Head of The Communist Party of The Russian Federation
Zyuganov wrote several influential papers in the early 1990s attacking Yeltsin and calling for a return to the socialism of the pre-Gorbachev days. In July 1991, he signed the A Word to the People declaration. As the Communist Party of the Soviet Union fell into disarray, Zyuganov helped form the new Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), and became one of seven secretaries of the new group's Central Committee and in 1993 its chairman. Outside observers were surprised by the survival of Zyuganov's Communist Party into the post-Soviet era.
Quickly emerging as post-communist Russia's leading opposition leader, Zyuganov stressed the overall decline in living standards corresponding with the dismantlement of Soviet socialism. Economic power was left concentrated in the hands of a tiny share of the population, violent crime increased, and ethnic groups throughout Russia embarked on campaigns, sometimes violent, to win autonomy. Thus, many in Russia longed for a return to the days of socialism, when a strong central government guaranteed personal and economic security. Russians left behind in the new capitalist Russia emerged as Zyuganov's supporters: workers, clerks, bureaucrats, some professionals, and, above all others, the elderly. As Zyuganov succeeded in combining Communist ideas with Russian nationalism, his Communist Party of the Russian Federation joined hands with numerous other left-wing and right-wing nationalist forces, forming a common 'national-patriotic alliance.'
In the 1993 and 1995 parliamentary elections, the newly revitalized Communist Party of the Russian Federation made a strong showing, and as its leader, Zyuganov emerged as a serious challenger to President Boris Yeltsin.
Read more about this topic: Gennady Zyuganov
Famous quotes containing the words head, communist, party, russian and/or federation:
“An idea ran back and forward in his head like a blind man, knocking over the solid furniture.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“I am a communist because I believe that the Communist idea is a state form of Christianity.”
—Alexander Zhuravlyov (b. 1924)
““It is with Love as with Cuckoldom”Mthe suffering party is at least the third, but generally the last in the house who knows any thing about the matter.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“Other centuries had their driving forces. What will ours have been when men look far back to it one day? Maybe it won’t be the American Century, after all. Or the Russian Century or the Atomic Century. Wouldn’t it be wonderful, Phil, if it turned out to be everybody’s century, when people all over the world—free people—found a way to live together? I’d like to be around to see some of that, even the beginning.”
—Moss Hart (1904–1961)
“Women realize that we are living in an ungoverned world. At heart we are all pacifists. We should love to talk it over with the war-makers, but they would not understand. Words are so inadequate, and we realize that the hatred must kill itself; so we give our men gladly, unselfishly, proudly, patriotically, since the world chooses to settle its disputes in the old barbarous way.”
—General Federation Of Women’s Clubs (GFWC)