I disagree. I think this is a wrecker narrative that has sadly become uncritically accepted among western leftist circles. There is little evidence to support this claim that the KPRF is controlled. The mere fact that they happen to sometimes agree with what the ruling party does is not sufficient to substantiate the allegation of controlled opposition. There are a lot of instances in which they demonstrate autonomy, independent positions and situations in which they play an important role in applying pressure on the government.
As for who is more progressive it depends on your understanding of what constitutes progress. If you base it purely on culture war issues, the KPRF is not progressive. If we are talking economic policy and if we view as progressive that which advances revolutionary anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist politics, then the KPRF is the most progressive (major) party in Russia. I would argue that like all parties the KPRF suffers from internal contradictions and they can be both progressive and not at the same time. In this they reflect real contradictions that are also present among the people.
KPRF has extreme positions on everything like telling Putin, go and oust the kiev government. Vaccines are not good. No vaccines and mask mandates but it seems they are in the opposition they criticize the ways in which the Putin's government is implementing the things. Our commie party also didn't support full lockdown and stringent lockdown policies against people. But one thing I know KPRF is fully Dengist and he wants to repeat the Chinese development in Russia and he also wanted to repeat the Chinese covid response in Russia. I like Zygunov's assessment of CPC and Russia. Though he fails in cultural issues in that case most major parties in Russia are anti LGBT
I don't think wanting Russia to hurry up and get rid of the Nazi regime in Kiev is an extreme position. It may be ignorant of the military realities which call for a slower, more cautious approach, but it's a reasonable thing to put pressure on the government about lest it get any ideas of some kind of Minsk 3 compromise.
About the other points, as i said there are good things and bad things about the KPRF, it is a mixed bag but it is what Russia has to make do with for now as the main force pushing for a return to socialism. Their idea of taking inspiration from China in how to build socialism in the modern era is solid, they can see that China has been a demonstrable success story.
Doesn't mean they would or should try to completely imitate China, different conditions and all that, but at least analyze why China succeeded and draw lessons.
I just don't understand KPRF that much, on one hand they praise stalin and then on one hand they use right wing tropes such as globalist where Yuri Afonin said Trump is anti globalist. Lol. KPRF is just for show nowadays I believe. They should have fought against Putin to cancel this war, that would have been dialectically correct instead of which they played along with Russian nationalism and now there is a risk that Russia in future can turn into hell hole of white supremacist gangs together with the "Christian "brothers of Hungary and AfD of Germany. I don't think their elections have any validity too even in KPRF site they say they get immense persecution from UR. Together with the lost case of India, Russia will be a white supremacist state I believe
I believe we simply differ on this. I agree with the KPRF that Putin's real mistake was not launching the intervention into Ukraine sooner. They were allowed too much time to arm and expand their army with the help of NATO. The anti-Russian Nazi regime in Ukraine which has murdered, persecuted and imprisoned communists and which has attempted to ethnically cleanse itself of everything Russian cannot be tolerated by any reasonable Russian who remembers the sacrifice of their ancestors in fighting this same inhuman ideology 80 years ago, and certainly not by communists.
The KPRF also pushed for recognition of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics for a long time before Putin actually did it. On both these issues it was the Putin government that dragged its feet, was too timid and too conciliatory when it was clear from 2014 that a truly dangerous regime had come to power in Ukraine with the backing of NATO that was being built up to pose an existential threat to Russia and Russians, and that greatly contributed to the growth of international Nazism.
And after all, it was not to Russia that white supremacists and neonazis flocked to fight alongside other fellow Nazis, to go on "safari" and kill civilians in the Donbass, returning to their home countries with combat experience and going on to commit white supremacist terror attacks. It is not Russian soldiers that are constantly seen sporting swastikas and SS insignia. Due to the fact that Russia is currently fighting a bloody war against Nazis which has revived memories of the Great Patriotic War among Russians, the mood in the general population in Russia has become more hostile toward most manifestations of fascism, Nazism, white supremacy, etc.
Russian nationalism is a mixed bag as it can go both in a more reactionary or in a less reactionary direction, but for the moment the present incarnation of Russian nationalism has mostly expanded to embrace all the various ethnic and religious groups of Russia. You can see this in how the Muslim Chechens have been greatly glorified and elevated into folk heroes due to their battlefield prowess.
It is important to remember that Russia is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious state. Russia could not survive as a state under a government that tried to adopt an ethnically or religiously exclusionary ideology such as white supremacism. That is not to say there aren't many Russians with far right and reactionary views, or that these groups do not have a fair amount of influence in society, but they tend to be more of the monarchist variety.
It is true that Russia is aligned more with right wing "populist" forces in the West today and this is in part due to Russia's own reactionary attitudes toward certain cultural issues, but more importantly because it is currently the liberal faction (along with the establishment right) in the West which is the more ideologically committed to imperialism and to fanatically pursuing regime change in Russia and supporting the proxy war in Ukraine. Obviously Russia will seek allies among those governments like Hungary's which while aggressively reactionary in their domestic policies at least favor a more isolationist and less confrontational approach toward Russia.
Bro it's like saying sitting with AfD is not bad if you are killing Nazis in Ukraine. I mean I understand your point but Russian telegram is synonymous to Nazi telegram. People are overtly anti Semitic and anti central asians. Sure Putin has said about Multipolarity and such but he also said Europe is losing its Christian values. I don't think they will have a system where KPRF can get a chance to win. They will be butchered to death by UR and it's military loyalists. Atleast that's how I feel. Putin will outlaw communism the very next day if it loses power in Duma saying Lenin was a removed and Stalin was a psychopath.
I think it's more complicated than you are making it out to be. Every society has its contradictions, there are simultaneously reactionary and progressive elements and Russia is no exception to this. Also, Russian telegram channels are not necessarily any more reflective of the whole of Russian society than Reddit is of western societies. They merely show the existence of certain particularly toxic elements.
As Marxists we have to be clear about which contradictions are primary and which are secondary.
As for whether KPRF can ever win elections, again this is not the point. We don't expect a vanguard party of the proletariat to win bourgeois elections. This cannot happen in the West and for now it probably cannot happen in Russia either. The point is that they represent a significant political force that is pushing toward some kind of a return to socialism and exerting political pressure on the bourgeois state to adopt more socialistic policies.
They are the biggest communist party in Europe. They hold more political offices and have more public support as a percentage of the population than any other communist party outside of AES states. We cannot turn our backs on an openly communist party with this kind of prominence in one of the most important countries in the world simply because of the existence of contradictions and reactionary prejudices either in the party or the rest of society.
Or do you think that other communist parties like for instance the CPC are completely free of reactionary prejudices? Do you think every AES state has a perfect progressive position on every cultural issue? Do you think that we should renounce support for, say, the DPRK because they sometimes say cringy grandpa shit about western culture?
There is such a thing as critical support which can be appropriate to have even of problematic actors so long as their net impact on the world is more positive than negative.
Even if we give support here in lemmygrad , it doesn't matter much to Russia or KPRF. But truth to be told saying AfD is anti globalist or Trump is anti globalist then saying they are commies ..I know this is a fucked up scenario where mainstream left is against Russia but still Jackson Hinkle going in their MoFA academy to give a speech about secret cabals and god instead of something good is really pathetic. I don't see any possible good outcome if Russia wins this war. China will be there but the whole Europe and Putin's Christian values will get a huge boost for 3 decades or so.
I disagree. I think this is a wrecker narrative that has sadly become uncritically accepted among western leftist circles. There is little evidence to support this claim that the KPRF is controlled. The mere fact that they happen to sometimes agree with what the ruling party does is not sufficient to substantiate the allegation of controlled opposition. There are a lot of instances in which they demonstrate autonomy, independent positions and situations in which they play an important role in applying pressure on the government.
As for who is more progressive it depends on your understanding of what constitutes progress. If you base it purely on culture war issues, the KPRF is not progressive. If we are talking economic policy and if we view as progressive that which advances revolutionary anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist politics, then the KPRF is the most progressive (major) party in Russia. I would argue that like all parties the KPRF suffers from internal contradictions and they can be both progressive and not at the same time. In this they reflect real contradictions that are also present among the people.
KPRF has extreme positions on everything like telling Putin, go and oust the kiev government. Vaccines are not good. No vaccines and mask mandates but it seems they are in the opposition they criticize the ways in which the Putin's government is implementing the things. Our commie party also didn't support full lockdown and stringent lockdown policies against people. But one thing I know KPRF is fully Dengist and he wants to repeat the Chinese development in Russia and he also wanted to repeat the Chinese covid response in Russia. I like Zygunov's assessment of CPC and Russia. Though he fails in cultural issues in that case most major parties in Russia are anti LGBT
I don't think wanting Russia to hurry up and get rid of the Nazi regime in Kiev is an extreme position. It may be ignorant of the military realities which call for a slower, more cautious approach, but it's a reasonable thing to put pressure on the government about lest it get any ideas of some kind of Minsk 3 compromise.
About the other points, as i said there are good things and bad things about the KPRF, it is a mixed bag but it is what Russia has to make do with for now as the main force pushing for a return to socialism. Their idea of taking inspiration from China in how to build socialism in the modern era is solid, they can see that China has been a demonstrable success story.
Doesn't mean they would or should try to completely imitate China, different conditions and all that, but at least analyze why China succeeded and draw lessons.
I just don't understand KPRF that much, on one hand they praise stalin and then on one hand they use right wing tropes such as globalist where Yuri Afonin said Trump is anti globalist. Lol. KPRF is just for show nowadays I believe. They should have fought against Putin to cancel this war, that would have been dialectically correct instead of which they played along with Russian nationalism and now there is a risk that Russia in future can turn into hell hole of white supremacist gangs together with the "Christian "brothers of Hungary and AfD of Germany. I don't think their elections have any validity too even in KPRF site they say they get immense persecution from UR. Together with the lost case of India, Russia will be a white supremacist state I believe
I believe we simply differ on this. I agree with the KPRF that Putin's real mistake was not launching the intervention into Ukraine sooner. They were allowed too much time to arm and expand their army with the help of NATO. The anti-Russian Nazi regime in Ukraine which has murdered, persecuted and imprisoned communists and which has attempted to ethnically cleanse itself of everything Russian cannot be tolerated by any reasonable Russian who remembers the sacrifice of their ancestors in fighting this same inhuman ideology 80 years ago, and certainly not by communists.
The KPRF also pushed for recognition of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics for a long time before Putin actually did it. On both these issues it was the Putin government that dragged its feet, was too timid and too conciliatory when it was clear from 2014 that a truly dangerous regime had come to power in Ukraine with the backing of NATO that was being built up to pose an existential threat to Russia and Russians, and that greatly contributed to the growth of international Nazism.
And after all, it was not to Russia that white supremacists and neonazis flocked to fight alongside other fellow Nazis, to go on "safari" and kill civilians in the Donbass, returning to their home countries with combat experience and going on to commit white supremacist terror attacks. It is not Russian soldiers that are constantly seen sporting swastikas and SS insignia. Due to the fact that Russia is currently fighting a bloody war against Nazis which has revived memories of the Great Patriotic War among Russians, the mood in the general population in Russia has become more hostile toward most manifestations of fascism, Nazism, white supremacy, etc.
Russian nationalism is a mixed bag as it can go both in a more reactionary or in a less reactionary direction, but for the moment the present incarnation of Russian nationalism has mostly expanded to embrace all the various ethnic and religious groups of Russia. You can see this in how the Muslim Chechens have been greatly glorified and elevated into folk heroes due to their battlefield prowess.
It is important to remember that Russia is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious state. Russia could not survive as a state under a government that tried to adopt an ethnically or religiously exclusionary ideology such as white supremacism. That is not to say there aren't many Russians with far right and reactionary views, or that these groups do not have a fair amount of influence in society, but they tend to be more of the monarchist variety.
It is true that Russia is aligned more with right wing "populist" forces in the West today and this is in part due to Russia's own reactionary attitudes toward certain cultural issues, but more importantly because it is currently the liberal faction (along with the establishment right) in the West which is the more ideologically committed to imperialism and to fanatically pursuing regime change in Russia and supporting the proxy war in Ukraine. Obviously Russia will seek allies among those governments like Hungary's which while aggressively reactionary in their domestic policies at least favor a more isolationist and less confrontational approach toward Russia.
Bro it's like saying sitting with AfD is not bad if you are killing Nazis in Ukraine. I mean I understand your point but Russian telegram is synonymous to Nazi telegram. People are overtly anti Semitic and anti central asians. Sure Putin has said about Multipolarity and such but he also said Europe is losing its Christian values. I don't think they will have a system where KPRF can get a chance to win. They will be butchered to death by UR and it's military loyalists. Atleast that's how I feel. Putin will outlaw communism the very next day if it loses power in Duma saying Lenin was a removed and Stalin was a psychopath.
I think it's more complicated than you are making it out to be. Every society has its contradictions, there are simultaneously reactionary and progressive elements and Russia is no exception to this. Also, Russian telegram channels are not necessarily any more reflective of the whole of Russian society than Reddit is of western societies. They merely show the existence of certain particularly toxic elements.
As Marxists we have to be clear about which contradictions are primary and which are secondary.
As for whether KPRF can ever win elections, again this is not the point. We don't expect a vanguard party of the proletariat to win bourgeois elections. This cannot happen in the West and for now it probably cannot happen in Russia either. The point is that they represent a significant political force that is pushing toward some kind of a return to socialism and exerting political pressure on the bourgeois state to adopt more socialistic policies.
They are the biggest communist party in Europe. They hold more political offices and have more public support as a percentage of the population than any other communist party outside of AES states. We cannot turn our backs on an openly communist party with this kind of prominence in one of the most important countries in the world simply because of the existence of contradictions and reactionary prejudices either in the party or the rest of society.
Or do you think that other communist parties like for instance the CPC are completely free of reactionary prejudices? Do you think every AES state has a perfect progressive position on every cultural issue? Do you think that we should renounce support for, say, the DPRK because they sometimes say cringy grandpa shit about western culture?
There is such a thing as critical support which can be appropriate to have even of problematic actors so long as their net impact on the world is more positive than negative.
Even if we give support here in lemmygrad , it doesn't matter much to Russia or KPRF. But truth to be told saying AfD is anti globalist or Trump is anti globalist then saying they are commies ..I know this is a fucked up scenario where mainstream left is against Russia but still Jackson Hinkle going in their MoFA academy to give a speech about secret cabals and god instead of something good is really pathetic. I don't see any possible good outcome if Russia wins this war. China will be there but the whole Europe and Putin's Christian values will get a huge boost for 3 decades or so.