Cpsu.docx

wenty-six parties competed in the December 1999 election: The top finishers were: 1) the Communists (25 percent); 2) the Unity Party (24 percent); 3) the Fatherland-All Russia (FAR), the center left part endorse by Primokov and Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov (12 percent); 4) the Union of Right (UFR), supporters of Putin (9 percent); 5) the liberal Yabloko party (6 percent); 6) Zhirinovsky's nationalist bloc (6 percent). Seats in the 450-seat Duma before the 2003 election. 1) the Unity Party (185 seats); 2) the Communists (126 seats); 3) the Union of Right (UFR) and Yabloko (48 seats); 4) Regions of Russia (47 seats); 5) Liberal Demotratic Party of Zhirinovsky' (14 seats); and 6) Other (30 seats).

It dominated the Duma (Russian parliament till 2002. That is till a decade after the Soviet Union fell. Financial constraints and political survival made the Party accept rich people into its fold. The decline was stunning, in the 2003 elections. It shows one thing the popularity declined when it moved away from its ideology. Lenin Mausoleum is still in Red Square and the call for its removal led to such massive protests that it stays in Red Square. Says a bit about how Lenin is seen still by not a small section of the population, isn’t it?