Communist Party of Kazakhstan

Communist Party of Kazakhstan
Leader Gaziz Aldamzharov
Founded 1936
Membership  (2008) 90,000
Ideology Communism
Marxism–Leninism
Political position Left-wing
International affiliation Union of Communist Parties – Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Website
komparty.kz

The Communist Party of Kazakhstan (CPK) (Kazakh: Қазақстан Коммунистік партиясы, Russian: Коммунистическая партия Казахстана) is a political party in Kazakhstan. The Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan, which managed to elect seven members of parliament in the 2012 legislative election, was established through a split in the CPK.

Origin

The Communist Party of Kazakhstan was founded 1936, when Kazakhstan was granted a Union Republic status within the Soviet Union. The Communist Party of Kazakhstan had been a branch of CPSU until the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Post-Soviet restructuring

Serikbolsyn Abdildin, the 1st Chairman of post-Soviet Communist Party

The 18th Congress of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan took a decision to rename the Communist Party as the Socialist Party and split from CPSU. Nursultan Nazarbayev, the party chairman, resigned when he became the first President of Kazakhstan in 1991. Dissatisfied members of the old Communist Party recreated the Communist Party of Kazakhstan in October 1991 at the 19th Congress of the party. CPK was officially registered on August 27, 1998. Communist Party of Kazakhstan has a well-established party structure with offices in all of the oblasts. CPK is estimated to have around 70 thousand members.[1] CPK largely appeals to above-middle age segment of the population especially in Urban areas who have a strong nostalgia for Soviet times. The leader of CPK has been by Serikbolsyn Abdildin, a respected, old generation politician in Kazakhstan.

In the mid-1990s CPK participated in opposition coalition movements "Azamat" and "Pokolenie" ("Generation"). In 1996, CPK initiated unregistered "National-Patriotic Movement-Republic". In February 1998, it joined the opposition bloc "People’s Front of Kazakhstan".[2]

The party split at the start of 2004, when a group led Vladislav Kosarev started accusing party First Secretary Serikbolsyn Abdildin of accepting money from questionable sources. The splinter party, the Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan, has failed to meet 50,000 membership requirement to be officially registered.

At the last legislative elections, 19 September and 3 October 2004, an alliance of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan and the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan won 3.4% of the popular vote and no seats. At the 4 December 2005 presidential elections, Communist Party of Kazakhstan, Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan and the Naghyz Ak Zhol Party formed a coalition movement, For a Just Kazakhstan and supported Zharmakhan Tuyakbay as presidential candidate.

First Secretaries

Of the Communist Party of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic

  1. Levon Mirzoyan (December 5, 1936 - May 3, 1938)
  2. Nikolay Skvortsov (May 3, 1938 - September 14, 1945)
  3. Zhumabay Shayakhmetov (September 14, 1945 - March 6, 1954)
  4. Panteleimon Ponomarenko (March 6, 1954 - May 8, 1955)
  5. Leonid Brezhnev (May 8, 1955 - March 6, 1956)
  6. Ivan Yakovlev (March 6, 1956 - December 26, 1957)
  7. Nikolay Belyayev (December 26, 1957 - January 19, 1960)
  8. Dinmukhamed Kunayev (January 19, 1960 - December 26, 1962)
  9. Ismail Yusupov (December 26, 1962 - December 7, 1964)
  10. Dinmukhamed Kunayev (December 7, 1964 - December 16, 1986)
  11. Gennady Kolbin (December 16, 1986 - June 22, 1989)
  12. Nursultan Nazarbayev (June 22, 1989 - August 28, 1991)

Of the Communist Party of the Republic of Kazakhstan

  1. Serikbolsyn Abdildin (October 1991 - April 17, 2010)
  2. Gaziz Aldamzharov (April 17, 2010 – present)

References

  1. ↑ Kazakhstan Votes 2005, http://www.rferl.org/specials/kazakh_votes/parties.aspx
  2. ↑ Campaign Updates from Yevgeny Zhovtis, http://www.iicas.org/libr_en/kz/libr_21_05_06.htm

External links