Does the Russian Communist Party still exist or has it been outlawed by Putin? If they do still exist, how strongly can they make their presence felt? Do they have to keep a low profile?
Stranger
There was no organization by that name that I’m aware of, but there was the Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, one of the republican branches of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It was effectively banned by Yeltsin in 1991. In 1993, a self-professed successor party, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, was formed, and has been an active party in federal and regional politics ever since. They typically get somewhere between 10 and 20% of the vote at the federal level, and have even entered the government once (in 1998, as part of a coalition).
To what extent the party and its leadership are aligned with Putin is not entirely clear. They clearly support some of his policies (including those towards Ukraine) but do seem to campaign against him in the elections.
They still exist. I was at a Victory Day celebration in Moscow a few years ago and the Communist party had some trucks out playing big, triumphant music. I believe that I’ve also read of some Communist generals publishing critiques, within Russia, on the Ukraine war effort.
They still seem to be fairly influential. I’m not sure how or why. Amassed wealth?
I do note that the Tsar Nikolai° has been converted into a Saint by the Russian church and Victory Day is, in some ways, effectively a celebration of Stalin’s leadership°°. My sense would be that there’s been a fair amount of whitewashing of the history to give people more pride in their country. So, between that and the mellowing out of the Communist party as time moved towards Gorbachev, the general view on the ground might not be as negative as it should be.
But, likewise, there’s probably nothing good to speak of about the Democratic party until the mid-1960s but your average person doesn’t really think about that - and to some extent shouldn’t if none of that has passed through to modern times. It’s today that matters. For all I know, a new Russian Communist leader might try to model the country on Norway and, to the extent that they did, I’d be fine with that.
But, given the old Soviet anthems being played, my sense is that it’s still just old dudes, looking for the opportunity to be in power again over the people and raking in the rubles.
° See the Black Hundreds
°° See Lavrentiy Beria, The Great Purge, etc.
They still exist, they’re even second-strongest party (albeit a very distant second) in the Duma (the Russian parliament) behind Putin’s United Russia Party.
Their problem is not a lack of presence, it’s a lack of autonomy. Putin has aligned most of the Russian party system under his control: Different parties exist on paper, but even parties that are technically opposition (such as the CPRF, which is the largest party in the Duma that is not formally part of the governing coalition) are usually broadly supportive of the Putin regime and voice disagreement only mildly and on side issues at best. (Formally, Putin himself is an independent - he does not hold any formal party membership, although for all intents and purposes, United Russia is his party). Actual opposition parties that oppose Putin on substance, such as Yabloko, don’t hold Duma seats anymore.
Are they basically playing to that rapidly ageing part of the population who just hanker for the good old days? Never mind the gulags, never mind the queuing, the rose-coloured glasses view is that it was the best time on Earth. Ever. And everyone had an onion on their belt, which was the style at the time.
My father yearns for a return to good old Stalinist values. You can say what you like about genocidal autocrats, but he knew how to threaten the West, and we love him for it.
While he adopts some of their vision, Putin is politically probably as distant from them as he is from any social democratic party, but they do not represent a threat electorally and they and their followers are probably controllable if they are locked in for a sanctioned but irrelevant party, rather than going rogue on resurgent right-wing nationalist parties with agendas that threaten his and his backers’ interests.
Keep in mind Stalin died in 1953. Not sure who is holding their breath for him to rise from the tomb and depose Putin, or otherwise reveres him even though they may have fond memories of Komsomol youth activities or are interested in democratic socialism.
You don’t need Stalin for that, a decent post-Stalinist party apparatchik such as Khrushchev, Brezhnev or even Gorbachev would also do the trick, minus the genocide.