Communist Party of the Russian Federation

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Communist Party supporters attend a May Day rally in Moscow

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (Russian: Коммунистическая партия Российской Федерации = КПРФ; translit.: Kommunisticheskaya Partiya Rossiskoy Federatsiy = KPRF) is a Russian political party. It is sometimes seen a successor to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Bolshevik Party. The party has emphasised its uniquely Russian character and it has consistently invoked Russian patriotism and nationalism in addition to communism.

Today much of the party's economic platform resembles democratic socialism, in spite of the party's name. It claims membership of 500,000.

Early members included Aleksandr Dugin who helped to draft early party documents and pushed the party in the direction of nationalism. He has since left to join the National Bolshevik Party, from which he was also banned, later forming his own "Eurasian" movement. Party leader Gennady Zyuganov also briefly worked with leading European nationalist Jean-Francois Thiriart before the latter's death.

Its support had been building steadily since its establishment in 1993, but it dropped massively in the 2003 parliamentary elections and has remained low since. At these last legislative elections, 7 December 2003, the party won 12.6 % of the popular vote and 51 out of 450 seats.

The CPRF is led by Gennady Zyuganov, who called the 2003 elections a 'revolting spectacle' and accuses the Kremlin of setting up a Potemkin party, the Rodina party, to steal its votes.

In July 2004 a breakaway faction elected Vladimir Tikhonov as its leader. The faction later formed the Communist Party of Russian Future.

External links

[CPRF site]

Communist Party of the Russian Federation

External links

See also