Oleg Shenin

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Oleg Semyonovich Shenin (born 1937) is the leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Shenin), which should not be confused with the larger UCP-CPSU.

Shenin was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union; he was also a member of the Politburo and Secretariat from 1990 to 1991. During the Soviet coup attempt of 1991, he was a member of the group of CPSU CC members who tried to regain control of the country in order to re-establish the Soviet Union. He was later jailed for taking part in the events.

Shenin was founding Chairman of the Union of Communist Parties - Communist Party of the Soviet Union (UCP-CPSU) from 1993, until he broke away from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) in 2001, after its leader Gennady Zyuganov refused to back the creation of a united Communist Party of Russia and Belarus.^[1] Zyuganov then succeeded Shenin as Chairman of the UCP-CPSU.

He is considered to be a hardline Communist. In September 1997, he met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il in Pyongyang.

Oleg Shenin registered as a presidential candidate for the 2008 presidential election but he was denied registration for failing to complete some paperwork correctly.^[2] According to Shenin, his candidacy was rejected because he did not provide a letter from his employer; he described this as an "idiotic excuse" because he had been a pensioner for years.^[3]