Moscow News October 16-22, 2002 CPRF on the Skids Valery Vyzhutovich It seems this has been the last time Gennady Zyuganov spearheaded the "working people's fall offensive"
"The people have no other alternative left but to organize protest action," the CPRF leader was shouting through the bullhorn. Yet the crowd on Vasilyevsky Spusk, or Slope, belied the speaker with a dismally low turnout, unprecedented for such events in the past.
The rally in the downtown area on October 10 was part of an all-Russia protest action organized by the Communists. This time the "regime hostile to the people" got its comeuppance with posters: "Putin Must Go!" "Down with the Government!" "Yes - to the Referndum!" and "No - to Land Sale!"
The Communist Party, suffering one defeat after another, decided to vindicate its viability in the old, proven, and now solely possible, way - by enticing the people out on the street. Zyuganov, who is losing ground fast, stooped to the ugliest form of Bolshevism, too indecent even if coming from him: Seize the lot and share it out! Seas and rivers, land, coal mines, the RAO YeES Unified Energy System, and railways - everything must belong to the people! If oil is expropriated from the magnates and divvied up, every Russian citizen will have a share worth $160,000.
The speaker seemed to have used up the entire stock of boilerplate rhetoric. Yet the CPRF leader lacked something that had helped him get through to his allies before. He lacked inspiration. After all, he ought to know better than anyone that anti-government speeches and invocations, fluttering red banners, and the aggressive rejection of the establishment have a very special target - the Communist electorate, which has been dwindling with every passing day. This is just not good enough for realpolitik and a viable relationship with the ruling authority. It is not good enough, to the point that the trades unions, which in the past often took part in Communist undertakings, now consider it impossible to join CPRF rallies. No leftist politician that counts offered his backing to Zyuganov. Only Anpilov, until recently a fierce critic of the Communist leader he lambasted as an appeaser and opportunist, now again sensed a kindred soul, saw a comrade-in-arms, and took his side - thus pointedly attesting to the increasingly marginalized position of both the CPRF, which is laying claim to the role of systemic opposition, and its leader, who continues to regard himself as a status politician.
The people in the Kremlin must be rubbing their hands with glee: Another couple or so of such actions and the CPRF will, without any pressure from the outside, fall by the wayside. There is no need for the Kremlin to do anything more now.
As a matter of fact, nothing unexpected happened last Thursday. The event merely confirmed certain polls results: The people in their majority are not inclined to participate in protest marches. According to a poll conducted by the Public Opinion foundation, nearly half of all Russian citizens believe that such actions do nothing but harm. Asked what public or political organizations could organize a public action capable of ensuring a mass turnout, only seven percent mentioned the CPRF. This, given that 37 percent of respondents think that the number of mass actions will in the foreseeable future remain at its present level, with 28 percent confident that it will decline.
That was in fact the case. The turnout in Saratov and Volgograd was 800 people at the most, and in Vladivostok, 300 to 400. The multi-thousand strong demonstrations promised by Zyuganov, and marches known as the "working people's fall offensive," failed dismally.
The reason for the waning public interest in political rallies is, however, not only the fact that Communist slogans have lost their appeal. It is simply that in the past decade the people have, from their own experience, concluded that ardent support for the CPRF and its leader does not make their apartments any warmer in winter. A deciding factor is the realization that unlike the old, Yeltsin "regime hostile to the people," its current successor is here to stay, and so it is essential to adapt to it, whether you like it or not. "Put the Putin Gang on Trial!" cuts no ice with the malcontents today. Yet Zyuganov is unable to come up with anything more substantive. The idea of cross-breeding patriotism and liberalism, putting the new, "democratic" wine into old Bolshevik bottles with $100 million from Berezovsky - all of this nonsense, which is being seriously discussed at present, has nothing, nor can have anything, to do with the revival of the leftist opposition. It can only revive from the ashes of the People's Patriotic Union of Russia - a process that seems to be underway. With other leaders. Under different slogans. And certainly not with Berezovsky's money: He will give nothing anyway.
At their upcoming party plenary session, the Communists intend to raise the question of replacing CPRF leadership. They are looking for an alternative to Zyuganov.
The snow that fell on Moscow during the Communist rally covered the lawns and trees that are still green. Then it melted. It is no longer difficult to picture the political landscape without Zyuganov.
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