The Communist Party "Communists of Russia" (CPCR; ; ''Kommunisticheskaya partiya «Kommunisty Rossii»'', ''KPKR'') or simply Communists of Russia (CR; ; ''Kommunisty Rossii'', ''KR'') is an anti-revisionist Marxist–Leninist communist party in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Communists of Russia was founded in May 2009 as a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

non-commercial A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that is not carried out in the interest of Profit (economics), profit. The opposite is Commerce, commercial, something that primarily serves profit interests and is focused on bu ...

organisation An organization or organisation ( Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is an entity—such as a company, or corporation or an institution ( formal organization), or an association—comprising one or more people and having a pa ...

, and officially registered as a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

in April 2012. The party has regional organisations in 69 regions and operates in 70 regions of

and has official affiliation with two inter-regional public associations: the Communists of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region and the Communists of the Far East. The party's main rival on the

left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * ''Left'' (Helmet album), 2023 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relativ ...

of Russia's

political spectrum A political spectrum is a system to characterize and classify different Politics, political positions in relation to one another. These positions sit upon one or more Geometry, geometric Coordinate axis, axes that represent independent political ...

is the

Communist Party of the Russian Federation The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF; ) is a communist political party in Russia that officially adheres to Marxist–Leninist philosophy. It is the second-largest political party in Russia after United Russia. The youth o ...

(CPRF), which sees itself as the successor to the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

(CPSU). The KR considers itself an alternative to the CPRF, which it believes is no longer a

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

party and will not be able to return to power as long as

Gennady Zyuganov Gennady Andreyevich Zyuganov (; born 26 June 1944) is a Russian politician who has been the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and served as Member of the State Duma since 1993. He is also the Chair of the Union ...

is First Secretary. However, the party has been widely described as a spoiler party, including by the CPRF. On March 18, 2022, an extraordinary party congress was held, at which a new chairman of the Central Committee of the party, Sergey Malinkovich, was elected. On December 28, 2023, he was nominated by an overwhelming majority as the party candidate for

president of Russia The president of Russia, officially the president of the Russian Federation (), is the executive head of state of Russia. The president is the chair of the State Council (Russia), Federal State Council and the President of Russia#Commander-in-ch ...

in the 2024 presidential election. Malinkovich promised a program like

Stalin's ten blows In Soviet historiography, Stalin's ten blows () were the ten successful strategic offensives in Europe conducted by the Red Army in 1944 during World War II. The Soviet offensives drove the Axis forces from Soviet territory and precipitated Nazi ...

, against United States capitalism and imperialism, and victory in Russia's war against Ukraine.

Platform

For the

2016 Russian legislative election Legislative elections were held in Russia on 18 September 2016, having been brought forward from 4 December. At stake were the 450 seats in the State Duma of the 7th convocation, the lower house of the Federal Assembly. Prior to the election U ...

, the Communists of Russia released an electoral platform titled "Ten Stalinist Strikes on Capitalism", which called for broad

nationalization Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with p ...

, the return of the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

for certain crimes, medical reform, and a constitutional ban on raising the retirement age.

Election results

Presidential elections

On December 28, 2023, Sergey Malinkovich was nominated by an overwhelming majority as the party candidate for

President of Russia The president of Russia, officially the president of the Russian Federation (), is the executive head of state of Russia. The president is the chair of the State Council (Russia), Federal State Council and the President of Russia#Commander-in-ch ...

in the March 15-17, 2024 presidential election. Malinkovich promised a program like

, against United States capitalism and imperialism, and victory in Russia's war against Ukraine.

Legislative elections

Regional elections

At the Russian regional elections in 2012, the party got 2 to 3.5 percent of the vote and two seats.

Khakassia

In the 2018 Khakassia Supreme Council election, the Communists of Russia won 8.01% of the vote, and won 2 of the 50 seats on the Supreme Council.

Nenets Autonomous Okrug

In the , the Communists of Russia won 1 of the 19 seats on the Assembly of Deputies.

Rostov Oblast

In the 2018 Rostov Oblast Legislative Assembly election, the Communists of Russia won 5% of the vote, and won 1 of the 60 seats on the .

Tula Oblast

In the , the Communists of Russia won 5.67% of the vote, and won 1 of the 36 seats on the Tula Oblast Duma.

Ulyanovsk Oblast

In the , the Communists of Russia won 5.83% of the vote, and won 1 of the 36 seats on the Legislative Assembly.

Yaroslavl Oblast

In the 2018 Yaroslavl Oblast Duma election, the Communists of Russia won over 5% of the vote, winning 1 of the 50 seats on the Yaroslavl Oblast Duma.

Criticism

The Communists of Russia has been criticized by a number of

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

political groups and parties in Russia, as well as former members of the party, which have denounced the party as a spoiler and a front for the Russian government. In June 2015, the

filed a lawsuit with the Moscow Arbitration Court against the Communists of Russia party to stop using the name, citing their similarity. On 11 July 2016, the court dismissed this claim. In April 2016, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation also accused the Communists of Russia's electoral platform, titled "Ten Stalinist Strikes on Capitalism", of copying their own, titled " Zyuganov's Ten Theses on Bringing the Country Out of the Crisis". The Russian United Labour Front, a left-wing organization in Russia, condemns the Communists of Russia as a front for government officials to splinter the left-wing vote. In an article they published, they highlight that the Communists of Russia was able to get official recognition immediately, whereas their organization had their recognition application refused seven times, and also note how the Communists of Russia were able to enter the Supreme Council of the Republic of Khakassia without collecting the signatures required for other parties who wish to compete in regional elections. They also accuse the party of running businessmen closely associated with the ruling

United Russia The All-Russian Political Party United Russia (, ) is the Ruling party, ruling List of political parties in Russia, political party of Russia. As the largest party in the Russian Federation, it holds 325 (or 72.22%) of the 450 seats in the St ...

party as candidates, gaining a disproportionate media spotlight, and needlessly attacking the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. The Russian United Labour Front also has exposed advertisements by the Communists of Russia which promise to pay people 300

Ruble The ruble or rouble (; rus, рубль, p=rublʲ) is a currency unit. Currently, currencies named ''ruble'' in circulation include the Russian ruble (RUB, ₽) in Russia and the Belarusian ruble (BYN, Rbl) in Belarus. These currencies are s ...

s for attending their rallies, and sent one writer to do just that. Former deputy chairman of the Communists of Russia, Konstantin Zhukov, claimed that party leader Maxim Suraykin has warped the party from a genuine left-wing party into a tool of the government to cripple the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. According to Zhukov, Suraykin has removed the Communists of Russia's collective decision making structure, and ignored other senior party members to further turn the party into his own. Zhukov claimed that 10 of the 15 candidates the party put forth to compete in the

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

were put forth by Andrey Vorobyov, the governor of Moscow Oblast and member of the ruling United Russia party, whereas just 2 were members of the Communists of Russia. For the

2019 Moscow City Duma election Election to the 7th convocation of the Moscow City Duma took place on the 2019 Russian elections, United Voting Day on 8 September 2019. The elections were held under first-past-the-post voting system, which saw 45 deputies being elected in the ...

, Zhukov accused 26 of the party's 32 candidates of being put forth by

Sergey Sobyanin Sergey Semyonovich Sobyanin (; born 21 June 1958) is a Russian politician, serving as the 3rd mayor of Moscow since 21 October 2010. Sobyanin previously served as the governor of Tyumen Oblast (2001–2005), Head of the Russian presidential ad ...

, the

Mayor of Moscow The Mayor of Moscow () is the head and the highest-ranking official of Moscow, who leads the Government of Moscow, the main executive body of the city. Moscow is both a city and separate federal subject, according to the Constitution of ...

and United Russia member. The news website

Meduza ''Meduza'' (Russian: Медуза, named after the Greek goddess Medusa) is a Russian- and English-language independent news website, headquartered in Riga, Latvia. It was founded in 2014 by a group of former employees of the then-independent ...

noted that the Communists of Russia was running two candidates with virtually identical names to two Communist Party candidates in the

2021 Russian legislative election Legislative elections were held in Russia from 17 to 19 September 2021. At stake were 450 seats in the 8th State Duma, 8th convocation of the State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly (Russia), Federal Assembly. Going into the election ...

References

External links

Official website
{{European communist parties 2012 establishments in Russia Anti-revisionist organizations Communist parties in Russia

Far-left politics in Russia Neo-Stalinist parties Political parties established in 2012 Registered political parties in Russia