…AND TAKE ON A NATIONALIST TINGE.

The KPRF does not have a policy organization of its own. Zyuganov has therefore called on think tanks of nationalist orientation, such as the Spiritual Heritage Association headed by his old friend Aleksei Podberezkin, as well as on more orthodox Marxist organizations such as Russian Scientists of Socialist Orientation (RUSO), headed by Ivan Osadchiy. Zyuganov’s biography shows that he has long maintained close links with nationalist organizations; a program that is as much nationalist as Marxist would be in keeping with what is known about his own opinions. This may explain why Zyuganov has rejected the economic program drafted by former USSR Gosplan chairman Yuri Maslyukov and turned instead to Sergei Glazyev, a respected younger economist whose opinions place him in the moderate nationalist rather than the orthodox Marxist camp. Glazyev has reportedly been asked either to tidy up Maslyukov’s draft or to write an entirely new one.

Fierce arguments are, however, reported to be going on over the part of the program covering foreign policy, which is being drafted by the KPRF’s international secretary, Ivan Melnikov, and the nationalist-inclined Podberezkin. Security policy is being overseen by Mikhail Surkov, deputy chairman of the Duma Defense Committee, although serving army officers are said to have done the actual drafting. According to Segodnya’s well-informed journalist Gleb Cherkasov, the small amount of space devoted to legal reform suggests that Zyuganov will not, if elected, be in any hurry to implement the Communist party’s official policy of amending the constitution to abolish the presidency. (Segodnya, May 8)

Soviet Victory in World War Two Marked in Moscow.