THE RIGHT TO VOTE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

64.  The right to vote and to be elected to the Soviets is enjoyed by the following citizens, irrespective of religion, nationality, domicile, etc., of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic, of both sexes, who shall have completed their eighteenth year by the day of election: 

a.  All who have acquired the means of living through labor that is productive and useful to society, and also persons engaged in housekeeping which enables the former to do productive work—­i.e., laborers and employees of all classes who are employed in industry, trade, agriculture, etc.; and peasants and Cossack agricultural laborers who employ no help for the purpose of making profits.

    b.  Soldiers of the army and navy of the Soviets.

    c.  Citizens of the two preceding categories who have to any degree
    lost their capacity to work.

    Note 1:  Local Soviets may, upon approval of the central power,
    lower the age standard mentioned herein.

    Note 2:  Non-citizens mentioned in Paragraph 20 (Article 2, Chapter
    Five) have the right to vote.

    65.  The following persons enjoy neither the right to vote nor the
    right to be voted for, even though they belong to one of the
    categories enumerated above, namely: 

    a.  Persons who employ hired labor in order to obtain from it an
    increase in profits.

    b.  Persons who have an income without doing any work, such as
    interest from capital, receipts from property, etc.

    c.  Private merchants, trade, and commercial brokers.

    d.  Monks and clergy of all denominations.

    e.  Employees and agents of the former police, the gendarme corps,
    and the Okhrana (Czar’s secret service), also members of the
    former reigning dynasty.

    f.  Persons who have in legal form been declared demented or
    mentally deficient, and also persons under guardianship.

    g.  Persons who have been deprived by a Soviet of their rights of
    citizenship because of selfish or dishonorable offenses, for the
    period fixed by the sentence.

Apparently the Constitution does not provide any standard for determining what labor is “useful and productive to society,” and leaves the way open for a degree of arbitrariness on the part of some authority or other that is wholly incompatible with any generally accepted ideal of freedom and democracy.  It is apparent from the text of paragraph 64, subdivision “a” of the foregoing chapter that housekeeping as such is not included in the category of “labor that is productive and useful to society,” for a separate category is made of it.  The language used is that “The right to vote and to be elected to the Soviets is enjoyed by....  All who have acquired the means of living through labor that is productive and useful to society, and also persons engaged in housekeeping, which enables the former to do productive work—­i.e., laborers and employees of all classes who are employed in industry, trade, agriculture, etc.”