional reform of 1936 are analyzed. The evolution of electoral legislation is considered through the prism of the concept of nominal constitutionalism as a specific Soviet model of political and legal regulation. The development of the legal framework for the Moscow elections was influenced by various political factors related to the establishment of a one-party system, mass voting behavior, and changes in the state's economic policy. From 1918 to the mid-1930s, when electoral legislation was based on class principles, innovations introduced into the electoral system served to regulate the electoral process in the interests of strengthening the new state system and the regime of the Communist Party. This was achieved through changes in voting procedures, the representation standards for various social groups in the Moscow City Soviet, and the quorum criteria for electoral assemblies. The consolidation of the Soviet party-state system after 1936 allowed for the restoration of the principles of universal and equal suffrage in the electoral system. However, under the conditions of nominal constitutionalism, this had little impact on the content of the electoral process, which continued to be conducted without alternatives and under the control of the ruling party.
Aleksei Viktorovich Gusev (Thu,) studied this question.