History
The CPRF was founded on 14 February 1993 at the Second Extraordinary Congress of Russian Communists, where it declared itself to be the successor of the Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (CPRSFSR). It formed through the merger of a variety of successor groups to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), including Roy Medvedev's Socialist Party of the Working People (of left-socialist orientation), Alexei Prigarin's Union of Communists; and much of the membership of the Stalinism, Stalinist Russian Communist Workers Party (although party leader Viktor Anpilov rejected the new party). The CPRF quickly became the largest party in Russia, with 500,000 members soon after its founding, more than double all the other parties membership combined.Bozóki & Ishiyama, p. 242. Gennady Zyuganov, a co-founder of the party along with senior former Soviet Union, Soviet politicians Yegor Ligachev, Anatoly Lukyanov, Andrew Konstant and others, was elected to be party leader at the Second Extraordinary Congress.Bozóki & Ishiyama, p245 Zyuganov had been a harsh critic of Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev, Alexander Yakovlev, the so-called "godfather of glasnost", on the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, CPSU Central Committee. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, he became active in the Russian "national-patriotic" movement, being the chairman of the National Salvation Front (Russia), National Salvation Front (some authors call him a Nationalism, nationalist). Following the CPRF's success in the 1995 Russian legislative election, 1995 legislative election, it emerged as the primary opposition to incumbent President Boris Yeltsin for the 1996 Russian presidential election, 1996 presidential election, whose approval rating was in single digits.Bozóki and Ishiyama, p. 249. In order to oppose Yeltsin, Zyuganov organised a "popular-patriotic bloc" of nationalist organisations to support his candidacy. After the election, on 7 August 1996 the coalition supporting him was transformed into an official organisation, the People's Patriotic Union of Russia (NPSR), consisting of more than 30 left-wing and nationalist organisations, including the Russian All-People's Union, led by Sergey Baburin. Zyuganov was its chairman. It went on to support Zyuganov in the 2000 Russian presidential election, 2000 presidential election. The NPSR was meant to form the basis of a two-party system, with the NPSR opposing the ruling "party of power". The party suffered a sharp decline in the 2003 Russian legislative election, 2003 legislative election, going from 113 seats to 52. Zyuganov called the 2003 elections a "revolting spectacle" and accused the Kremlin of setting up a "Potemkin village, Potemkin party", Rodina (political party), Rodina, to steal its votes. The CPRF was endorsed by Sergey Baburin's People's Union (Russia), People's Union for the 2007 Russian legislative election, 2007 Russian parliamentary elections. In the 2012 Russian presidential election, 2012 presidential election, Zyuganov denounced election irregularities in the 2011 Russian legislative election, 2011 legislative election, but he also expressed his opposition to the organisers of the 2011 Russian protests, mass demonstrations of December 2011, which he viewed as orchestrated by ultra-liberals exploiting unrest. The party played only a minor role as a catalyst in the protests. Party rallies on 18 December 2011 in protest of election irregularities in Moscow and Saint Petersburg were attended by only a few thousand, mostly elderly, party supporters. In 2014, the party called for Russia to formally recognise the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic. In 2021 the party's headquarters was raided by Russian authorities and a party official was barred from entering his office in the State Duma after it refused to accept the results of an online parliamentary election vote and attempting to file a lawsuit against the results.Ideology
The party's current programme was adapted in 2008, where the CPRF declared that it is the only political organisation that consistently upholds the rights of the workers and national interests. According to the programme, the strategic goal of the party is to build in Russia a "renewed socialism, socialism of the 21st century". The program of the Communist Party declared that the party is guided by Marxism–Leninism, based on the experience and achievements of domestic and world science and culture. According to the party, there comes a "confrontation between the New world order (politics), New World Order and the Russian people with its thousand-year history, and with its qualities", "communality and great power, deep faith, undying altruism and decisive rejection of lures mercantile bourgeois liberal-democratic paradise".
According to its program, the CPRF considers it necessary to reform the country in three phases. In the first phase, it is needed to achieve workers' power through representation by a coalition led by the CPRF. Achieving this goal will help eliminate the devastation from the standpoint of the party, the consequences conducted in the past decade of reforms, in particular by the nationalisation of property privatised in the 1990s. However, in this case small producers will remain and moreover will be organised to protect them from robbery by "big business, bureaucrats, and mafia groups". It is planned to reform the management of enterprises through the creation of Workers' council, councils at various levels. The party also plans to transform Russia into a Soviet republic (system of government), Soviet republic. In the second stage, the role of councils and trade unions will increase even more. A gradual transition in the economy will be made to a socialist form of Economics, economic activity, but a small private equity is still retained. Finally, the third phase is to build socialism.
In recent years, the Communist Party has also shown tendency of moving towards Dengism. The First Secretary Gennady Zyuganov also expressed that they should learn from China's successful example and build Russian socialism. He also encouraged all party members to read "Selective work of Deng Xiaoping". He said during his visit to China in 2008: "Had we learned from the success of China earlier, the Soviet Union would not have dissolved".
Party programme
Under the present conditions in the Russian Federation, the CPRF calls for the following proposals:
* Stop the extinction of the country, restore benefits for large families, reconstruct the network of public kindergartens and provide housing for young families.
* Nationalise 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 and 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.
* Prioritise domestic debt over foreign debt
* Introduce progressive taxation; low-income citizens will be exempt from paying taxes.
* Create conditions for development of small and medium enterprises.
* Ensure the accessibility of cultural goods, stop the commercialisation 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 History of Russia, Russian and History of the Soviet Union, 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.
The party is in favour of cooperation with the Russian Orthodox Church. According to the words of Gennady Zyuganov, Zyuganov, the CPRF is a party of scientific, but not militant atheism. Propaganda of any religion is banned inside the party. The CPRF celebrates the rule of Joseph Stalin. Zyuganov and the party support social conservatism and voted in favor of the ban on the "promotion of non-traditional sexual relations to minors", commonly known as the Russian gay propaganda law.
Internal factions
Since its founding the CPRF has had several distinct internal factions:Bozóki & Ishiyama, p244 *Left-wing nationalism, Left-wing nationalists. CPRF leader Gennady Zyuganov is from this tendency. The left-wing nationalists in the party identify socialism historically with Russia and Russia culturally with socialism. They are influenced by the writings of historian Lev Gumilyov and see class struggle as having evolved into struggle between civilisations. *Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninists. The Marxist–Leninist faction of the party has a traditional Leninist understanding of class struggle and socialism. They are against both nationalism and social democracy. This tendency is heavily reflected in the party's rank-and-file membership. Richard Kosolapov was a prominent member of this group. *Reformism, Reformers. The party's reformers are Social democracy, social democratic or reform-communists, who have a generally critical view of the Soviet Union. This faction had a majority at the Second Extraordinary Congress, but has declined since then.Party structure
The CPRF is legally registered in Russia. In organisational terms, it largely mirrors the CPSU, with the party being led by a Central Committee with a commitment to democratic centralism.Bozóki & Ishiyama, p243 It has regional offices in 81 federal subjects.http://minjust.ru/node/2266 Each regional office is controlled by the local (oblast, city, etc.) committee, headed by the First Secretary. The headquarters of the party is in Moscow. The Leninist Komsomol of the Russian Federation is the youth organisation of the party.International cooperation
In 1993, the party founded the Union of Communist Parties – Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Since 2001, the organisation has been led by Gennady Zyuganov and it became part of the Central Committee. The party has friendly relations with the Party of the European Left, but it is not a member of it. The party also has friendly relations with the Communist Party of China. On 24 March 2017, the party sent a delegation to North Korea and signed a "protocol on cooperation" with the Workers' Party of Korea. During the visit, a stone was placed in the Juche Tower. In October 2017 the party hosted the 19th International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties in the city of Saint Petersburg, marking the centenary of the October Revolution, with an attendance of over 100 parties from around the globe.Media
''Pravda'' is the newspaper of the Communist Party; it has more than 30 regional editions. Left-wing nationalism, Left-wing nationalist newspaper ''Sovetskaya Rossiya'' has also friendly ties with the Communist Party, but is not officially affiliated with it. Ultra-nationalist newspaper ''Zavtra'' used to support the Communist Party, but in 2005 it switched its support to Rodina (political party), Rodina.Finances
According to the financial report of the CPRF, in 2006 the party received ₽127,453,237 rubles (3,998,835 US$): * 29% – membership fees * 30% – the federal budget * 6% – donations * 35% – other incomes In 2006, the party spent 116,823,489 rubles (3,665,328 US$): * 5% – for the maintenance of regional offices * 21% – on promotion (information, advertising, publishing and printing) * 10% – the content of the governing bodies * 7% – the preparation and conduct of elections and referenda * 36% – content publishers, media and educational institutions In 2008, the CPRF received 70% of its finance from the state budget of the Russian Federation. According to a report at the XIII Congress of the CPRF, for ten months of 2008 total income amounted to 148 million rubles, including 8 million rubles from charges membership fees, 36 million rubles from donations and 106 million rubles from government funding. On 19 October 2008, the leader of the party Gennady Zyuganov appealed to the citizens of Russia to financially support the party to implement its policy goals.Popular support and electoral results
The CPRF is strong in large cities and major industrial and scientific centers ("naukograds") as well as in the small towns and cities around Moscow. One of the few polling stations that gave a success to the CPRF during the 2007 Russian legislative election was at Moscow State University. The CPRF is also strong in the Russian Far East, far east of Russia, in Siberia, and the Urals.Bozóki & Ishiyama, p253Presidential elections
In all presidential elections that have been held in the Russian Federation, the CRPF's candidate has finished second. In 2012, several opposition politicians, including Boris Nemtsov, posited that Dmitry Medvedev admitted to them that Zyuganov would actually have won the 1996 Russian presidential election if not for fraud in favor of Boris Yeltsin. According to the official results, Zyuganov received 17.18% of the votes in the 2012 Russian presidential election. According to independent observers, there was large-scale fraud in favor of Vladimir Putin. Zyuganov called the election "one of thieves, and absolutely dishonest and unworthy".Parliamentary elections
Parliamentary election results by oblast
Regional elections
In February 2005, the CPRF defeated 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, the best ever result for the CPRF in Moscow. In the opinion of some observers, the absence of the Motherland (Russia), Rodina party contributed to the Communists' success. On 11 March 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%). These results testify that the CPRF is the most significant opposition party in Russia. On 21 May 2007, the CPRF obtained an important success in the Volgograd's mayoral election. Communist candidate Roman Grebennikov won election as mayor with 32.47% of the vote and became the youngest mayor of a regional capital. In 2008, Roman Grebennikov switched his allegiance to United Russia, angering many Communists who accused him of using the CPRF as a tool to become elected. On 7 April 2011, the CPRF candidate Ilya Potapov won the mayoral election in the town of Berdsk with a landslide victory over the United Russia candidates. In 2015 gubernatorial elections, party's nominee Sergey Levchenko won the gubernatorial election in Irkutsk Oblast. In the 2018 Russian gubernatorial elections, 2018 gubernatorial elections, Communist Party candidates Andrey Klychkov and Valentin Konovalov won the gubernatorial elections in the Oryol Oblast and Khakassia, respectively. In addition, in the September 2018 Primorsky Krai gubernatorial election, election in Primorsky Krai, the party's candidate Andrey Ishchenko could pass in the second round of election in which lost, by official results. The result of those elections was declared invalid due to a large number of violations in connection with which recall election were scheduled for December 2018, but the Communist Party decided not to nominate its candidate for the new election. In the 2018 elections to the regional parliaments, the Communist Party took first place in the voting on party lists in three regions. However, in two regions, United Russia still managed to get a relative majority in regional parliaments at the expense of deputies-single-mandate holders. Nevertheless, in Irkutsk Oblast, the party received a relative majority and is the largest faction in the Legislative Assembly. Thus, Irkutsk Oblast is currently the only region in which both branches of government (executive and legislative) are controlled by the Communist Party.Criticism
Marxism, Marxist theoretician Boris Kagarlitsky wrote in 2001: "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". Andrei Brezhnev, grandson of List of leaders of the Soviet Union, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, has criticised the CPRF's Zyuganov's rapprochement with the Russian Orthodox Church.Gallery
Flags
Photo Gallery
See also
*MFK KPRF *Chinese Communist Party *Communist Party of Cuba *Communist Party of the Soviet Union *Communist Party USA *Communist Party of Vietnam *Lao People's Revolutionary Party *Workers' Party of KoreaReferences
Further reading
* Syed Mohsin Hashim (March 1999). ''KPRF ideology and its implications for democratization in Russia''. ''Communist and Post-Communist Studies''. Vol. 32. Iss. 1. pp. 77–89. *Lisa Horner (23 January 2009)"Communism and the CPRF in Modern Russia"
• ''The School of Russian and Asian Studies''. * Miriam Elder (14 October 2009) (updated 30 May 2010)
"Communism: a love affair? The tyranny of daily bribes has many Russians nostalgic for Soviet social services"
• ''The Global Post''.
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Communist Party of the Russian Federation Communist Party of the Russian Federation, 1993 establishments in Russia Communist parties in Russia Eurosceptic parties in Russia Neo-Sovietism Neo-Stalinist parties Political parties established in 1993 Registered political parties in Russia Far-left politics in Russia