The communists do not refuse to use the figure of Lenin in the 2024 elections

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation will hold a plenum of the Central Committee approximately on December 22–23: it will convene a congress on December 23 to nominate a candidate for the presidential election from the party. This was stated to Vedomosti by the Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Central Committee for elections, State Duma deputy Sergei Obukhov. The party is now awaiting the calling of presidential elections. RIA Novosti wrote that the Federation Council will do this on December 13.

The leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov has not yet decided whether he will go to the elections himself or whether another communist will represent the party. A secret party vote will be held on this matter, he emphasized. Vedomosti wrote on September 19, citing sources, that the party’s nominee would most likely be Zyuganov himself. In 2018, he missed the campaign; the non-party general director of the state farm was nominated. Lenin Pavel Grudinin. In the 2024 presidential elections there should be “competition between teams, programs and real ideas,” said the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

In the executive branch, if Zyuganov could form it, he sees the first deputy chairman of the State Duma, Ivan Melnikov, the head of the committee on science and higher education, Oleg Smolin, and the chairman of the State Duma committee on family protection, issues of paternity, motherhood and childhood, Nina Ostanina. As members of his team, he named the chairman of the committee on agrarian issues Vladimir Kashin, the governor of the Oryol region Andrei Klychkov (Communist Party of the Russian Federation), the mayor of Novosibirsk Anatoly Lokot, “who knows the country well,” or the head of Khakassia Valentin Konovalov, whom they “tried to knock off.”

The task now is not just to go to elections, but to go with a “victory program,” Zyuganov said. Such a program for the communists was the appeal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation entitled “To the future – with Lenin!”, which they presented to journalists. Communists traditionally use images of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin in their party propaganda and symbols, however, not during the election period: in 2016, the law prohibited the use of images and statements of persons who are not candidates in election campaigning. Zyuganov complained about United Russia, saying that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation had more than once invited the party in power to consider their proposals: “They don’t want to! [Зато] They came up with a three-day voting period (three-day voting – Vedomosti), early voting and remote voting.”

The participation of communists in the presidential campaign will bring the advance of socialism in the country closer, announced the first deputy chairman of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Central Committee, Yuri Afonin. It is fortunate for Russia that the presidential campaign and the 100th anniversary of the death of Vladimir Lenin occur at the same time, says Dmitry Novikov, deputy chairman of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

The figure of Lenin today looks like a challenge to those who prefer the figure of Stalin. Lenin is a revolution, Stalin is a reaction, Ilya Grashchenkov, president of the Center for the Development of Regional Policy, told Vedomosti. “If the candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation manages to rally all the leftists around him, then this could help the party gain enough percentages to get ahead of the LDPR candidate,” he explained.

For this, it is better for the communists to nominate Zyuganov, Grashchenkov believes. Communists may have legal difficulties when using the image of Lenin, since the law does not allow the use of images of dead people in campaigning, added political strategist Oleg Zakharov.