The ban on the Communist Party will lead to the destabilization of the entire political system of Russia. Where the communists were oppressed The Italian Communist Party: with the hope of a revival

With the condemnation of communism and the accusation of the Communist Party of all mortal sins, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Vladimir Zhirinovsky spoke the day before. A new detail appeared in his traditional anti-communist appeal - they say that all members of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation should be convicted under article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for extremism.

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“They disfigured the country, deceived all of humanity, millions of people died, stupid ideas. It is necessary to curse the word "communism" and all those who are today in this kind of left-wing organizations", - Zhirinovsky said on September 6 at a press conference at the central office of the Interfax agency.

“Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation should apply to the entire Communist Party of the Russian Federation”he said and added that"The Communist Party must be banned."

Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov at first wisely refused to comment on "Storm" "all sorts of nonsense Zhirinovsky". However, he later recalled that "they tried to ban the idea of ​​justice and friendship of peoples as soon as it was born."

“The most fierce hater of communism was Hitler and his pack of fascists, Goebbels and Goering, but nothing came of it. Zhirinovsky will not work either. Therefore, send them away and say that all nonsense is unworthy of an elementary comment, ”- the leader of the communists spoke sharply.

Zhirinovsky proposed to ban communism

An attempt to ban the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and the communist ideology has already been made in the modern history of the Russian Federation. Its main initiator is a former member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the first president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin.

A quarter of a century ago, on February 13-14, 1993, at the II Extraordinary Congress of Communists of Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation was formed as the restored Communist Party of the RSFSR. Previously, its activities were first suspended (August 23, 1991), and then completely banned in the country (November 6, 1991) by decree of the President of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin, who had his own scores with the Communists - he was afraid that the Communist Party would be able to take revenge and to return power to their own hands, which Yeltsin took away with such difficulty. The central organs of the party were dissolved, and the property was transferred to the state.

In October 1992, the party was restored on the basis of local party branches. At that time, Gennady Zyuganov, secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the RSFSR for ideology, Gennady Zyuganov, head of the Communist Party of the RSFSR, Valentin Kuptsov, and Viktor Zorkaltsev, the representative of the CPSU in the Constitutional Court, beat out their right to exist at the cost of incredible efforts.

In general, the entire period of the 1990s was marked by a fierce struggle between one of the former heads of the CPSU and the new president of the new Russia, Boris Yeltsin, and the CPRF and its leader, Gennady Zyuganov. Yeltsin's hatred for the communists was at the gene level - in every conceivable and inconceivable way, the head of state tried to get rid of the attributes of the great Soviet power recognized even by the West.

Yeltsin's anti-communist agenda was quite successfully intercepted by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who never tired of kicking the communists for one reason or another.

Considering a certain wariness of the presidential administration regarding the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which, albeit remaining within the framework of the system, nevertheless begins to behave somewhat more radically than it was before the announcement of the pension reform, it is not surprising that the main and almost Russia's only anti-communist Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

If we try to hypothetically imagine that the Kremlin decides to ban the Communist Party, dissolve the party and repress its members, then only one conclusion can be drawn: the system has gone haywire and finally lost touch with reality.

Incompetent communists. The presidential administration is dissatisfied with the growth of the influence of the Communist Party

To ban a party that has millions of support throughout the country, and is essentially and in fact the second political force in Russia, is literally destabilizing the political situation.

It is difficult to say what must happen in order for the top management to decide to abandon the Communist Party and artificially terminate its existence. The party will disappear, but the idea will remain along with its followers, who are even more radicalized than before. The liquidation of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation will definitely cause a very sharp rejection of at least every fifth Russian, if we take the support of the structure in society in the region of 20%.

Moreover, a whole political field will be freed up, which will not be empty for a long time, since the law of conservation of energy will come into play: somewhere it has gone, somewhere it has arrived. There will be no systemic opposition Communist Party - another, non-systemic radical left organization will appear, which will create even more problems for the authorities.

“The ban on the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is a rather unpleasant thing for the presidential administration. The toggle switch can be flipped at any moment and for any reason, but politics abhors a vacuum. If a niche is vacated that was previously occupied by a legal political force, then an illegal one will appear there. I understand that we like to experiment and believe that nothing is impossible, but it will still be too much ", - says Andrey Maksimov, vice-president of the Russian Association of Political Consultants.

According to the current legislation, in order to suspend the state registration of a political party, it is necessary that its activities directly contradict the Constitution of Russia - be recognized as extremist, incite ethnic and other discord in society, and so on.

That is, the authorities will have to recognize the very ideology of communism as extremist, which will be extremely difficult to do in conditions when Russia has declared itself the legal successor of the Soviet Union, where communism was the state ideology.

Or the Communist Party of the Russian Federation should become extremely radicalized and call for the overthrow of the institutions of state power in the country, which is extremely difficult to imagine, at least in the still existing Russian realities.

The head of the Institute for Political Studies, Sergei Markov, believes that Zhirinovsky's statements about the need to ban communism and condemn party members under article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation are nothing more than pre-election PR.

However, even if you try to imagine that the government will attempt a real ban on the Communist Party, then in this case the presidential administration will make a gross administrative and political mistake.

Zyuganov put Zhirinovsky on a par with Hitler for trying to ban communism

“The feeling that they are closed in on themselves. The channels of communication with society have dried up. The quality of political and personnel decisions has fallen, the number of unprofessional personal mistakes is constantly increasing. If you like a girl, then you should look after her, and not rape her. The authorities scalded the people with the pension reform, as if they poured boiling water on them from a teapot,” condemns the actions of the Markov authorities.

“The probability of a ban is extremely small - 2-3%, - continues the political scientist. - But if three or four more innovations are introduced, such as pension reform in its current form or the monetization of benefits, then public discontent will grow and, perhaps, the communists will become one of the leaders of this discontent. That's when the ban of the Communist Party can happen."

The leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Vladimir Zhirinovsky is a good actor who in life behaves a little differently than in front of the cameras - subtly, elegantly, politely. Andrei Kolyadin, a former high-ranking employee of the presidential administration, shared these observations with Storm.

According to the political strategist, Zhirinovsky's calls for a ban on the Communist Party and accusations of its members of extremism are a mere spectacle.

“There is nothing surprising in the fact that he finds only extremist notes in the communist movement. There is such an old story: wherever a bee flies, it has honey everywhere, and wherever a fly flies, it has shit everywhere., - concludes Kolyadin.

"There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." The absence of bright leaders threatens to collapse the political system of Russia

The possibility of choosing an ideology forever divided people. For young people, for the most part, this is just a matter of belonging to one or another subculture, but for people, actions are significant differences that do not allow making contact. In this article we will tell you in which countries communism is now, in which video it exists.

Pluralism of opinions

The feudal system had one significant advantage:

• Most of the population was deprived of basic rights;
• The average peasant thought much more about dinner than about politics;
• The existing state of affairs was taken for granted;
• There were no major disagreements.

A beggarly existence in harsh conditions is a dubious prospect. But if you remember the number of those who died in civil wars around the world, this will no longer seem like such a disadvantage of a bygone era. A hundred years ago, similar “political debates” took place on our territory, when the following were used as arguments:

1. Artillery;
2. Cavalry;
3. Fleet;
4. Gallows;
5. Shooting teams.

And both sides did not disdain massive “downsizing” of the enemy, so even blaming any particular ideology will not work. The very dispute, the very belief in the possibility of establishing a better order can turn a person into the most cruel creature.

Theoretical structure of the state

In fact, communism remained only on the pages of theoretical works on political life and state structure. There has never been communism in any country in the world, although they tried to build it:

• Ensure social equality;
• Introduce public ownership of the means of production;
• Get rid of the monetary system;
• Leave the division into classes in the past;
• Create a perfect production force.

To put it very bluntly, communism means that the existing production capacity will be enough to provide everything necessary for every person on the planet, without exception. Everyone can get:

1. Necessary medicines;
2. Complete nutrition;
3. Modern technology;
4. Required clothing;
5. Movable and immovable property.

It turns out that it is only necessary to “correctly” distribute all the available goods so as not to “offend” anyone. Everyone will receive exactly as much as he needs. That's just for this it is necessary to "take over" every production on the planet, taking it away from the current owners. And already at this point, you can face insurmountable difficulties. What to say about equal and fair distribution, which the history of mankind does not know and, most likely, will never know.

Countries of victorious communism

There are countries that are trying or have tried to build communism on their territory:

• USSR (disintegrated in 1991);
• China;
• Cuba;
• North Korea;
• Vietnam;
• Kampuchea (disintegrated in 1979);
• Laos.

In many ways, the Union exerted its influence, exporting ideology and management mechanisms. For this, he received his share of influence on events within the country. Today China is the most successful country with a ruling Communist Party. But even this Asian country:

1. Moved away from the ideas of "classical communism";
2. Allow for the existence of private property;
3. have undergone liberalization in recent years;
4. We strive to attract as many foreign investors as possible through the openness and transparency of business.

It is difficult to talk about total state control under such conditions. Things are a little different in Cuba and North Korea. These countries do not abandon the path laid in the second half of the last century, although the movement along this road causes serious difficulties:

• Sanctions;
• Militarism;
• Intrusion threats;
• Difficult economic situation.

These regimes, without significant changes, can exist for a very long time - there is enough margin of safety. Another question is whether this will benefit the people living in these territories.

European socialists

To countries with a powerful social program can be attributed:

1. Denmark;
2. Sweden;
3. Norway;
4. Switzerland.

Everything that our grandparents dreamed about, the Swedes were able to bring to life. It's about:

• About high social standards;
• On state protection;
• About decent wages;
• About a healthy microclimate.

In 2017, a referendum was held in Switzerland on a guaranteed payment to citizens of a certain amount every month. These funds would have been enough for a comfortable existence, but the Swiss refused. And all without the communist parties, Lenin and red stars.

It turns out that there can be a highly developed state that cares about the well-being of its own citizens and considers this value as its highest priority. Requirements for such a country:

1. High labor productivity;
2. Lack of intentions for world domination;
3. Long tradition;
4. Strong and independent institutions of power and civil rights.

Any attempts to prove one's uniqueness or impose one's opinion on other countries lead to a decrease in the role of civil society in public life, which results in strong states with weak social programs.

Where is the “good life” now?

There is no real communism in the world. Maybe something similar existed among our ancestors, in the days of the primitive communal system. In modern times, communist regimes rule:

• In China;
• in the DPRK;
• In Cuba.

A number of European countries are respectful of social policy, even though there is no bust of Lenin in every office:

1. Switzerland;
2. Norway;
3. Denmark;
4. Sweden.

Somewhere high living standards are provided by oil revenues, somewhere - long-standing and successful investments. But one thing is invariable - for "equality and brotherhood" high labor productivity and good economic indicators are needed.

The construction of such a model is possible in any country in the world, for this it is not necessary to overthrow the current government and impose the power of the proletariat. It is enough to push the idea of ​​high social standards and make the task of improving the lives of citizens the main goal of the country.

Video about strange kinds of communism

In this video, political scientist Vyacheslav Volkov will talk about 4 unusual types of communism that existed before and exist in our time:

The Kyiv court ruled to ban the activities of the Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU) in the country. The petition to the court was filed by the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. The court also rejected the complaint of the Communist Party of Ukraine on the recognition of its charter and symbols as inconsistent with the laws of the country. Earlier, the Communist Party of Ukraine had already been deprived of a faction in the Verkhovna Rada and, in fact, completely removed from participation in the political life of the country. “What did you expect from the fascist regime? We will act legally and illegally, the truth is behind us, ”KPU head Petr Simonenko told Kommersant.

"The court has completed consideration of the case on the suit of the Ministry of Justice against the Communist Party of Ukraine on the ban on its activities," the press service of the Kiev District Administrative Court reported today. "The court satisfied the claim of the ministry in full, banning the activities of the Communist Party of Ukraine." The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine filed a petition to ban the Communist Party back in July 2014. Then, as TASS reports, this was motivated by the fact that the KPU “performs actions aimed at changing the constitutional order by force, violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country, propagating violence, inciting interethnic hatred.” The trial in this case took place on December 10.

The head of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Petro Symonenko, believes that the battle is not yet lost. “So far it was only a court of first instance. Further - appeal, cassation and the European Court of Human Rights. We have good chances there,” the Communist Party leader said in an interview with Kommersant. “I think this was done because on Friday the Venice Commission is considering our claim to invalidate the decision to ban our symbols.” He also added that the Communist Party is determined. “We will act legally, illegally, whatever. The truth is behind us,” said Petro Symonenko.

Today, the Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeal refused to satisfy the complaint of the Communist Party of Ukraine against the earlier adopted order of the Ministry of Justice dated July 23 No. 1312/5. This order contained the legal opinion of the Commission on the Compliance with the Law of Ukraine "On the condemnation of the communist and national socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regimes in Ukraine and the prohibition of propaganda of their symbols." According to it, the symbols and charter of the KPU were declared inconsistent with the requirements of the law.

The head of the Ministry of Justice has already expressed his satisfaction with both decisions. “We are convinced that these court decisions will have extremely positive consequences for the entire Ukrainian society,” Minister of Justice of Ukraine Pavlo Petrenko wrote on his Facebook page. “Ukrainian society should be based on the true cultural values ​​of our people, live in the European legal field and not repeat the mistakes of the past.

The ban on the CPU was the latest act of the epic about getting rid of the Soviet ideological legacy in Ukraine. On May 15, Petro Poroshenko signed the so-called decommunization package of four laws adopted by deputies of the Verkhovna Rada on April 9. They banned Soviet symbols, condemned the communist regime, opened access to the archives of the Soviet special services, and soldiers of the Ukrainian insurgent army were recognized as fighters for the country's independence. It was on the basis of one of these laws that the Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit against the Communist Party of Ukraine.

In April, the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed extreme indignation at the adopted documents. “The blasphemy with which this whole epic was organized in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine with the adoption of a package of“ anti-communist ”, and in fact anti-Russian and anti-Ukrainian laws, just on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, is striking,” the press service said at the time.

Problems with the Communist Party of Ukraine began after the removal of President Viktor Yanukovych from power in the country in February 2014. The CPU has repeatedly expressed disagreement with the policies of the new Ukrainian authorities. In May 2014, Acting Head of State Oleksandr Turchynov initiated an investigation into the Communist Party of Ukraine regarding its connection with the protests in eastern Ukraine. On July 22, 2014, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine voted to dissolve the communist faction. The decision came into force on the same day after it was signed by President Petro Poroshenko. On September 15, the Central Election Commission of Ukraine registered the CPU for early elections to the Verkhovna Rada. According to official figures, the Communists scored 3.88% on them and did not get into the Verkhovna Rada. Most of all (10.25% and 11.88%) they received in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine.

Mikhail Korostikov

The vacated left niche will be filled with more radical elements, and the quality of decisions made by managers will drop even more

With the condemnation of communism and the accusation of the Communist Party of all mortal sins, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Vladimir Zhirinovsky spoke the day before. A new detail appeared in his traditional anti-communist appeal - they say that all members of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation should be convicted under article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for extremism.

“They disfigured the country, deceived all of humanity, millions of people died, stupid ideas. It is necessary to curse the word "communism" and all those who are today in this kind of left-wing organizations", - Zhirinovsky said on September 6 at a press conference at the central office of the Interfax agency.

“Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation should apply to the entire Communist Party of the Russian Federation”he said and added that"The Communist Party must be banned."

Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov at first wisely refused to comment on "Storm" "all sorts of nonsense Zhirinovsky". However, he later recalled that "they tried to ban the idea of ​​justice and friendship of peoples as soon as it was born."

“The most fierce hater of communism was Hitler and his pack of fascists, Goebbels and Goering, but nothing came of it. Zhirinovsky will not work either. Therefore, send them away and say that all nonsense is unworthy of an elementary comment, ”- the leader of the communists spoke sharply.

Zhirinovsky proposed to ban communism

An attempt to ban the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and the communist ideology has already been made in the modern history of the Russian Federation. Its main initiator is a former member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the first president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin.

A quarter of a century ago, on February 13-14, 1993, at the II Extraordinary Congress of Communists of Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation was formed as the restored Communist Party of the RSFSR. Previously, its activities were first suspended (August 23, 1991), and then completely banned in the country (November 6, 1991) by decree of the President of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin, who had his own scores with the Communists - he was afraid that the Communist Party would be able to take revenge and to return power to their own hands, which Yeltsin took away with such difficulty. The central organs of the party were dissolved, and the property was transferred to the state.

In October 1992, the party was restored on the basis of local party branches. At that time, Gennady Zyuganov, secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the RSFSR for ideology, Gennady Zyuganov, head of the Communist Party of the RSFSR, Valentin Kuptsov, and Viktor Zorkaltsev, the representative of the CPSU in the Constitutional Court, beat out their right to exist at the cost of incredible efforts.

In general, the entire period of the 1990s was marked by a fierce struggle between one of the former heads of the CPSU and the new president of the new Russia, Boris Yeltsin, and the CPRF and its leader, Gennady Zyuganov. Yeltsin's hatred for the communists was at the gene level - in every conceivable and inconceivable way, the head of state tried to get rid of the attributes of the great Soviet power recognized even by the West.

Yeltsin's anti-communist agenda was quite successfully intercepted by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who never tired of kicking the communists for one reason or another.

Considering a certain wariness of the presidential administration regarding the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which, albeit remaining within the framework of the system, nevertheless begins to behave somewhat more radically than it was before the announcement of the pension reform, it is not surprising that the main and almost Russia's only anti-communist Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

If we try to hypothetically imagine that the Kremlin decides to ban the Communist Party, dissolve the party and repress its members, then only one conclusion can be drawn: the system has gone haywire and finally lost touch with reality.

The presidential administration is dissatisfied with the growing influence of the Communist Party. Incompetent communists.

To ban a party that has millions of support throughout the country, and is essentially and in fact the second political force in Russia, is literally destabilizing the political situation.

It is difficult to say what must happen in order for the top management to decide to abandon the Communist Party and artificially terminate its existence. The party will disappear, but the idea will remain along with its followers, who are even more radicalized than before. The liquidation of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation will definitely cause a very sharp rejection of at least every fifth Russian, if we take the support of the structure in society in the region of 20%.

Moreover, a whole political field will be freed up, which will not be empty for a long time, since the law of conservation of energy will come into play: somewhere it has gone, somewhere it has arrived. There will be no systemic opposition Communist Party - another, non-systemic radical left organization will appear, which will create even more problems for the authorities.

“The ban on the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is a rather unpleasant thing for the presidential administration. The toggle switch can be flipped at any moment and for any reason, but politics abhors a vacuum. If a niche is vacated that was previously occupied by a legal political force, then an illegal one will appear there. I understand that we like to experiment and believe that nothing is impossible, but it will still be too much ", - says Andrey Maksimov, vice-president of the Russian Association of Political Consultants.

According to the current legislation, in order to suspend the state registration of a political party, it is necessary that its activities directly contradict the Constitution of Russia - be recognized as extremist, incite ethnic and other discord in society, and so on.

That is, the authorities will have to recognize the very ideology of communism as extremist, which will be extremely difficult to do in conditions when Russia has declared itself the legal successor of the Soviet Union, where communism was the state ideology.

Or the Communist Party of the Russian Federation should become extremely radicalized and call for the overthrow of the institutions of state power in the country, which is extremely difficult to imagine, at least in the still existing Russian realities.

The head of the Institute for Political Studies, Sergei Markov, believes that Zhirinovsky's statements about the need to ban communism and condemn party members under article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation are nothing more than pre-election PR.

However, even if you try to imagine that the government will attempt a real ban on the Communist Party, then in this case the presidential administration will make a gross administrative and political mistake.

Zyuganov put Zhirinovsky on a par with Hitler for trying to ban communism.

“The feeling that they are closed in on themselves. The channels of communication with society have dried up. The quality of political and personnel decisions has fallen, the number of unprofessional personal mistakes is constantly increasing. If you like a girl, then you should look after her, and not rape her. The authorities scalded the people with the pension reform, as if they poured boiling water on them from a teapot,” condemns the actions of the Markov authorities.

“The probability of a ban is extremely small - 2-3%, - continues the political scientist. - But if three or four more innovations are introduced, such as pension reform in its current form or the monetization of benefits, then public discontent will grow and, perhaps, the communists will become one of the leaders of this discontent. That's when the ban of the Communist Party can happen."

The leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Vladimir Zhirinovsky is a good actor who in life behaves a little differently than in front of the cameras - subtly, elegantly, politely. Andrei Kolyadin, a former high-ranking employee of the presidential administration, shared these observations with Storm.

According to the political strategist, Zhirinovsky's calls for a ban on the Communist Party and accusations of its members of extremism are a mere spectacle.

“There is nothing surprising in the fact that he finds only extremist notes in the communist movement. There is such an old story: wherever a bee flies, it has honey everywhere, and wherever a fly flies, it has shit everywhere., - concludes Kolyadin.

What happened to the most traditional communist parties in Europe? Which of them have allied themselves with other leftists, and who is still resisting alone? Here are their main theses, alliances and election results.

Before talking about communist parties in other countries, it is important to note the following information about the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP): in the entire euro area, it is the party led by Jeronimo Sousa that has the most votes compared to its counterparts in other countries. This state of affairs has persisted for several years, but the October 4 parliamentary elections confirmed it again: the PCP managed to score 8.25% and take 17 seats, the highest since 1999.

In Europe, after the PCP, the second most voted communist party is the Greek KKE with 5.6%. The Communist Party of Britain is the least popular, with just over a thousand voters across the UK in the May elections. Next door to Portugal, in Spain, since 1986 the Communist Party has been running in elections in a coalition with the United Left - as in the case of the PCP, which has been running in elections with the Greens since 1987 - in the Coalition of Democratic Unity (CDU). Let's get acquainted in order with some of the PCP comrades in Europe.

Greece. Losing votes but not giving up

Apart from the PCP, among those European communist parties that still retain the ideological matrix of Marxism-Leninism, it is the Greek KKE that has shown the greatest electoral success. In the last parliamentary elections on September 20, which confirmed the victory of SYRIZA, won by it back in January of this year, the KKE was the fifth party in terms of the number of votes received - 5.6%.

The Greek Communist Party operated underground until 1974, when the Greek far-right dictatorship came to an end. Since then, this party has existed legally and has never lost its representation in the Greek Parliament. Her best result was recorded in June 1989 - 13.1%, when she entered the elections in a coalition with the left Synapismos - which later became one of the political forces that formed SYRIZA.

The times of coalitions for the KKE seem to have passed after the collapse of the Soviet Union - it was then, after this turning point in history, that the Greek communists lost their votes. Since then, the voting results have stabilized at 5-6% - although in May 2012, under the leadership of Aleka Papariga, the first woman to head the party, it peaked at 8.5%. The current general secretary of the KKE is Dimitris Koutsoumpas. KKE stands for Greece's exit from the euro and the European Union, as well as from NATO.

On the party website, which is available in several languages, you can read a passage that illustrates the KKE's enthusiastic rhetoric well:

“Without downplaying the consequences of the shift in the balance of power, we must be more demanding, above all on ourselves. We need to be more rigorous in order not only to consolidate and consolidate what we have already achieved, but also to move into a more dynamic counter-attack and reinforcement phase. We do not bend under the burden of difficulties and do not ignore them. We accept our responsibilities objectively, without any embellishment or nihilism."

The KKE has one representative in Brussels, in the United European Left group, where the PCP and the Portuguese Left Bloc are also located.

France. Together on the Left Front

The French Communist Party (PCF), although it continues its autonomous activity, has recently participated in elections under the brand name of the Left Front (Front de Gauche). The PCF coalition is by far the largest party (in 2011, according to L'Express, it had 138,000 activists), but none other than the leader of the second largest political force, the Left Party (9,000 members), appears at the forefront of the coalition. We are talking about Jean-Luc Mélénchon, a former Trotskyist teacher and minister of vocational education in the government of Lionel Jospin, who in 2008 decided to leave the French Socialist Party to found the Left Party. In the 2012 presidential election, Mélenchon came fourth with 11.1% of the vote. One of his promises was to impose a 75 percent tax on those whose annual earnings exceed 1 million euros.

Until 1994, the PCF was the owner of the daily newspaper L'Humanité, which since then has been formally an independent publication, meanwhile providing access to its pages to all directions ideologically close to the party. As in Portugal, in France, the communists traditionally hold a holiday with concerts, discussions and rallies, the name of which refers to the newspaper. Feast of the Humanite (Fête de L'Humanité).

The left front is represented in the European Parliament by four deputies in the United European Left group.

Spain. Away from Podemos

As in the case of France, the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) has been participating in elections since 1986 as part of the United Left (Izquierda Unida) coalition. While the latter includes other political forces – such as the Republican Left or the Open Left – the leaders of the United Left have always been the general secretaries of the PCE, which, according to 2009 data, has 12,558 members and is the largest party in the coalition. It is currently chaired by Alberto Garzón.

(The case of the PCE is identical in every way to the PCP, which since 1987 has been running in elections in coalition with the Greens, forming the CDU. Like the Spanish United Left, in the CDU it is also the communists who have the lion's share of parliamentary seats: 15 deputies against two from the party " greens").

A coalition, yes, but not to the point of teaming up with Podemos from a European political family, to which the Portuguese Left Bloc belongs. After months of both parties appearing to be moving closer ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for December 20, 2015, Podemos' weak results have been cooling off. The division was confirmed after the meeting of the two sides, each of which eventually spoke of "popular unity", despite the lack of unity between themselves. “We regret that Podemos closed the door to popular unity,” Garzon said.

“We continue our work for change and regret that there are those who choose not to join (...). Our goal is clear: to build popular unity,” Podemos said in a statement.

The United Left has 4 deputies in Brussels, also in the United European Left group.

Great Britain. Help Corbin?

When two parties confuse one for the other, chances are neither is particularly strong. This is the situation in Great Britain with respect to two parties called communist: the Communist Party of Britain and the Communist Party of Great Britain.

In July, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Britain, the larger of the two whose newspaper (albeit unofficially) is the Morning Star, Robert Griffiths announced his support for Jeremy Corbyn even before he was elected as leader of the Labor Party. “Only Jeremy Corbyn advocates taxing the rich and capitalist monopolies, investing in public services rather than privatizing them, building more social housing, returning energy and railroads to the state, rejecting anti-union laws and weapons of mass destruction—expensive, immoral and useless,” writes Griffiths.

The confusion began when another communist party (PCGB) was charged with infiltrating its activists into the Labor ranks in order to vote for Corbyn in the delegate elections. Only now these accusations also spread to PCB. Griffiths was quick to point out that that Communist Party was not his Communist Party at all. "It's a bit silly, a bit like Life of Brian," he said, comparing the situation to a Monty Python film.

In the May 2015 parliamentary elections, the PCB received only 1,229 votes. PCGB did not participate.

However, British communists do not exist only in these parties. Within the Labor Party itself there is a Marxist faction, the so-called Labor Party Marxists.

“Our main task is to turn the Labor Party into an instrument of the working class and international socialism. To this end, we are ready to reunite with others in the search for the unity of the left, both inside and outside the party, ”read in the list of the main provisions of this group.

Germany. The revival of the Stasi?

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were Germans, but even this does not seem to be enough for the German Communist Party to acquire real significance for the politics of the country. The last time the party was represented in the Bundestag was in 2008, when Christel Wegner, a member of the German Communist Party but elected on the "Left" (Die Linke) list, was expelled from the party faction after her calls in an interview for the return of the political police times of the GDR:

“I think that if a new society were to be created, we would again need an organization [like the Stasi] to protect the country from reactionary forces trying to destroy the state from within.”

It is in Die Linke that the main German left forces are concentrated (in general, the name of the party speaks for itself). The party was formed in 2007 and absorbed various forces to the left of the second largest party in Germany, the Social Democratic, including dissidents of the latter. In addition, it included old members of the Party of Democratic Socialism (the successor to the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, the political force on which the dictatorship of the GDR relied).

In the last parliamentary elections in Germany in 2013, Die Linke received 8.2% of the vote. The party has seven MEPs in the Brussels European Parliament and became an inspiration for the Portuguese Left Bloc when it decided in 2012 to opt for two co-chairs - a two-headed leadership model.