Russia's reds in from the cold
Negara
Russia's reds in from the cold
Banned in 1991, back with a vengeance in 2001, Russia's Communists rebound
as political force.
By Fred Weir | Special to The Christian Science Monitor
MOSCOW - Ten years ago, the hammer and sickle appeared headed for history's
dustbin. The Communist Party, the force that had ruled the USSR for seven
decades, was outlawed and dispossessed by Russian President Boris Yeltsin,
who had just defeated a coup attempt by a gang of Kremlin hawks.
At the time, Mr. Yeltsin said the move was final, and Russia would shift
into a democratic era minus the party that had long led - and symbolized -
the USSR.
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But, far from sinking into oblivion, Russia's Communist Party quickly
rebounded. Today, it is the country's largest political organization, runs
about 40 percent of regional governments, and controls a third of the seats
in the national parliament.
"How can you destroy an idea that is so deeply rooted in Russian society and
culture?," says Vladimir Lakayev, second secretary of the city of Moscow's
powerful Communist Party organization. "Yeltsin only strengthened the party
with his constant attacks."
Following the collapse of the USSR, a group of left-wing members of
parliament challenged Mr. Yeltsin's anti-communist decrees in Russia's
Constitutional Court.
In the stormy trial in 1992, the Kremlin's lawyers argued that the party
should be banned for leading Russia down a tragic path. They charged that,
during its rule, the Communist Party supervised mass murders, built the vast
gulag prison camp network, and systematically suppressed human rights.
The court concluded, however, that grassroots believers in communism had the
right to organize. Reviving in 1993, the Russian Communist Party grew
swiftly, claiming to have 600,000 members today.
"Our party preserves the best traditions of the Soviet Communist Party,
including its ideology and principles," says Mr. Lakayev. "But, unlike
Soviet times, when most members were just opportunists, all those who join
us now are sincere activists."
Despite its Marxist-Leninist rhetoric, the new Communist Party demonstrates
little taste for radicalism. It has won local elections and done well in
national votes.
But there's less show than before: unlike its revolutionary founders,
today's party faithful take to the streets only to celebrate Soviet-era
holidays, such as May Day, and they are careful to confine such action to
low-key parades and speeches.
"This is not a party, but a vestige of the Soviet state," says Svyatoslav
Kaspe, a political analyst with the independent Russian Public Policy
Center. "It is a cultural club, where people fondly remember the good old
days and venerate the symbols of Soviet times. As a political force, it is
deeply conformist and not at all a threat to the regime."
The party's latest public campaign is to change the name of the central
Russian city of Volgograd back to Stalingrad, to honor the great battle won
there by Soviet forces in World War II.
"This is nostalgia raised to the level of a political crusade," says Mr.
Kaspe. "But, even if they win, it will alter nothing essential."
Most of the post-Soviet Communist Party's members are, in fact, elderly
people who fought in World War II or grew up in the tough years of
reconstruction and the subsequent struggle toward global superpower status.
But many experts say that the stubborn pride of lifelong Communists, and
widespread nostalgia for the Soviet Union, do not fully explain the party's
phoenixlike recovery.
"The original cause of communism was capitalism, and Yeltsin created one of
the nastiest versions of capitalism ever seen," says Boris Kagarlitsky, a
left-wing sociologist in Moscow. "It shouldn't be surprising that people who
were experiencing harsh impoverishment and social humiliation would turn to
the party that symbolized resistance to capitalism."
During the initial post-Soviet period, hyperinflation destroyed the savings
of millions of ordinary Russians. Crooked privatizations of state assets put
vast wealth in the hands of a small minority, while most people fell into
poverty. A 1998 financial crash, brought on by Kremlin incompetence, slashed
the buying power of already meager wages by two-thirds.
A popular joke of the mid-'90s asked: What has Yeltsin accomplished in a few
years that the Communists couldn't in 70 years? The answer: He's made
Communism look good.
Yeltsin's penchant for refighting his historic battle with communism, rather
than building a viable new democratic movement, also played into the
Communist Party's hands. In 1993, he mobilized tanks and troops to blast
away the "Communist-dominated" - but freely elected - legislature.
In subsequent parliamentary elections, the Communists roared back, often
taking a quarter or more of the votes. In 1996, the awkward and lackluster
Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov captured more than 40 percent of popular
support in a dirty campaign that narrowly reelected Yeltsin.
"Yeltsin liked confrontation, it was his political style," says Mikhail
Ilyin, deputy editor of Polis, an independent Moscow-based journal of
political studies. "But this had a polarizing effect on society. In effect,
he forced people to choose between him and the Communists, and that did
nothing to broaden the country's political choices."
However, Russia's current president, Vladimir Putin, could succeed in
killing the Communist Party with compromise where Yeltsin's antagonistic
approach failed.
A former KGB agent, Mr. Putin has restored many old symbols, such as the
Soviet anthem. He has pledged not to remove Bolshevik founder Vladimir Lenin
from his Red Square mausoleum, though Yeltsin threatened repeatedly to do
so. Under Putin, military spending has been hiked and old Soviet allies,
such as Cuba and North Korea, are back in favor. Perhaps most important,
pensions have been significantly raised.
But how far Putin is ready to go in pleasing the Communists remains to be
seen. A public appeal signed by Mr. Zyuganov and 42 other leading Communists
last week urged the Kremlin to purge Yeltsin-era officials and give more
power to the secret police in order to "cure a sick state."
"Traditional values are very important for Russians, and this accounts for
the endurance of the Communist Party," says Mr. Ilyin.
"But few want to really go back to the past," he says. "Putin will probably
respect the Communists as long as they stay in their place."
Cristian Croitoru
similar in RO..
Mai traieste Yeltsin?
Cristian Croitoru
Se intelege ca Lucian
>Mai traieste Yeltsin?
>
UN FEL DEA ZICE CA DE FUTUT NU MAI POATE CA CRAPA INIMA IN EL.
VODCA CEI MAI PRODUCE ORGASM.
TRAIASCA PIZDA!
Gicabulla
>Date: 8/26/01 5:42 PM Pacific Daylight Time
>Message-id: <20010826204254...@mb-ck.aol.com>
hai ba medepeuli nu mai vorbi omu da rau ca'cu ie vadan . tariea omoara nervu.
uitate la basile cum sa blejit cu samahoanka din croatziea.
Se intelege ca Lucian
>hai ba medepeuli nu mai vorbi omu da rau ca'cu ie vadan .
NU CONFUNZI CU GORBACIOV?
A MURIT SI NEVASTA LUI IELTIN? NU STIAM.
TRAIASCA PIZDA!
Gicabulla
>Message-id: <20010826211113...@mb-ck.aol.com>
ai dreptate. nevasta lu ieltz^n ie vadana.
Se intelege ca Lucian
>ai dreptate. nevasta lu ieltz^n ie vadana.
>
IELTIN E MORT? PE BUNE?
TRAIASCA PIZDA!
Gicabulla
>Message-id: <20010826220946...@mb-ck.aol.com>
>
>>From: gica...@aol.com (Gicabulla)
>
>>ai dreptate. nevasta lu ieltz^n ie vadana.
>>
>
>IELTIN E MORT? PE BUNE?
ce mai conteaza ..
C.M.T.
"Cristian Croitoru" <c.cro...@it.canterbury.ac.nz> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:9mc41d$lr9$1...@cantuc.canterbury.ac.nz...
> Interesant comentariu, desi lucrurile sint cunoscute si, mai mult, traite
> similar in RO..
>
> Mai traieste Yeltsin?
Da si e sanatos.
Face o cura de inbalsamare interioara, inainte de
moarte pentru viata eterna, cu alcohol pur. :-)))))
cmt
>
> Cristian Croitoru
>
>