Ideology
XIII Congress of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in 2008
The party's current programme was adapted in 2008, where the CPRF declared that it is the only political organisation that consistently upholds the rights of the workers and national interests. According to the programme, the strategic goal of the party is to build in Russia a "renewed socialism, socialism of the 21st century".[27] The program of the Communist Party declared that the party is guided by Marxism–Leninism, based on the experience and achievements of domestic and world science and culture. According to the party, there comes a "confrontation between the New World Order and the Russian people with its thousand-year history, and with its qualities", "communality and great power, deep faith, undying altruism and decisive rejection of lures mercantile bourgeois liberal-democratic paradise".[28]
According to its program,[27] the CPRF considers it necessary to reform the country in three phases. In the first phase, it is needed to achieve workers' power through representation by a coalition led by the CPRF. Achieving this goal will help eliminate the devastation from the standpoint of the party, the consequences conducted in the past decade of reforms, in particular by the nationalisation of property privatised in the 1990s. However, in this case small producers will remain and moreover will be organised to protect them from robbery by "big business, bureaucrats, and mafia groups". It is planned to reform the management of enterprises through the creation of councils at various levels. The party also plans to transform Russia into a Soviet republic.[citation needed] In the second stage, the role of councils and trade unions will increase even more. A gradual transition in the economy will be made to a socialist form of economic activity, but a small private equity is still retained. Finally, the third phase is to build socialism.
In recent years, the Communist Party has also shown tendency of moving towards Dengism.[citation needed] The First Secretary Gennady Zyuganov also expressed that they should learn from China's successful example and build Russian socialism. He also encouraged all party members to read "Selective work of Deng Xiaoping". He said during his visit to China in 2008: "Had we learned from the success of China earlier, the Soviet Union would not have dissolved".[29][30]
Party programme
Under the present conditions in the Russian Federation, the CPRF calls for the following proposals:[27]
Stop the extinction of the country, restore benefits for large families, reconstruct the network of public kindergartens and provide housing for young families.
Nationalise natural resources in Russia and the strategic sectors of the economy; revenues in these industries are to be used in the interests of all citizens.
Return to Russia from foreign banks the state financial reserves and use them for economic and social development.
Break the system of total fraud in the elections.
Create a truly independent judiciary.
Carry out an immediate package of measures to combat poverty and introduce price controls on essential goods.
Not raise the retirement age.
Restore government responsibility for housing and utilities, establish fees for municipal services in an amount not more than 10% of family income, stop the eviction of people to the streets and expand public housing.
Increase funding for science and scientists to provide decent wages and all the necessary research.
Restore the highest standards of universal and free secondary and higher education that existed during the Soviet era.
Ensure the availability and quality of health care.
Vigorously develop high-tech manufacturing.
Ensure the food and environmental security of the country and support the large collective farms for the production and processing of agricultural products.
Prioritise domestic debt over foreign debt
Introduce progressive taxation; low-income citizens will be exempt from paying taxes.
Create conditions for development of small and medium enterprises.
Ensure the accessibility of cultural goods, stop the commercialisation of culture, defend Russian culture as the foundation of the spiritual unity of multinational Russia, the national culture of all citizens of the country.
Stop the slandering of the Russian and Soviet history.
Take drastic measures to suppress corruption and crime.
Strengthen national defense and expand social guarantees to servicemen and law enforcement officials.
Ensure the territorial integrity of Russia and the protection of compatriots abroad.
Institute a foreign policy based on mutual respect of countries and peoples to facilitate the voluntary restoration of the Union of States.
The party is in favour of cooperation with the Russian Orthodox Church.[31] According to the words of Zyuganov, the CPRF is a party of scientific, but not militant atheism. Propaganda of any religion is banned inside the party.[32] Unlike the CPSU after 1956, the CPRF celebrates the rule of Joseph Stalin.[33] The party supported a ban on the "promotion of non-traditional sexual relations to minors",[34] mostly named a ban on "homosexual propaganda to minors" in Western media.[35]
