The Communist Party of the Russian Federation and the Russian Question

CPRF, Pravda, February 20-25, 2025 —

Among far-right nationalists and homegrown tsar-worshippers who lament the “Russia we lost,” the crunch of French bread, and lavish balls, and who apparently dream of owning at least 300 serfs per person from among the very Russian people for whom they shed crocodile tears, the common and rather vile label “a communist is always a Russophobe” has long been ingrained. Attempts by far-right circles to label the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) as “Russophobes” and “traitors” are consistent with the information war waged by the ruling class, especially its elite—big oligarchic capital. The creators of such fakes ignore the CPRF’s genuinely patriotic position, which it has defended throughout the post-Soviet period.

Below is a selection of materials revealing individual milestones in the communists’ struggle to preserve the Russian people, the nation-forming people, after the degenerates destroyed the Soviet Union.

  The “Theses of the CPRF Election Platform for Discussion in Party Organizations” (“Democracy, Love for the Motherland, Social Justice, and Labor”), published on July 22, 1993, in the newspapers Sovetskaya Rossiya and Pravda Rossii, emphasized that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation advocates the creation of an “election bloc of people’s state-patriotic forces,” whose goals include “recognizing state patriotism as the spiritual and ideological basis for the salvation and revival of Russia,” and “recognizing the cultural and historical role of the Russian people in the creation of a multinational community of Russians.”

The section of the document under consideration, “For Domestic Spirituality,” contained the following points from the draft election program of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation:

“stop the spiritual Chernobyl: mockery of Russia’s centuries-old history, the inculcation of Russophobia and Americanism, the destruction of moral standards, the elevation of betrayal to heroism, the preaching of the cult of profit, debauchery and violence”;

“through the public education system and the media, in every possible way promote the cultural and historical role of the Russian people in the creation of Russian statehood, a Great Power, and in the formation of a multinational community of Russians.”

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation’s election platform, released in the lead-up to the 2003 State Duma elections, included a clause on the protection and revival of the Russian people and their culture: “Let us affirm justice and equality in national relations. Let us protect the culture, language, beliefs, and customs of all the peoples of Russia… The Russian people, today humiliated and slandered, exiled from culture, excommunicated from the media and government, will find their rightful place in all spheres of public and state life.”

In the resolution on the political report of the Central Committee to the 10th Congress of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, held on July 3, 2004, the preservation of the Russian people was directly linked to the struggle for the revival of the Fatherland.

The Central Committee was ordered to “continue developing a program of action to protect the Russian people, the great Russian culture as the basis for the preservation and development of the country, and all the peoples of multinational Russia.”

The party’s election platform, “For the Power of the Working People,” approved by the 12th Congress of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation on the eve of the 2007 State Duma elections, included a section on the protection of Russian-speaking citizens outside the Russian Federation: “Compatriots outside Russia will receive its protection. Vigorous diplomatic and economic measures will ensure an end to discrimination against Russians and Russian-speakers in the Baltic and any other countries.”

The resolution of the IX joint plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control and Auditing Commission of the CPRF, held on March 24, 2007, “On the tasks of the CPRF in protecting Russian culture as the basis of the spiritual unity of multinational Russia” set the following tasks: promoting the idea of ​​protecting and reviving Russian culture as a culture that is common to Russia, deeply anti-bourgeois, and has global significance; promoting the protection of the Russian language as the basis of interethnic communication between the peoples of Russia; implementing a wide range of measures to preserve the national cultural heritage, and to this end, fighting for the inclusion of the necessary state – legislative and organizational – mechanisms; promoting the protection and revival of the historical memory of the people, supporting for this purpose local initiatives to revive folk art, amateur art, folk crafts, and the historical and local history movement; supporting the self-organization of people of culture, organizing and actively supporting the protest movement of workers in science, culture, higher and secondary education.

In 2020, during the debate on amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) proposed amendments to Part 1 of Article 68 of the Basic Law to enshrine the status of the Russian people as the state-forming people. The full text of the amendment proposed by the Communists read as follows: “The state language of the Russian Federation throughout its territory is Russian—the language of the state-forming Russian people, who have united all peoples and ethnic communities of Russia in a single union based on historical continuity.” The ballot form for the CPRF’s constitutional amendments stated the question as follows: “To include in the Basic Law a provision on the state-forming role of the Russian people in the multinational family of equal peoples of the Russian Federation.”

State Duma deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation D.A. Parfenov also proposed supplementing Article 70 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation with Part 3 of the following content:

“4. The state-forming people of Russia are the Russian people in their unbreakable, centuries-old friendship with all peoples.” Following the review of the constitutional amendments, this amendment was deemed partially adopted.

The ruling elite has largely adopted the Communist Party of the Russian Federation’s initiative, amending Part 1 of Article 68 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Since 2020, it has been formulated as follows: “The state language of the Russian Federation throughout its territory is Russian as the language of the constituent peoples of the Russian Federation, part of the multinational union of equal peoples of the Russian Federation.”

In his numerous publications, the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Gennady Andreevich Zyuganov, regularly emphasized the division of the Russian people, their social, cultural, and spiritual-moral oppression, and formulated the foundations of a policy of national revival for Russia.

In an article titled “The Russian Question,” published in the newspaper Sovetskaya Rossiya on July 3, 1993, Gennady Zyuganov directly emphasized the anti-Russian nature of the Yeltsin regime’s policies: “The regime of political power established on Russian territory is, for Western states and transnational banking corporations, ultimately an obedient relay of aggressive and irreconcilable anti-Russian policies. Because an independent, self-sufficient Russia is, in the modern world, the main obstacle to the creation of a ‘new world order.'”

The leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation wrote about the salutary potential of our Fatherland by focusing on strengthening Russian national identity: “By restoring the Russian idea in all its historical grandeur and spiritual appeal, by enriching it with our recent tragic and heroic experience, by analyzing the causes of the current turmoil that is convulsing our long-suffering country, we will finally be able to harmoniously unite our artificially dismembered historical Fatherland, and heal the ills, divisions, and wounds of national identity.”

Gennady Andreevich recalled that the Russian idea helped “to achieve a glorious victory in a bloody war, to recreate a great power, on the ruins of which a flock of renegades, traitors, and outright Russophobes are feasting today.”

In his book “On Russians and Russia,” published in 2004, G.A. Zyuganov acknowledged the damage Gorbachev’s “perestroika” and Yeltsin’s “reforms” had done to the Russian people:

“Russians have become the most divided people in the world. And this division is so deep and multidimensional that it raises the real threat of Russians’ disappearance as a nation.

They are geographically divided. Twenty-five million people have suddenly become foreigners in their own country, where they are subject to discrimination and exclusion. Their situation is no better in some so-called national outskirts of the Russian Federation.

They are divided socially into “new” and “old” Russians, the gap between which deepens every day.

They are divided ideologically. An unprecedented attack on Russian culture is underway, including on such an archetypal component of national identity as Orthodoxy.

They are attempting to strip Russians of their national identity, to dissolve them into some impersonal, mythical “Russianness.” Removing the mention of nationality from the new passport is an attempt to kill two birds with one stone: to cover up the traces of nationalist manipulation and to further undermine Russian national identity.

The solidarity and sense of national self-preservation of the Russian people have declined. Yet these were precisely the main bonds that held the Soviet Union and Russia together.”

Gennady Zyuganov asserted that “communists and all patriots must defend Russians” because “the main blow from the destroyers of our united Fatherland is being dealt precisely at them today.” He added that “the more predatory the regime in a former Soviet republic, the more shamelessly it sells off its people’s wealth abroad, the more humiliatingly it grovels before the United States, the more blatant and disgusting its Russophobia.”

In 2020, G.A. Zyuganov, in his work “The Russian Core of the State,” linked the preservation and revival of the Russian people to a change in power and course: “The removal of the Russophobic and anti-Soviet ‘fifth column’ from power is an essential condition for the revival of our country and the Russian people. Only then will a new, truly patriotic, nationally minded leadership be able to implement the vital change of course and rally around itself all the healthy forces of the Fatherland.”

The leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation directly emphasized the interconnectedness between the protection of the Russian World and the transition to the path of socialist development: “The foundation of the ideology that opens the way to revival must be a modern Russian idea capable of uniting all the peoples of the country in the name of a common cause and the common good. An idea based on socialism and millennial spiritual and patriotic values. An idea that unites the nation in a single creative impulse. Mobilizing all public resources for a speedy exit from the systemic crisis that threatens the very existence of our Motherland.”

By combining socialism, patriotism, and the people’s centuries-old traditions, China has achieved stunning success. Cuba, Vietnam, and Venezuela are following a similar path. We will not achieve victory unless we rely on the Russian character, the Russian spirit, and Russian history. Russians are a nation that forms the basis of our state. They have never oppressed other peoples and have done everything to preserve their independence, their faith, written language, language, and culture. Without the comprehensive strengthening of the Russian people, neither the preservation of our country nor world peace is possible.”

In G.A. Zyuganov’s book “The Russian World on Two Axes,” the defense of the Russian people and the revival of Russian national consciousness are directly linked to the struggle for the transition to socialism.

The Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation listed the tasks facing Russia. The most important of these is “repelling the attack on Russia and the Russian world.” Gennady Zyuganov recalled that “Russians gathered 190 peoples and nationalities under their banner,” and “today they are being destroyed.” He stated that “20 million Russian lives were sacrificed on the altar of victory over fascism.” After the dismemberment of the USSR, “25 million Russians were cut off by ugly borders,” and “we lost another 20 million in the whirlpool of ‘liberal reforms.'” G.A. Zyuganov added that “no nation has suffered such terrible losses.” All of this poses “an extraordinary danger to all the peoples of Russia, to the unity and integrity of the country.”

G.A. Zyuganov regularly emphasizes the national importance of resolving the task of Russian revival. His books “I Am Russian by Blood and Spirit” (1996) and “Holy Rus’ and the Kingdom of Koshchei” (2003) are devoted to this topic.

On January 24, 2013, a roundtable discussion on “The Protection of the Spiritual and Moral Traditions of the Russian and Other Peoples of Russia and Their Legislative Support” was held in the State Duma at the initiative of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) faction. Chairman of the CPRF Central Committee G.A. Zyuganov chaired the meeting.

The resolution of the round table contained an appeal to the president, the government, members of the Federation Council and the State Duma, which stated the need for “the formation of a new state policy in the field of education, taking into account the priorities of education based on Russian classical literature and culture,” and “the introduction of a ban on the use of airtime in electronic media for the broadcasting of programs that promote violence and exploit base manifestations.”

In 2025, the initiative to ban Anglicisms, proposed by deputies of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation faction in the State Duma since the early 2000s, was largely implemented. Thus, the State Duma adopted a bill on the protection of the Russian language: its provisions required that information intended for the general public be presented in Russian.

From March 2026, signs, markers, and advertising materials must contain primary and most visible information in Russian.

Several years earlier, in 2011, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) succeeded in declaring June 6th as Russian Language Day. In February 2011, State Duma deputies from the CPRF faction introduced a draft amendment to Article 1.1 of the Federal Law “On Days of Military Glory and Memorable Dates in Russia.” They proposed declaring June 6th (A.S. Pushkin’s birthday) a national holiday—Russian Language Day.

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) faction in the State Duma held roundtable discussions with writers and linguists. Party leader Gennady Zyuganov sent numerous appeals and open letters to Dmitry Medvedev, who held the presidency in 2011, demanding support for the idea of ​​declaring June 6th as Russian Language Day. Under pressure from the left-wing patriotic opposition and the public, Dmitry Medvedev signed Decree No. 705 “On Russian Language Day” on June 6, 2011.

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) believes it is important for Russia to adopt the Belarusian experience in regulating migration policy. In October 2024, with the support of the CPRF Central Committee, the Krasnaya Liniya television channel released the documentary “Belarusian Order,” which detailed the specific mechanisms for implementing migration policies that meet the interests of the Belarusian people, as well as the socioeconomic conditions conducive to the implementation of initiatives beneficial to society.

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation has consistently promoted legislative initiatives to protect Russian-speaking citizens abroad and has taken measures to facilitate the return of ancestral Russian territories to the “native harbor of the Fatherland.”

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation was the initiator of the State Duma Resolution No. 157-II, adopted on March 15, 1996, “On the deepening of the integration of the peoples united in the USSR, and the repeal of the Resolution of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR of December 12, 1991, “On the denunciation of the Treaty on the formation of the USSR.”

On December 9, 1996, at the initiative of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, headed by deputies from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (G.I. Tikhonov), a draft resolution “On the status of the hero city of Sevastopol” was published, confirming the Russian federal status of Sevastopol.

In the Third State Duma, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) faction actively participated in the drafting of Federal Constitutional Law No. 6 (adopted on December 17, 2001), the provisions of which established the principle of voluntary accession of a new constituent entity to the Russian Federation. It stipulated that a foreign state must initiate accession, and the principle of voluntary accession of a new region or country was established. The procedure requires the conclusion of an international treaty, which is then ratified by the Federal Assembly. In March 2014, it was on the basis of the provisions of this federal constitutional law that the law on the accession of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol to the Russian Federation was adopted.

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation faction in the State Duma of the second convocation was one of the main developers and initiators of the adoption of the basic Federal Law No. 99-FZ “On the state policy of the Russian Federation towards compatriots abroad” (adopted by the State Duma on March 5, 1999, approved by the Federation Council on March 17, 1999).

The law included a provision allowing individuals who were citizens of the USSR to acquire Russian citizenship without language proficiency requirements or income verification (in the original version). It also stipulated the state’s obligation to protect the rights and interests of Russian compatriots in their countries of residence, and outlined principles for supporting the Russian language and culture abroad.

State Duma Deputy V.S. Nikitin held a series of roundtables in the fourth State Duma on the issue of infringement of the rights of compatriots living outside the Russian Federation. A roundtable was held in April 2004, followed by parliamentary hearings in December 2005 on “Improving Russian Federation Legislation Regarding Russian Compatriots Abroad and Forced Migrants in Russia.” Then, on June 15, 2006, a roundtable was held on “The Situation of Children of Russian Compatriots Forced to Return to Russia Permanently from the CIS and Baltic States.”

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) faction was one of the initiators of the State Duma’s June 20, 2003, statement “In Connection with the Situation Surrounding Russian Citizens Permanently Residing in Turkmenistan.” The document described Turkmenbashi’s actions as “humiliating.” The statement was drafted by the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, and the State Duma Committee on Security, which included communist deputies (for example, V.I. Ilyukhin and A.D. Kulikov were members of the State Duma Committee on Security in the third State Duma; G.E. Gamza, V.F. Knysh, V.A. Kuptsov, and V.I. Sevastyanov were members of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs; and A.G. Chekhoev and N.G. Bindyukov were members of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs).

In July 2008, State Duma Deputy S.P. Obukhov sent a protocol instruction to the State Duma Committee on International Affairs. He drew attention to the fact that a hate campaign against Russia was being waged in Ukraine under the pretext of “researching the historical problem of the Holodomor.” “All these actions aimed at rehabilitating fascism, revising the results of World War II, and inciting hatred towards Russia and Russians have specific and well-known organizers, activists, and instigators, often with economic interests in the Russian Federation,” explained Sergei Obukhov.

On October 18, 2018, Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) deputies supported the State Duma statement “On the Escalation of the Situation in Ukraine.” Leonid Kalashnikov, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Commonwealth of Independent States, Eurasian Integration, and Relations with Compatriots, delivered a report on this issue. Kalashnikov addressed the restrictions on Russian-language education in Ukraine and attempts to ban it entirely, Kyiv’s escalation of military action against the DPR and LPR, and the supply of lethal weapons to Ukraine by the US and the West. The draft statement presented by Kalashnikov was unanimously supported by the State Duma deputies.

In 2014, following the armed attack by the puppet Kyiv regime on the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation immediately raised the issue of Russia recognizing the DPR and LPR.

Thus, on June 2, 2014, G.A. Zyuganov directly and unequivocally advocated for Russia to take measures to truly protect Novorossiya: “We have every right to de facto recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics to protect our compatriots. They held full referendums and expressed their will. And they have the right, as our neighbors, to such support and protection.”

On July 3, 2014, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation held a rally at Novopushkinsky Square in Moscow in support of the residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. At the end of the rally, a resolution was unanimously adopted calling for an end to the genocide of the populations of the DPR and LPR, official recognition of Novorossiya, the establishment of a no-fly zone over it, humanitarian aid to the residents, and support for independence fighters.

On February 15, 2022, the State Duma supported draft resolution No. 582243-8, introduced on January 19, 2022, by deputies of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation faction led by Gennady Zyuganov. Its provisions called for sending a request for recognition of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics directly to the President of the Russian Federation. 351 deputies voted in favor of the Communist Party’s draft. This decision became a catalyst for subsequent events. Thus, on February 21, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees recognizing the independence of the DPR and LPR.

Immediately after residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics supported the idea of ​​gaining state independence, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation began sending humanitarian convoys to provide material assistance to the Novorossiya militia and the civilian population. The Communists dispatched their first humanitarian convoy on July 6, 2014, from Zheleznovodsk in Stavropol Krai. To date, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation has dispatched 150 humanitarian convoys.

The list presented is only a small part of the CPRF’s struggle for a better future for Russia and its constituent Russian people, as well as all the peoples inhabiting our country. Most importantly, the communists recognize that Russia, with its rich cultural heritage, can only survive if the family of nations gathered around the great Russian people, who, together with all the peoples and nationalities of Russia, have endured great trials, severe hardships, and terrible twists in their historical destiny, is preserved.

We will not allow the wily lackeys of the ruling class to tarnish the honorable name of the Communist Party with utterly false accusations of both rootless cosmopolitanism and chauvinistic tendencies. The Party is doing everything possible at this stage to defend the strategic interests of the working majority, comprised of all the peoples of Russia, the most numerous of which is the Russian people. Those who attempt to portray everything as if the Communists are opposed to the interests of the country’s indigenous population, whether Russian or any other people in Russia, are undoubtedly playing into the hands of the very forces that are destroying the Russian people through brutal exploitation, promoting the spread of alcoholism and drug addiction, destroying their culture and language, and so on.

Communists see the provocative activity of a number of individuals who are attempting to sow discord along national lines, both between Russian workers and the Communist Party, and between workers of various nationalities. No tales and lamentations about tsarist times, no labels, no provocative pseudo-historical films, no scribblings of scribblers, and no other efforts by homegrown nationalists and other oligarchs’ henchmen will ever be able to sever the strong organic bond between the Russian people, the nation-forming people who unite over 190 peoples and ethnicities under their rule, and the Communist Party.

That said, any attempts to accuse the CPRF of abandoning internationalism are also completely unfounded. The Communist Party’s defense of the Russian people and Russia’s territorial integrity is entirely consistent with the Marxist-Leninist concept of protecting the equal rights of peoples and nationalities. The founders of the world’s first socialist state always linked the defense of any people (naturally, including the Russian people) with the struggle for the social liberation of workers and, contrary to anti-Soviet stereotypes, did not hesitate to declare their loyalty to the national idea.

Thus, V.I. Lenin wrote the following in his famous work “On the National Pride of Great Russians”: “We are filled with a feeling of national pride, for the Great Russian nation also created a revolutionary class, also proved that it is capable of giving humanity great examples of the struggle for freedom and socialism, and not only great pogroms, rows of gallows, dungeons, great famines, and great servility to priests, tsars, landowners, and capitalists.” Thus, V.I. Lenin saw both revolutionary and counterrevolutionary manifestations in every nation. He always gave credit to the former, progressive ones, while he mercilessly castigated the latter, regressive ones. Vladimir Ilyich emphasized that proletarian revolution requires “the prolonged education of workers in the spirit of complete national equality and brotherhood.”

He came to the conclusion that “the interest (not understood in a servile way) of the national pride of the Great Russians coincides with the socialist interest of the Great Russian (and all other) proletarians.”

This is a good lesson for all self-righteous patriots who understand love for the Motherland as love for the “God-given” authorities. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation, however, is guided by Leninist motives, directly linking the struggle for Russian national revival with the liberation of the oligarchy from its dictates over the workers, with the transition to socialism, and with the revival of genuine friendship among peoples based on overcoming the contradictions of the capitalist system.