The Econmist - USA (2021-10-30)

48 Europe The Economist October 30th 2021

Russia

The new Communists

E

katerinaengalychevanevergother

badge showing Leninasachild.The

weekshewassupposedtojointheOktia-

briata(“littleOctobrists”,a referencetothe

revolutionof1917),asallSovietchildren

didattheageofseven,theSovietUnionfell

apart.But 30 yearslaterMsEngalychevais

a memberoftheCommunistPartyanda

Moscow city councillor. She campaigns

againstVladimirPutin’scronycapitalism;

Leninwouldnodoubthaveapproved.But

hewouldhavebeenhorrifiedbyherother

demands:forfairelectionsandimpartial

justice.Shehasbeendetainedandfinedfor

protestingagainstthejailingofAlexeiNa­

valny,Russia’soppositionleader,andre­

centlyhadtobarricadeherselfinheroffice

whilepolicewaitedoutsidetoarresther.

Sheisfarfromthestereotypeofa Com­

munist.Sheisnota red­flag­wavingpen­

sioner,anddoesnotcareaboutStalin.Nor

doesshefeelanyattachmenttotheSoviet­

eraCommunistswho“betrayedourcoun­

tryandourpeople,switchedsidesandset­

tledinUnitedRussia”(thevehiclethrough

whichMrPutinnowcontrolstheRussian

parliament).Sheisnotbotheredthatthe

CommunistPartytodayisledbyGennady

Zyuganov,a Stalin­praisingformerSoviet

ideologue.Whatmatters moreto her is

thatthepartyisshowingsignsofbecom­

inga genuineopposition.Andthisismak­

ingtheKremlin,andindeedMrZyuganov

himself,nervous.

MrZyuganovfoundedhispost­Soviet

CommunistPartyin1993,aimingtobenefit

fromsomeoftheresentmentandnostalgia

broughtonbytheSovietUnion’scollapse.

Itwasinfacta nationalistandimperialist

party,whichthatyearwasinvolvedinan

unsuccessful armed revolt againstBoris

Yeltsin’sdemocraticgovernment.In1996,

whenMrZyuganovchallengedYeltsinin

presidential elections, Russian liberals

andbusinessmen,fearfulofa Communist

revanche,threwalltheirresourcesbehind

theailingpresident.“Iwouldratherelecta

deadYeltsinthana liveZyuganov,”onetv

executivesaidatthetime.

MrZyuganovlost,butforthenexttwo

decadeshispresenceallowedtheKremlin

to frame politicsas abinarychoicebe­

tween democracy and Soviet­style

communism.TodaymanyRussiandemo­

crats,desperatetogetYeltsin’ssuccessor

outoftheKremlin,findthemselvesvoting

fortheCommunists.

Theyarewellawareoftheirony.But,as

YevgeniaAlbats,a firebrandofRussia’sop­

positionmedia,says,“thisbitchofa gov­

ernmenthasleftusnochoice.”Withnearly

allformsofpoliticsbannedandMrNaval­

nybehindbars,theCommunistPartyhas

becomethemainbeneficiaryofhis“smart

voting”strategy.HeurgedRussianstovote

forwhichevercandidatewasbestplacedto

beatUnitedRussia’s.Hadthevotesbeen

countedhonestly inparliamentaryelec­

tions in September, the Communists

wouldhavegotroughlythesamenumber

asUnitedRussia.Evenafteralltherigging

it won19%ofthevote,upfrom13%in2016.

ThissuccesshasdiscombobulatedMr

Zyuganov.Financedandcontrolledbythe

Kremlin,  he  has  enrolled  his  party  in  Mr

Putin’s  system  of  “managed  democracy”,

which presents an illusion of choice while

reinforcing  the  Kremlin’s  control.  “Smart

voting” has spoiled that game. Not only did

it  boost  the  Communist  vote,  it  gave  its

younger deputies a sense of power. 

It is not only protest votes that are bu­

oying the Communist Party. Several young

politicians  running  on  the  party’s  ticket

are  using  it  as  a  platform  from  which  to

launch  their  own  left­wing  agenda.  Many

of them would fit comfortably into a Euro­

pean­style social democratic party. 

Consider  Mikhail  Lobanov,  a  37­year­

old maths lecturer at Moscow State Univer­

sity.  He  ran  a  Western­style  campaign,

crowdfunding  and  canvassing  door­to­

door,  in  a  relatively  affluent  part  of  Mos­

cow.  He  ditched  ideological  clichés  to  fo­

cus  on  urban  activism  and  social  welfare.

“I  believe  in  the  left  idea  as  a  way  of  re­

straining  the  excesses  of  capitalism

through equal opportunities and access to

universal  health  care  and  education,”  he

says. The Kremlin’s blatant rigging robbed

him of victory, but not of his appeal. 

With leftism advancing in much of the

rest of the world, it is striking how long it

has  taken  to  come  into  vogue  in  Russia,

particularly  given  the  inequality  that  Mr

Putin’s  rule  has  entrenched.  An  obvious

explanation is that it takes time for people

to  forget  the  Soviet  attempt  to  enforce

equality, the millions who were murdered

in  its  pursuit,  and  how  catastrophically  it

failed.  Now,  however,  six  years  of  falling

incomes have prompted many Russians to

reconsider the politics of the left.

The Communists’ current shift is large­

ly a reaction to Mr Putin’s policies. By an­

nexing Crimea in 2014 he stole the party’s

previous  nationalist  agenda,  leaving  it  to

make  a  choice,  explains  Gregory  Yudin,  a

sociologist.  “They  could  either  move  fur­

ther  to  the  right  and  become  extinct,  or

they could step out of their ghetto and shift

to the left.”

Valery  Rashkin,  a  Communist  mp and

head of the party’s Moscow branch, decid­

ed  to  experiment.  At  the  September  elec­

tion  he  backed  a  number  of  young  candi­

dates such as Evgeny Stupin, a 38­year­old

former police investigator who had served

in  the  Urals  but  quit  his  badly  paid  job

(along with the obligatory membership of

United  Russia)  and  moved  to  Moscow  to

look for work. The injustice and corruption

that he encountered there led Mr Stupin to

the Communists. 

The  Kremlin  is  now  directing  Soviet­

style  repression  against  young  Commu­

nists,  and  trying  to  paint  them  as  Stalin­

ists.  Meanwhile,  the  Communists  are

standing up for human rights, for example

by demanding investigations intoreported

torture in Russia’s prisons. Mr Putin’sRus­

sia is indeed a looking­glass world. n

MOSCOW

Russia’s once-tame Communist Party is becoming an unexpected opposition force

Confusingly, young Communists are often democrats now