Eastern Bloc post-Soviet Communism

[The Idler]

What is the state of communist parties in the Eastern Bloc since 1991?

[Red Commissar]

I know in Poland and the Baltic States they have negligible influence, because of the way "communism" is perceived by those people due to soviet times.

Czech Republic has a pretty sizable communist party- the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM), though there have been attempts to get it banned. Their youth wing was disbanded for "violating" the constitution, and they're attempting to apply that to the party itself.

Past that I'm not aware of others. Most of their possible voter base tends to go towards the token social democratic party in their nations. Ukraine has a minor communist party, but it seems to be more in the vein of nationalism like the "communist" party in Russia.

Main problem with them is that there is difficulty in getting people to accept their ideology as legitimate, because they still associate it with their authoritarian regimes of the past. Even the social democratic parties tend to have problem with red-baiting and their opponents associating them with the former "communist" regimes.

[FSL]

Communist parties are banned in Latvia and Lithuania (the word communist basically) so they named themselves Socialist Parties. Their positions aren't those of the social democrats that usually carry that name.
At least the Latvian one is quite strong, especially after the crisis sending an MP in the european parliament.

In Belarus since 1994 and following a huge recession Lukashenko supported among other by the CP was elected. The state keeps on controlling a large part of the economy and imposing rules on the market. For this, Belarus was one of the "outposts of tyranny" according to the previous US administration.

CPs continue to be a moderate force in most other countries. People like to accuse them of nationalism because they often show support for the USSR. Funny, when we used to do that, we were accused of betrayal. Wanting to support what you consider a workers state seems hard to grasp for some.


Still, when you have the CP in Czech Republic representing 15% of the people and politicians thinking of banning it, you can realize that they don't operate in the most friendly environment.

[Dimentio]

At the same time, the population in the former eastern bloc are very sympathetic to some of the policies upheld by the former regimes. Lukashenko in Belarus, Fico in Slovakia and to a lesser extent Tymoshenko in Ukraine, have all tried to ride the wave of Soviet nostalgia (while few know about it, Tymoshenko actually proposed renationalisation).

Even in Romania, there is some nostalgia for Ceacescu's insane regime.

[Taikand]

Even in Romania, there is some nostalgia for Ceacescu's insane regime.
Being a Romanian I can point out that it is true.
Currently the name PCR (Communist Party of Romania) is banned, so they added an "n" (standing for "new") before it. The interesting thing is that mostly older people ,people that actually been there at that time, are nostalgic about Ceausescu's regime, especially before the 80s when the rationalizing of food was started.
The Communist Party here is pretty weak, in need of younger members.
My generation ( me being 16 years old) has a hatred against communism that lacks any arguments whatsoever.
Unions could be interested in leftist politics, but mainly they are ruled by bourgeoisie.
These being said it's very hard, almost impossible to raise class awareness here.

[OCMO]

In Moldova, the Communist Party has been the rulling party since 2001. People got fed up with the post-soviet regimes and elected the communists.

[Taikand]

A moldavian communist party that is pro-russian...
The economy is still capitalist, so <shrug>...could they be considered a revolutionary party?

[Dimentio]

A moldavian communist party that is pro-russian...
The economy is still capitalist, so <shrug>...could they be considered a revolutionary party?

They want to join the EU.

Have to fly, ciao.

[AK]

A moldavian communist party that is pro-russian...
The economy is still capitalist, so <shrug>...could they be considered a revolutionary party?
No, they're counter-revolutionary is what.