# September Municipal Elections in Moscow explained — Ten Days That Shook the World

> Chapter companion for Ten Days That Shook the World by John Reed.

## What happens

The chapter presents election results from Moscow's Central and Ward Dumas, comparing June and September 1917 outcomes. The Socialist Revolutionaries plummeted from 58 to 14 seats, the Cadets rose from 17 to 30, Mensheviks fell from 12 to 4, and Bolsheviks surged from 11 to 47. Novaya Zhizn interprets this as a bankruptcy of the coalition policy with propertied classes and argues that avoiding civil war requires a united front of all revolutionary democracy.

## Themes in this chapter

### Class Conflict and Polarization

The election results show a sharp polarization, with the Cadets (representing propertied classes) and Bolsheviks (representing workers and soldiers) gaining, while moderate socialists lost ground.

### Struggle for Legitimacy and Power

The electoral shift indicates a crisis of legitimacy for the coalition government, as voters turned away from centrist parties toward extremes.

## Key lines

> If civil war can yet be avoided, it can only be done by a united front of all the revolutionary democracy.

The only way to prevent civil war is for all revolutionary democratic forces to unite.

_Novaya Zhizn's editorial conclusion after presenting the election results._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/ten_days_that_shook_the_world_se/chapters/4-september-municipal-elections-in-moscow
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/ten_days_that_shook_the_world_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/ten_days_that_shook_the_world_se/chapters