Communist Party of The Russian Federation - History

History

The party was founded on 14 February 1993 at the II Extraordinary Congress of Communist Russia, declaring itself as the successor to the Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. It brought together a number of successor groups from the CPSU, including Roy Medvedev's Socialist Party of the Working People, Alexei Prigarin's Union of Communists and much of the membership of the Russian Communist Workers Party (although party leader Viktor Anpilov rejected the new party).

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, being the chairman of the National Salvation Front (some authors call him a nationalist).

A new umbrella movement was formed on the initiative of the CPRF on 7 August 1996. It was called the 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 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 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.

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 rapprochement with Zyuganov's side.

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

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

Gennady Zyuganov, head of the party and its candidate for President of Russia in the election of 2012, denounced election irregularities 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.