1974 Soviet Union legislative election

← 1970

16 June 1974

1979 →

	First party	Second party

Leader	Leonid Brezhnev
Party	CPSU	Independents
Last election	1,096 seats	421 seats
Seats won	1,096	421
Seat change

Chairman of the Council of Ministers before election

Alexei Kosygin
CPSU

Elected Chairman of the Council of Ministers

Alexei Kosygin
CPSU

Elections to the Supreme Soviet were held in the Soviet Union on 16 June 1974.^[1]

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Electoral system

Candidates had to be nominated by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) or by a public organisation.^[2] However, all public organisations were controlled by the party and were subservient to a 1931 law that required them to accept party rule.^[2] The CPSU itself remained the only legal one in the country.^[3]

Voters could vote against the CPSU candidate, but could only do so by using polling booths, whereas votes for the party could be cast simply by submitting a blank ballot.^[2] Turnout was required to be over 50% for the election to be valid.^[2]

The 1974 elections were the last held under the 1936 Soviet constitution, which provided for a Supreme Soviet elected for a four-year term and mandated that the Soviet of the Union had one deputy for every 300,000 people.^[4] During the Supreme Soviet's term, a new constitution was passed in 1977, which extended the Supreme Soviet's term to five years and made the number of seats in the Soviet of the Union equal to that of the Soviet of Nationalities, regardless of population size.^[5]^[6] Consequently, the term of the Supreme Soviet elected in 1974 was extended by a year, from 1978 to 1979; however, the new composition of the Supreme Soviet, with an equal number of members in each house, was only implemented starting with the 1979 elections.

Candidates

CPSU candidates accounted for around three quarters of the nominees, whilst many of the others were members of Komsomol.^[7]

Results

Soviet of the Union


Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Communist Party of the Soviet Union	161,355,959	99.79	562	0
	Independents	161,355,959	99.79	205	0
Against		333,569	0.21	–	–
Total		161,689,528	100.00	767	0

Valid votes		161,689,528	100.00
Invalid/blank votes		84	0.00
Total votes		161,689,612	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		161,724,222	99.98
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Soviet of Nationalities


Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Communist Party of the Soviet Union	161,443,605	99.85	534	0
	Independents	161,443,605	99.85	216	0
Against		245,918	0.15	–	–
Total		161,689,523	100.00	750	0

Valid votes		161,689,523	100.00
Invalid/blank votes		89	0.00
Total votes		161,689,612	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		161,724,222	99.98
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

References

^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1642 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Nohlen & Stöver, p1630
^ Nohlen & Stöver, p1654
^ Верховный Совет СССР, Great Soviet Encyclopedia
^ https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2425&context=vjtl
^ Osakwe, Christopher (1979). "The Theories and Realities of Modern Soviet Constitutional Law: An Analysis of the 1977 USSR Constitution". University of Pennsylvania Law Review. 127 (5): 1414. doi:10.2307/3311636. JSTOR 3311636. S2CID 5783531.
^ Nohlen & Stöver, p1631

v t e Elections and referendums in the Soviet Union
Presidential elections	1990
Legislative elections	1922 1924 1925 1927 1929 1931 1935 1936 1937 1946 1950 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1979 1984 1989
Regional elections	1938 1939 1947 1951 1955 1959 1963 1967 1971 1975 1980 1985 1990
Local elections	1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927
Referendums	1991

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This page was last edited on 3 August 2023, at 05:44