Interfax: Putin says he likes Communist ideas echoing Bible’s

Vladimir Putin file photo with VOA logo; screen shot from video still

(Interfax – January 26, 2016) Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he still likes the ideas of Communism and that he has not ditched his party member ID card. “You know, just like millions of Soviet citizens – 20-odd million people – I was a member of the USSR Communist Party, and not just a Communist Party member, but […]

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Interfax: Putin entitled to personal opinion about Lenin – spokesman

Dmitry Peskov file photo adapted from image at kremlin.ru/wikimedia commons

(Interfax – January 21, 2016) The Russian president’s press secretary Dmitriy Peskov has said Putin is entitled to have a personal opinion about Russian Revolution leader Vladimir Lenin, privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 21 January. Peskov was commenting on a statement made by President Putin, who compared Lenin to a nuclear bomb which had destroyed historical Russia. “The […]

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Putin on Lenin: Planted atomic bomb under building called Russia

File Photo of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin

(Interfax – January 21, 2016) Vladimir Putin has criticized the ideas and actions of the leader of the Russian revolution, Vladimir Lenin, which he thinks led to the ruin of historical Russia. He was responding to the head of the Kurchatov Institute, Mikhail Kovalchuk, who at a meeting of the presidential council for science and education quoted Boris Pasternak’s poem […]

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After the ban: a short history of Ukraine’s Communist Party

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

You can ban Ukraine’s communists, but you can’t beat them. (opendemocracy.net – Denys Gorbach – January 8, 2016) Denys Gorbach is a leftist activist and researcher working on the Ukrainian labour movement. On 16 December, Kyiv’s district administrative court approved a claim by Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice. It sought to ban the country’s Communist Party (KPU). Ukrainian society has come […]

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Russia’s Last Tsar Exhumed as Murder Case Reopened

Romanov Family Photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Vasily Kolotilov – September 24, 2015) Russian investigators on Wednesday exhumed the remains of Russia’s last tsar and his wife, who were slaughtered by the Bolsheviks in 1918 together with their children and servants, after reopening the investigation into the century-old murder. The Investigative Committee said in a statement Wednesday it was reopening the probe […]

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Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk Digs In To Complex Decommunization Process

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Yulia Ratsybarska – DNIPROPETROVSK, Ukraine – June 10, 2015) As Ukraine pushes forward with the controversial process of decommunization, the east-central city of Dnipropetrovsk has its work cut out. The huge Petrovsky Metallurgical Plant — to take one example — is named after Bolshevik revolutionary Grigory Petrovsky, who oversaw the state security agency in the early […]

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NEWSLINK Wall Street Journal: Ukraine Tries Adapting to Life Without Lenin. New law bans Soviet street names, statues and other reminders of communist past, as some question priorities

Maidan Square in Kiev, Ukraine

In a country where at least 4,000 localities had a main thoroughfare named after Lenin, outlawing remnants of the Soviet era like street names and statues was bound to cause problems.

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Nazis Triumph Over Communists in Ukraine

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – May 19, 2015) It’s goodbye Lenin, hello Nazi collaborators in Ukraine these days. Laws signed into effect by President Petro Poroshenko require the renaming of dozens of towns and hundreds of streets throughout the country to eliminate Soviet-era names. At the same time, Ukraine will begin to honor groups that helped Hitler exterminate […]

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NEWSLINK AP: Ukraine Erases Communist Reminders as It Tries to Ditch Past

Maidan Square in Kiev, Ukraine

Ukraine’s leaders are eager to be seen as reinventing the nation. And erasing all visible reminders of the communist past, they say, is an important step toward that goal.

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RIA Novosti: Ukrainian Communist Party to Be Dissolved Thursday

Ukraine Map and Flag

KIEV, July 23 (RIA Novosti) – Ukrainian parliament speaker Oleksandr Turchynov announced that the Communist Party, who occupy 23 seats in the Verkhovna Rada, would be dissolved on Thursday. On Tuesday, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, made changes to its rules that would allow the speaker of the house to dissolve the Communist party. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a […]

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Interfax: Ukrainian Communist Party leader attacked in Rada

Ukraine Map and Flag

KYIV. July 23 (Interfax) – Petro Symonenko, leader of the Ukrainian Communist Party faction, was attacked by parliamentarians during the Wednesday morning parliament session. After a proposal was made to remove Symonenko from the hall, deputies from the Svoboda faction began pushing him from the hall for his statements “on the killing by Ukrainian military of the country’s citizens for […]

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Ukrainian communists condemn operation in eastern regions, call for decentralization referendum

Ukraine Map and Flag

KYIV. April 16 (Interfax) – Ukrainian Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko has expressed his indignation at the operation in eastern Ukraine and proposed an immediate referendum on the administrative and territorial division of Ukraine and the broadest powers of local communities. “This is the only way to preserve the integrity and unity of the country,” the party press service quoted […]

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Interfax: Russia hits dead-end but slaps Americans on nose – Communist Party

Kremlin and St. Basil's file photo

MOSCOW. Dec 23 (Interfax) – Russian Communist Party Central Committee First Deputy Chairman, State Duma First Vice-Speaker Ivan Melnikiov has presented the results of the outgoing year the way they are seen by the communists. “The period of pretentious capitalism which is addicted to the resource model started to expire in 2013. Practically everyone said that the country had hit […]

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Interfax: Communists unhappy with Putin advocacy of “liberal economic model”

Kremlin and St. Basil's

MOSCOW. Dec 12 (Interfax) – One of the leaders of Russia’s Communist Party (KPRF) has slammed President Vladimir Putin for allegedly hyping a “liberal economic model” but credited him with “a desire to pull the political and economic train out of the station called Stagnation.” Ivan Melnikov, KPRF first deputy leader and first deputy chairman of the State Duma, was […]

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Modern face of Russian communism

Kremlin and St. Basil's file photo

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Elena Bazina, special to RBTH – November 25, 2013) More than 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian communists hope to return to power. The Communists who ruled Russia for more than 70 years are still the second most powerful political force in the country. They promise people Chinese-style socialism, […]

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Interfax: Russian Communists celebrate 1917 revolution, call for dismissal of government

Romanov Family Photo

(Interfax – November 7, 2013) The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) marked the anniversary of the 1917 October Revolution on 7 November with rallies in Moscow and other towns of Russia, privately-owned Interfax news agency reported the same day. The CPRF has collected over two million signatures asking for the dismissal of the government, the leader of the […]

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Communists to propose government resignation after November 7 actions

Russian Duma Building

MOSCOW. Oct 29 (Interfax) – The Russian Communist Party Central Committee Secretariat has backed the proposal of party leader Gennady Zyuganov to set the date for making demand for the government’s resignation after the public events dedicated to the 96th anniversary of the Russian Revolution of 1917, Party Central Committee Secretary Sergei Obukhov said. “The party Secretariat discussed the issue […]

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Communists call for active contacts with migrants, their involvement in politics

Migrant Workers file photo

(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 19, 2013) The Russian Communist Party intends to more actively involve migrants in protest rallies “to strengthen the international component of the protest movement,” a draft decree the Central Committee of the Communist Party is expected to adopt at a plenum held in the village of Moskovsky on Saturday says. The Central Committee’s departments on nationalities […]

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Russian Communist leader takes government policy apart

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 20, 2013) Russia’s Communist Party sees the government’s performance for the past year as “purely negative,” one of the party leaders said. “It’s not just that we in principle have different views on what social and economic course to take. On top of that, they haven’t even addressed what they themselves declared to be priority tasks,” […]

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Russian Communist Leader Zyuganov Slams Government Policy

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, April 17, 2013) The head of Russia’s Communist Party on Wednesday lambasted the government’s current social and economic policies, saying they are detrimental to the country’s economy and that a new cabinet is required to lead Russia out of a crisis. “We must warn society that should the current social and economic course be continued, Russia […]

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Criminal penalty for hurt believer feelings unhelpful to Church – Communists

File Photo of Russian Orthodox Cathedral with Man in Religious Garb in Foreground

(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 9, 2013) The draft law that introduces criminal penalties for hurting the feelings of the believers and desecrating holy places is an anti-Church document, which will cause an outbreak of militant atheism, the Russian Communist Party parliamentary group believes. “This criminal penalty will not add to the Church’s authority. This is an anti-Church law,” Communist Party […]

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Elections Commission Chief Slams Report Claiming 2011 Duma Elections were Rigged

Russian Duma Building

(Interfax – March 13, 2013) Russian Central Elections Commission (CEC) Chairman Vladimir Churov has criticized a report issued by a think-tank claiming that the 2011 elections to the State Duma were rigged and that the Communist Party actually garnered more votes in them than the United Russia party. A number of media outlets on Wednesday published conclusions from a report […]

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Putin’s message indicates determination to continue old course – Communist Party

Kremlin and St. Basil's file photo

MOSCOW. Dec 12 (Interfax) – First Deputy Chairman of the Communist Party Central Committee and State Duma vice speaker Ivan Melnikov did not hear anything fundamentally new in President Vladimir Putin’s message to the Federal Assembly. “Judging by the document as a whole, I must say that one and the same idea is repeated year after year – the stage […]

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Russians Divided Over Revolution of 1917 But Want No New Revolts – Poll

Map of Russia

MOSCOW. Nov 7 (Interfax) – The Revolution of 1917 had more pros than cons, respondents told the Russian Public Opinion Study Center (VTsIOM). The center polled 1,600 adults in 46 regions on October 27-28. Some 27% believe the revolution spurred on social development of Russia (the indicator stood at 34% in 2002), and 21% believe it opened up a new […]

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Bolshevik Revolution ‘Good for Russia’ – Poll

Map of Russia

MOSCOW, November 6 (RIA Novosti) – Almost one-third of Russians believe the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 jumpstarted the country’s development and opened a new page in its history, according to a poll published on Tuesday. However, the share of respondents with a positive view of the revolution has declined over the past decade, from 34 to 27 percent, the All-Russia […]

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Companies Refuse to Make Lenin And Stalin Banners For Russian Communists

File Photo of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin

MOSCOW. Nov 3 (Interfax) – Advertising agencies have been refusing to make or publish banners for Russian Communists with pictures of Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin and with Bolshevik slogans for the upcoming 95th anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution, a Communist leader complained. “Three banners have become the stumbling block – those with pictures of Lenin, Stalin and the cruiser […]

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