Gennady Zyuganov

Gennady Andreyevich Zyuganov (Russian: Геннадий Андреевич Зюганов) (born 26 June 1944) is a Russian politician, who has been the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and served as Member of the State Duma since 1993. He is also the Chair of the Union of Communist Parties – Communist Party of the Soviet Union (UCP-CPSU) since 2001 and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe since 1996. He ran for President of Russia four times, most notably in 1996, when he controversially lost in the second round to Boris Yeltsin.

Quotes

 * Christ was the new era's first Communist. He lifted his voice in support of the impoverished, sick, and hungry, as well as everyone else in distress, and he would have joined us if he had been alive.
 * "Christ was first Communist, would have joined us: Russian Marxist leader Zyuganov" in WION (3 September 2021)


 * Put Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and the Moral Code of the Builder of Communism next to each other, and you will just gasp.
 * "Jesus Was the First Communist, Russian Party Leader Says" in The Moscow Times (2 September 2021)


 * The Belarusian people are prudent enough to make the right choice. You have been moving in the right direction all these years. Yes, there have been difficulties, problems. Crises affected your hard-working country, too, but you have gone through them with fewer losses
 * "Belarusian people are wise to make the right choice" in Belta (3 August 2010)


 * Yes, Russia has interests concerning the former Soviet republics on its borders, including Ukraine. These are the interests of peace and good neighborliness, a calm and dignified life for citizens, economic development, and cultural cooperation.
 * "Russian Communist leader: The West is backing fascists and using Ukraine" in People's World (16 February 2022)


 * Meanwhile, the West has demonstrated its readiness to rely on the most reactionary circles to pursue its interests.
 * "Russian Communist leader: The West is backing fascists and using Ukraine" in People's World (16 February 2022)


 * We firmly know that the peoples of Russia and Ukraine do not want a war. Such a war would also run counter to the fundamental interests of Europe. But the ruling powers of the United States appear to want it.
 * "Russian Communist leader: The West is backing fascists and using Ukraine" in People's World (16 February 2022)


 * Washington has been defeated in every war in recent decades. Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan are just some of the countries in which the United States has unleashed wars and ingloriously lost. This time, its leaders are eager to fight by proxy in Ukraine. The Washington “hawks” have set out to turn Ukrainians into cannon fodder. Political cover, the supply of weapons, the activities of Western military instructors—all this openly pushes the authorities in Kiev toward a bloody military adventure.'
 * "Russian Communist leader: The West is backing fascists and using Ukraine" in People's World (16 February 2022)


 * We must, by all means, breathe into the hearts of the inhabitants of multinational Ukraine the readiness to resist the dangerous games of the Western powers and their henchmen in Kiev. The time has come to rise together to thwart their vile and dangerous plans.
 * "Russian Communist leader: The West is backing fascists and using Ukraine" in People's World (16 February 2022)


 * The powerful in their suits and ties are targeting not only Russia and Ukraine but also Europe. The United States insists on tough sanctions against our country, habitually using the “Ukrainian card.” At the same time, they are launching a new stage in the struggle against their competitor, the European Union. The U.S. has extremely low trade with Russia, but Europe has broad and profitable trade and economic ties with our country. A military conflict with Russia would allow Washington to drive European countries into new, economically-destructive sanctions.
 * "Russian Communist leader: The West is backing fascists and using Ukraine" in People's World (16 February 2022)


 * U.S. imperialists’ task is not to protect Ukraine, but to crawl out of the acute crisis of capitalism. It is extremely important for them to score new profits by torpedoing the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline [between Germany and Russia] and hooking the EU economy on the needle of expensive liquefied natural gas from the U.S. This is part of the true rationale behind the current military crisis in Ukraine.
 * "Russian Communist leader: The West is backing fascists and using Ukraine" in People's World (16 February 2022)


 * Russia is finally moving away from the pernicious idolatry of the West…. It’s time to show our character in the Donbass. We are surrounded by a chain of unfriendly states. It is impossible to retreat further. The West must feel Russia’s determination to defend itself and its friends.
 * "Russian Communist leader: The West is backing fascists and using Ukraine" in People's World (16 February 2022)


 * The cause of peace on our planet will always be under threat as long as the supporters of aggression have their hands on the sword. The time has come to fulfill the mission Russians know all too well by experience and firmly say “no” to any international war.
 * "Russian Communist leader: The West is backing fascists and using Ukraine" in People's World (16 February 2022)


 * Combining the national-patriotic idea and the idea of social justice is one of the main tasks facing this country.
 * "Russian Communist Chief Broadcasts a Mixed Message" in The Washington Post (10 April 1996)


 * Our nation is being deprived of our very last asset: our fatherland. Look what is happening to our elders, those who fought all the way from Stalingrad to Berlin. . .. Look at how these white-haired veterans are humiliated, how their banners are defiled,
 * "Russian Communist Chief Broadcasts a Mixed Message" in The Washington Post (10 April 1996)


 * Science says if the annual per capita consumption of alcohol exceeds eight liters [2.1 gallons], the nation starts to degenerate genetically. The average consumption in Russia now amounts to 15 to 20 liters.
 * "Russian Communist Chief Broadcasts a Mixed Message" in The Washington Post (10 April 1996)


 * Two hundred billion dollars, your money. If it sat in our banks making 6 to 8 percent in interest, it would bring $12 billion in annual profits. There is no need to borrow.
 * "Russian Communist Chief Broadcasts a Mixed Message" in The Washington Post (10 April 1996)


 * The oligarchs who ruined the people know better than others that a new economic collapse is rapidly approaching. In order to stay in power, they decided to deceive you one more time by choosing an early election before the truth comes out.
 * "Russia: Communist Zyuganov -- Opposing The Oligarchs" in RFE/RL (3 March 2000)


 * Last time, when fascism and Nazism engulfed the whole of Europe, mankind paid the cost of 71 million lives, 27 million of which were the lives of the best sons and daughters of the great Soviet homeland.
 * "Meeting with State Duma leaders and party faction heads" in Kremlin.ru (7 July 2022)


 * On the international arena the time has come to launch a decisive political offensive against any attempts at rehabilitation of Fascism. On the international arena the Russian authorities should use all the influence our country has at international organizations to that end. In mounting anti-Fascist and anti-war movements, we propose to use the whole arsenal of bi-lateral and multi-lateral interaction with other countries, and make wide use of parliamentary and people diplomacy.
 * "Gennady Zyuganov: It Is Time To Put A Stop To Nato’s Actions To Turn Ukraine Into A Fascist State" (21 February 2022)


 * In the majority of countries today the communists are struggling opposition parties. They are in the vanguard of the resistance to the anti-people policies of big capital governments. The coronavirus pandemic merely made more evident the cannibalistic essence of the bourgeois system. Millions of people across the world have become victims of criminal “optimization” of social rights, lack of access to healthcare and mass lay-offs.
 * "The Light Of The Paris Commune" (11 June 2021)


 * Seventy-five years ago our fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers upheld the freedom and independence of the Soviet Motherland, ensured clear skies above it, and confidence of tomorrow. We, the heirs to the victorious soldiers, are called upon to defend the truth about the Great Patriotic War and the Great Victory. The forces of evil are at pains to withhold the truth from humanity, to rewrite the results of the war and to carry through Hitler’s hideous plans. The present situation is complex and worrisome. Accomplices of anti-Soviet and Russophobic forces are active inside Russia too. They dish out dirt on the heroes, besmirch their heroic deeds and deny the contribution of the Communists to the Victory. We will do all we can to expose their slanderous attempts.
 * "The Great Victory Of Soviet Socialism" (9 May 2020)


 * Lenin’s discovery has lost none of its relevance today. The features of imperialism have not gone away, and globalization has brought all the contradictions to a head. Thus, the concentration, in the hands of the monopolies, of the means of production, sources of raw materials, transport, communications, scientific and technical discoveries and skilled workers and engineers has reached an all-time high. Five hundred corporations dominate the US economy. Half of them have assets in five or more sectors. They employ 20% of the total workforce and account for 60% of profits.
 * "Lenin’s Ideological Legacy And The Struggle Of Working People For Socialism In The 21st Century" (8 April 2020)


 * The freedom that socialism gave every man and enshrined in its constitution is the freedom not to be a beggar and not to be exploited. Freedom from the fear of losing one’s job tomorrow, of being unable to pay for one’s housing, food, clothing and vital medicines. Of not being able to pay for the education and feed one’s children. Not being able to support elderly parents. A freedom to feel a full individual and not a human good sold in the labour market. A freedom that was granted to all regardless of their background, nationality or profession. To workers, peasants, scientists and artists. Only such freedom can be recognised as true freedom. Its absence makes all the other freedoms meaningless.
 * "Socialism Is Genuine Freedom" (22 November 2017)


 * Modern globalism is the highest form of imperialism. The onslaught of capital on workers’ rights is mounting fast. Imperialism is becoming more aggressive in the world and the threat of a new large-scale war is growing. The financial and economic crisis is worsening with each new wave being more grievous and painful. One side effect of the crisis is the groundswell of nationalist and separatist sentiments in contemporary Europe.
 * "Socialism Is Genuine Freedom" (22 November 2017)


 * In this struggle we are inspired by the example of those countries where staunch supporters of the socialist option are in power. They are China which has the world in awe of its spectacular successes in the economy and the social sphere. Cuba, which the US imperialism has vainly tried to strangle for six decades. The dynamically developing Vietnam. These countries challenge capitalist globalization, refuse to submit to their diktat and score successes on the socialist path. The experience of fraternal Byelorussia is highly instructive.
 * "Socialism Is Genuine Freedom" (22 November 2017)


 * Our main common task is to broaden resistance to the aggressive offensive of capitalism. To form a united front in support of the countries that come under imperialist pressure. To constantly expose the essence of capitalism which cannot exist without terrorism, wars, crises, destruction of nature and the suffering of millions.
 * "Socialism Is Genuine Freedom" (22 November 2017)


 * We are confident that the sun of socialism will again rise over Russia and the whole world. The working people will triumph.
 * "Socialism Is Genuine Freedom" (22 November 2017)

Quotes about

 * When Leninism committed suicide, essentially nothing took its place. Except "transition" and "reform." In 1983, one perceptive scholar, surveying the ostensible hollowing of Communist ideology, had predicted that Russian nationalism "could become the ruling ideology of the state." A decade later, warnings about nationalism became highly fashionable. But such prophecies went unfulfilled. To be sure, Boris Yeltsin sought to rally liberal nationalists with his campaign for Russia's rebirth, which, however, turned out to be more collapse. Hardline nationalists drifted toward the re-established, aging Communist Party, whose cynical leader, Gennady Zyuganov, had conveniently been away "on vacation" when the president bombed the parliament in October 1993, and returned to fill the void in the "opposition." A chauvinistic grouping, led by the media clown Vladimir Zhirinovsky, also garnered a limited protest vote, for a time, while a handful of avowedly fascist associations, some affiliated with the reconstituted Communists, engaged in sporadic acts of violence, most of which went unpunished. But the pundits, mesmerized by the rhetoric and confusing the existence of chaos with the possible onset of powerful dictatorship, were wrong: the much-feared red-brown (Communist-fascist) coalition failed to materialize.
 * Stephen Kotkin, Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse 1970-2000 (2008), pp. 188-189
 * Yet the death of communism in Russia had been much exaggerated. The December 1993 referendum endorsed Yeltsin’s constitutional project but only because his officials fiddled the results. Yeltsin also suffered disappointment in the simultaneous election to the State Duma. Instead of a thumping win for his supporters there was much success for the neo-fascist party of Vladimir Zhirinovski. What is more, the Constitutional Court in November 1993 had ruled the ban on the communist party invalid. Back into the legal political arena marched the communists under Gennadi Zyuganov, and they became the most influential party of opposition by the mid-1990s. Zyuganov understood that he would win over few voters if he called for the restoration of a one-party state. He repositioned the Communist Party of the Russian Federation by asserting its sympathy with that bastion of the Russian Imperial tradition, the Orthodox Church, whereas the party of Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchëv had persecuted religion as the opium of the people. Zyuganov anyway cared little for Lenin. The communist he most admired was Stalin, who had led the USSR to victory in the Second World War. Zyuganov denounced the breaking up of the Soviet Union. He and his party hymned the welfare provision available under Brezhnev. They vilified Gorbachëv and snidely fostered antisemitism. Zyuganov stood against Yeltsin in the presidential election of 1996. He was in the lead as the campaign opened but lacked the resources available to Yeltsin, who enlisted the wealthiest businessmen on his side. The communist campaign was anyway a jaded one and Zyuganov proved a distinctly uncharismatic candidate. Despite serious cardiac ill-health, Yeltsin pulled himself together for the electoral contest. He toured the country. He spent freely on political broadcasts. He disbursed budgetary largesse to local administrations. TV and print journalists focused attention on the past iniquities of communism. The result was a second presidential term for Yeltsin and the definitive trouncing of communism in Russia.
 * Robert Service, Comrades: A History of World Communism (2009)