I imagine being closer to China geopolitically and economically will only make these views stronger. A lot of people have to be wondering if Russia could be like China today if different decisions were made in the 90s. It’s also worth noting that economic structure in Russia isn’t actually dramatically different from China either. Russia never fully embraced liberal policies and the state remains at the commanding heights of the economy. A 2023 World Bank study gives a pretty good overview of this. In particular, it distinguishes between businesses of the state (BOS), that are at least 10% government owned by some government, and state owned enterprises (SOE), which are majority owned or more, and controlled, by the government. And another study has a chart showing SOE in Russia compared with China.
If KPRF continues to gain traction, it’s plausible they could take power at some point. It’s not a terribly principled party right now, but at least they are genuinely socialist.
The age discrepancy is a bit annoying. In that the younger people (around my age) prefer a “Western model” (if the translation is correct in the second article). But that Western model is trying to subjugate them, I do wonder where this perspective comes from. Maybe the current government is just not doing enough to court the younger generations, maybe it also has to do with the education system (depends on how the curriculum is created and taught) and interactions with the west (social media, NGOs, etc.). I am genuinely curious, I know Russia is definitely not a perfect country nor is it socialist, but I have to wonder where this perspective from younger people comes from.
Unfortunately, a lot of people bought into the whole narrative how people in the US are living their best lives. Meanwhile, older people of having lived in USSR, and they know what it was like from personal experience. I do expect this will start changing going forward cause of the rift with the west, and China becoming more prominent in terms of Russian politics. Interestingly, there’s now a lot of tourism from Russia to DPRK happening now too, and most people have positive things to say about it.
Thanks for the resource, the article dates from 1997. Do you have a more recent article on them or would you say not a lot changed inside the party in the past 28 years?
I haven’t followed too closely to be honest. As far as I know their position hasn’t changed significantly over the years, and it’s largely the same people in charge.
Got it. If I get some free time I might dig around a bit to learn more as I am not that familiar with Russian politics. Unfortunately as I can’t speak Russian, not sure I’ll find anything worthwhile
I’m curious about that as well. Good news here is that most people in Russia feel positively about USSR, and communism is largely seen as the more correct system. A fairly recent poll by Levada said that 75% of Russians have expressed increasingly positive opinions about the Soviet Union https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/03/24/75-of-russians-say-soviet-era-was-greatest-time-in-countrys-history-poll-a69735
And another poll (in Russian) shows that most people think the Soviet economic system was more correct https://www.levada.ru/2021/09/10/kakoj-dolzhna-byt-rossiya-v-predstavlenii-rossiyan
I imagine being closer to China geopolitically and economically will only make these views stronger. A lot of people have to be wondering if Russia could be like China today if different decisions were made in the 90s. It’s also worth noting that economic structure in Russia isn’t actually dramatically different from China either. Russia never fully embraced liberal policies and the state remains at the commanding heights of the economy. A 2023 World Bank study gives a pretty good overview of this. In particular, it distinguishes between businesses of the state (BOS), that are at least 10% government owned by some government, and state owned enterprises (SOE), which are majority owned or more, and controlled, by the government. And another study has a chart showing SOE in Russia compared with China.
If KPRF continues to gain traction, it’s plausible they could take power at some point. It’s not a terribly principled party right now, but at least they are genuinely socialist.
The age discrepancy is a bit annoying. In that the younger people (around my age) prefer a “Western model” (if the translation is correct in the second article). But that Western model is trying to subjugate them, I do wonder where this perspective comes from. Maybe the current government is just not doing enough to court the younger generations, maybe it also has to do with the education system (depends on how the curriculum is created and taught) and interactions with the west (social media, NGOs, etc.). I am genuinely curious, I know Russia is definitely not a perfect country nor is it socialist, but I have to wonder where this perspective from younger people comes from.
Unfortunately, a lot of people bought into the whole narrative how people in the US are living their best lives. Meanwhile, older people of having lived in USSR, and they know what it was like from personal experience. I do expect this will start changing going forward cause of the rift with the west, and China becoming more prominent in terms of Russian politics. Interestingly, there’s now a lot of tourism from Russia to DPRK happening now too, and most people have positive things to say about it.
Are they genuinely socialists? My, I guess wrong impression, was that they were more of a controlled opposition, any reading on this you can provide?
I don’t get the impression that they’re controlled opposition, just that their leadership is anemic. This is a fairly reasonable overview of them https://jamestown.org/program/the-russian-communist-party-the-view-from-the-left/
Thanks comrade
Thanks for the resource, the article dates from 1997. Do you have a more recent article on them or would you say not a lot changed inside the party in the past 28 years?
I haven’t followed too closely to be honest. As far as I know their position hasn’t changed significantly over the years, and it’s largely the same people in charge.
Got it. If I get some free time I might dig around a bit to learn more as I am not that familiar with Russian politics. Unfortunately as I can’t speak Russian, not sure I’ll find anything worthwhile
Unfortunately, English media coverage is scant, and mostly negative as you’d expect.