Abstract: The article is devoted to a topic that is still little studied in the history of the local government of the Nizhny Novgorod governorate – the establishment of the institute of volost zemstvo in 1917. The subject of this research are the specifics behind the creation and activity of the volost zemstvo of the rural self-government of the Nizhny Novgorod governorate during the period of February-October 1917. As the basic source for the research of this problem the author for the first time in historiography used material from local periodicals were first used. Their analysis allows us to more accurately assess the socio-economic and political situation in the governorate between February and October of 1917, the mood of the voters during the election campaign, and to identify the main reasons for its failure. The study is based on the main methodological principles of historical science - the principles of historicism, objectivity and social approach. In addition, it also used specific historical methods - logical, comparative-historical, problem-chronological. The author focuses particular attention on the study of the reasons for the failure of the volost zemstvo reform in 1917 in the Nizhny Novgorod governorate. The author analyzes in detail the confrontation between the volost zemstvo administration and local peasant committees in the struggle for influence over the peasant masses. It is concluded that the emerging volost zemstvo has become hostage to the inability of the Provisional government to resolve the two main issues for peasants: land and food.

Abstract: A significant feature of the development of Russia into a modern state is its democratic parliamentary traditions, which in 2016 have crossed the 110-year milestone. The aim of this article is to study the experience and lessons of the election campaign of the political parties in Nizhny Novgorod during the elections to the First State Duma. The article presents a brief description of the leading political parties of the Nizhny Novgorod governorate and reveals the difficulties they faced during this election campaign, including: the necessity of conducting a propaganda campaign under the conditions of the Russian Revolution and the limited freedom of opposition parties. Additionally, all parties simultaneously had to address the issues of party formation and to organise election campaigns. During the course of the election campaign in Nizhny Novgorod, the parties used traditional forms and methods of election technologies – newspaper articles, brochures, proclamations, leaflets, meetings with voters –, as well as unconventional methods – from the use of administrative resources to manipulating ballots. A particular means of participating in the election struggle was demonstrated by the Nizhny Novgorod electorate through protest behaviour. In Nizhny Novgorod the Constitutional-Democratic Party won a landslide victory. A certain role in this victory was due to the agitators’ active participation, the party's more attractive program for the majority of the population, its variety of forms in working with the electorate, and the absence in the party elections of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Social-Democratic parties. But the more momentous contribution to the outcome of the election campaign was due to the presence in Russia of a huge body of protest electorate, which expressed its negative attitude towards the Russian government's policy by voting for the most oppositional party.