Communist Party of the Russian Federation

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) (Russian: Коммунистическая партия Российской Федерации; КПРФ; Kommunisticheskaya Partiya Rossiyskoy Federatsii; KPRF) is a Russian political party. It is the second major political party in the Russian Federation. The youth organization of the party is the Leninist Komsomol of the Russian Federation. It considers itself the successor of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

History

The party was founded on February 14, 1993 at a 'Second Extraordinary Congress', declaring itself as the successor to the Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.^[2]

The CPRF is led by Gennady Zyuganov, who co-founded the party in early 1993 with senior former Soviet politicians Yegor Ligachev and Anatoly Lukyanov among others. Zyuganov had been a critic of Alexander Yakovlev, the "godfather of glasnost", on the CPSU Central Committee, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 he became active in the Russian "national-patriotic" movement,^[3][4] being the chairman of the National Salvation Front (some authors call him a nationalist^[5]). Early external collaborators included Eurasianist philosopher Aleksandr Dugin who helped to draft earlier party documents and pushed the party in the direction of nationalism.

A new umbrella movement was formed on the initiative of the CPRF on August 7, 1996. It was called People's Patriotic Union of Russia (NPSR) and consisted of more than 30 left-wing and right-wing nationalist organizations, such as the Russian All-People's Union led by Sergey Baburin. Gennady Zyuganov was its chairman. He was supported by the party as a candidate for Russia's presidency during the 1996 presidential elections and 2000 presidential elections. During the presidential elections of 1996, the CPRF was supported by prominent intellectual Aleksandr Zinovyev (a former Soviet dissident who became a supporter of communism at the time of Perestroika). Another prominent supporter of the CPRF is the physicist Zhores Alferov, who received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2000.

Zyuganov called the 2003 elections a 'revolting spectacle' and accuses the Kremlin of setting up a "Potemkin party," Rodina, to steal its votes.

CPRF's former members include many popular politicians, who seceded after their ambitions on party leading collided with Zyuganov's, who held the stronger support. Gennady Seleznev in 2001, Sergey Glazyev in 2003 and Gennady Semigin in 2004 were the most notable "dissenters". Commentators characterize the dominating Zyuganov wing as nationalist^[6] or 'popular-patriotic' (which is often used by the party militants themselves), rather than orthodox Marxist-Leninist. Some observers consider only Richard Kosolapov's minority faction of the CPRF as ideologically communist per se.^[7]

A minority faction criticised the decision to candidate "millionaires" (such as Sergei Sobko, general director and owner of the TEKHOS company) in the CPRF's lists, which was seen as a contradiction to the Marxist-Leninist and anti-oligarchic policies of the Party.

In July 2004 a breakaway faction elected Vladimir Tikhonov as its leader. The faction later formed the All-Russia Communist Party of the Future. The operation wasn't successful and recently Tikhonov's party has suspended active operations, seeking reapprochement with Zyuganov's side.

CPRF was endorsed by Sergey Baburin's People's Union for the 2007 Russian parliamentary elections.^[8]

The Russian Federal Registration Service says that 164,546 voters have registered with the government as members of the CPRF.^[9]

Gennady Zyuganov, head of the party and its candidate for President of Russia in the election of 2012, denounced election regularities in the Russian legislative election of 2011 but also expressed his opposition to the organizers of the mass demonstrations of December, 2011 who he views as ultra liberals who are exploiting unrest. The party played only a minor role in the protests, with one of its speakers, who called for restoration of Soviet power, being booed off the stage. Party rallies on December 18, 2011 in protest of election irregularities in Moscow and St. Petersberg were attended by only a few thousand, mostly elderly, party supporters.^[10]

Ideology

The official ideology of the party is Communism, Marxism-Leninism and patriotism. The party has emphasized its uniquely Russian character and it has consistently invoked Russian patriotism and nationalism in addition to the official Marxism-Leninism of the CPSU.^[11] Unlike the CPSU after 1956, the CPRF celebrates the rule of Joseph Stalin.^[12] On the occasion of Stalin's birthday on 21 December 2010, Zyuganov called for the "re-Stalinisation" of Russian society in an open letter to President Dmitry Medvedev.^[13] According to party spokesmen speaking in 2011 the party strongly differentiates itself from liberal elements associated with the 2011 Russian protests.^[10]

Party program

Under present conditions in the Russian Federation, the Communist party believes it is necessary to[6]:

• stop the extinction of the country, restore benefits for large families, reconstruct the network of public kindergartens and provide housing for young families.
• nationalize natural resources in Russia and the strategic sectors of the economy; revenues in these industries are to be used in the interests of all citizens
• return to Russia from foreign banks the state financial reserves and use them for economic and social development
• break the system of total fraud in the elections
• create a truly independent judiciary
• carry out an immediate package of measures to combat poverty and introduce price controls on essential goods
• not raise the retirement age
• restore government responsibility for housing and utilities, establish fees for municipal services in an amount not more than 10% of family income, stop the eviction of people to the streets, expand public housing
• increase funding for science and scientists to provide decent wages and all the necessary research
• restore the highest standards of universal and free secondary and higher education that existed during the Soviet era
• ensure the availability and quality of health care
• vigorously develop high-tech manufacturing
• ensure the food and environmental security of the country and support the large collective farms for the production and processing of agricultural products
• prioritize domestic debt over of foreign (to compensate for household deposits, burnt in the disastrous years of "reform")
• introduce progressive taxation; low-income citizens will be exempt from paying taxes
• improve the efficiency of public administration, reducing the number of officials to extend the powers of labor collectives and trade unions
• create conditions for development of small and medium enterprises
• ensure the accessibility of cultural goods, stop the commercialization of culture, defend Russian culture as the foundation of the spiritual unity of multinational Russia, the national culture of all citizens of the country
• stop the slandering of the Russian and Soviet history
• take drastic measures to suppress corruption and crime
• strengthen national defense and expand social guarantees to servicemen and law enforcement officials
• ensure the territorial integrity of Russia and the protection of compatriots abroad
• institute a foreign policy based on mutual respect of countries and peoples to facilitate the voluntary restoration of the Union of States.

Electoral results

In parliament, after an initial slow start with just 12.4% of vote in the first 1993 parliamentary elections, it grew to 22% in the 1995 parliamentary elections, making it by far the biggest Russian party, raised after that, to 24% in the 1999 elections and then declined dramatically by losing almost half of its votes to 13% in the 2003 parliamentary elections, resulting in 51 out of 450 seats. In the 2007 Russian parliamentary elections the party won 11.6% of the vote, a slight decrease in percentage points, although the election resulted in an increase in the number of votes obtained by the party (more than 8 million votes) and in the number of seats held by the party. The CPRF enjoyed highest support in Tambov Oblast (19.17%), Oryol Oblast (17.58%) and Bryansk Oblast (17.09%). As of 2008^[update] the Communist Party continues to be the second largest party in Russia, as well as the largest opposition party.

In all presidential elections since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Communist candidate came second. In the 1996 elections, candidate Gennady Zyuganov rose to 32% of the votes, just short of Yeltsin's 35%. In the 2000 elections, Zyuganov was the communist candidate, and dropped slightly to 29%, but Vladimir Putin won a landslide victory with 53%. In the presidential election held on 14 March 2004, Putin's support rose to 71% and the Communist Party's candidate, Nikolay Kharitonov, won only 14%. Taking into consideration the fact that Kharitonov (a leading member of the Agrarian Party of Russia) was considered to be a "token" candidate, this was a better result than expected, showing that the CPRF still has a substantial base of support. In the 2008 presidential election, CPRF leader Gennady Zyuganov ran again for President, placing second with a surprising 17.8% (13,243,550 votes). Zyuganov even managed to beat United Russia's candidate Dimitry Medvedev in some small villages and towns. After the election, Zyuganov said that his supporters had uncovered numerous violations and that he should have gotten at least 30% of the vote and he added that he would challenge the results in court. Some weeks later, Russia's Central Election Commission admitted that most of the complaints by the CPRF regarding violations during the election were well grounded and justified,^[14] but wouldn't have changed the outcome of the vote.

In February 2005 the CPRF managed to beat the ruling pro-Kremlin party, United Russia, in elections to the regional legislature of Nenets Autonomous Okrug, obtaining 27% of the popular vote.

In the Moscow Duma election held on 4 December 2005, the Party won 16.75 % and 4 seats. This was the best ever result for the CPRF in Moscow. In some observers opinion, the absence of the Rodina party contributed to the Communists' success.

On March 11, 2007, elections took place for 14 regional and local legislatures. The CPRF performed very well and increased its votes in most of the territories; it came second in Oryol Oblast (23.78%), Omsk Oblast (22.58%), Pskov Oblast (19.21%) and Samara Oblast (18.87%), Moscow Oblast (18.80%), Murmansk Oblast (17.51%) and Tomsk Oblast (13.37%).^[15] These results testify that the CPRF is the most significant opposition party in Russia.

On May 21, 2007, the CPRF obtained an important success in the Volgograd's mayoral election. Communist candidate Roman Grebennikov was elected as mayor with 32.47% of the vote. Grebennikov is the youngest mayor of a regional capital. But since Roman Grebennikov has switched allegiances to United Russia, angering many Communists who accuse him of using the CPRF as a tool to become elected.

On April 7, 2011, the CPRF candidate Ilya Potapov won the Mayoral election in the town of Berdsk with a landslide victory over the United Russia candidate.

Electorate

The CPRF has its stronghold in large cities and major industrial and scientific centers ("naukograds") and in small towns and cities around Moscow.^[19] For example, one of the few polling stations that CPRF were a success during Russian legislative election, 2007, was one at Moscow State University.^[20]

The Party's electorate is composed mainly of pensioners, industrial workers and not-for-profit organizations' employees. The past few years have also seen a growth in its support of the leftist youth groups, such as the Vanguard of Red Youth. A representative of CPRF was present at "the Other Russia" conference of opposition parties in 2006. Also recent 2007-2007 elections witnessed a growing number of protesting non-leftist voters who gave their votes to the Party since they saw no tangible alternative.

According to Mikhail Remizov, President of the Institute of the National Strategy, "The electorate of the Communist Party of Russia is becoming more variegated. Now they are not only elderly pensioners crying for the USSR. A group of discontented voters is taking shape among potential voters and the lion’s share of their votes goes to the Communist Party, which maintains the reputation of the main oppositional force, and this affects its rating."^[21]

Criticism

According to Gorbachev Foundation analyst Dmitry Furman, the party's “fascistoid features are so salient that one has to be blind and deaf not to notice them.”^[22] Marxist theoretician Boris Kagarlitsky writes: “It is enough to recall that within the Communist movement itself, Zyuganov's party was at first neither the sole organisation, nor the largest. Bit by bit, however, all other Communist organisations were forced out of political life. This occurred not because the organisations in question were weak, but because it was the CPRF that had received the Kremlin's official approval as the sole recognised opposition.”^[23] Andrei Brezhnev, grandson of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, has criticised the CPRF's Zyuganov's rapprochement with the Russian Orthodox Church.^[24]

Gallery

See also

• Communist Party of the Soviet Union
• Russian Communist Workers' Party – Revolutionary Party of Communists
• History of post-Soviet Russia

References

• Lisa Horner "Communism and the CPRF in Modern Russia," The School of Russian and Asian Studies (23.01.2009)
• Miriam Elder, "Communism: a love affair? The tyranny of daily bribes has many Russians nostalgic for Soviet social services," The Global Post (14 October 2009) (Updated 30 May 2010).

Further reading

• KPRF ideology and its implications for democratization in Russia by Syed Mohsin Hashim. In: Communist and Post-Communist Studies Volume 32, Issue 1, March 1999, pp. 77–89

External links

• Political Program KPRF
• Communist Party of the Russian Federation official website. English translation of the site by Google Translate
• Communist Party of the Russian Federation forum