Communist Party of Ukraine

This article is about the party founded in 1993. For the banned party which existed from 1918 to 1991 and ruled the Ukrainian SSR, see Communist Party of Ukraine (Soviet Union).
Not to be confused with Ukrainian Communist Party or Ukrainian Communist Party (Borotbists).

Communist Party of Ukraine
Ukrainian nameКомуністична партія України
Russian nameКоммунистическая партия Украины
AbbreviationKPU / КПУ
First SecretaryPetro Symonenko
Second SecretaryIgor Alekseyev
Founded19 June 1993 (1993-06-19)
Banned16 December 2015 (banned in court)
6 July 2022 (ban upheld in court)
Split fromSocialist Party of Ukraine
Preceded byCommunist Party of Ukraine (Soviet Union)
NewspaperKomunist (since 2000)[1]
Youth wingKomsomol of Ukraine
Membership (2001)140,000[2][needs update]
IdeologyCommunism[3]
Marxism–Leninism[3]
Left-wing populism[4]
Soviet patriotism
Russophilia[5]
Social conservatism[6]
Political positionFar-left
National affiliationLeft Opposition
Continental affiliationUCP–CPSU
International affiliationIMCWP
Colors  Red
Website
kpu.ua (archived)
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The Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU or KPU)[a] is a banned political party in Ukraine. It was founded in 1993 and claimed to be the successor to the Soviet-era Communist Party of Ukraine, which had been banned in 1991.[7] In 2002 it held a "unification" congress when both "old and new" parties merged.[8] The party is a member of the Moscow-based Union of Communist Parties, an umbrella organisation for all communist parties of the former Soviet Union. The party has been led by Petro Symonenko since it was founded.[9][5]

Communist parties have a long history in Ukraine. With the fall of the Soviet Union, members of the Soviet-era Communist Party of Ukraine formed the Socialist Party of Ukraine. After being revived in 1993, the Communist Party was represented in the Ukrainian parliament from 1994 until the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election, which ended a period of parliamentary representation for communists stretching back to 1918.[10][11] The Communist Party and its predecessor were the largest party in Ukrainian parliamentary elections for the first eight years of free and fair election, from 1990 until 1998.

According to Ukrainian sociologist Volodymyr Ishchenko, by the 2010s the party had "degenerated into a conservative and pro-Russian rather than pro-working class grouping, gradually losing its voters and membership".[5]

During the 2013–2014 Euromaidan protests, the party voted for anti-protest laws. However, it also voted to remove President Viktor Yanukovych from office in the Revolution of Dignity. During the Russian-Ukrainian conflict which followed, the Security Service of Ukraine said the party was actively helping pro-Russian separatists and Russian proxy forces, which it denied.[12] Regional party cells formed the pro-separatist Communist Party of the Donetsk People's Republic. In May 2015, Ukraine banned Soviet communist symbols.[13] Because of these laws, and the Communist Party's support for Donbas separatists, the party was barred from standing in elections.[14][15] In December 2015, the Communist Party was banned, for actions "aimed at violating Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, collaboration with Russian proxy forces, and inciting ethnic hatred".[16][17] The party appealed the ban to the European Court of Human Rights and various Ukrainian courts, and participated in some elections by joining umbrella groups and running candidates as independents.[18][5][19] The Central Election Commission of Ukraine prohibited Symonenko's candidacy for the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election.[20]

Party officials reportedly supported the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[21] As a result, its ban was upheld and its assets were seized by the state in July 2022.[22]

  1. ^ Official website. Komunist newspaper.
  2. ^ "The Power of the Left in Ukraine | Wilson Center". www.wilsoncenter.org.
  3. ^ a b Nordsieck, Wolfram (2014). "Ukraine". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
  4. ^ "Populism in Ukraine in a Comparative European Context (in English)" (PDF). Problems of Post-Communism, vol. 57, no. 6, pp. 3–18. November–December 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 May 2014. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
  5. ^ a b c d Ishchenko, Volodymyr (18 December 2015). "Kiev has a nasty case of anti-communist hysteria". The Guardian. Ukraine's Communist party was the most popular political group in the country during market reforms in the 1990s, but has since degenerated into a conservative and pro-Russian rather than pro-working class grouping, gradually losing its voters and elderly membership{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  6. ^ Gorbach, Denys (8 January 2016). "After the ban: a short history of Ukraine's Communist Party". openDemocracy. Leaving actual class analysis by the wayside, it claims to defend the interests of the 'people' against the 'oligarchs', yet combines this rhetoric with social conservatism (death penalty, pro-natalism and persecution of LGBT people){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  7. ^ The Communist Party of Ukraine statute (Статут Комуністичної партії України) Archived 14 February 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Communist Party of Ukraine (www.kpu.ua)
  8. ^ Президент Украины Леонид Кучма, бывший президент Леонид Кравчук и эск-спикер парламента Иван Плющ исключены из рядов Компартии Украины. RIA Novosti. 27 May 2002
  9. ^ (in Ukrainian) European Court began reviewing complaints about the ban of the Communist Party, Ukrainska Pravda, (30 December 2016)
    Ukraine court bans Communist Party, Daily News and Analysis (17 Dec 2015)
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference ddcad was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ General official results of Rada election, Interfax-Ukraine (11 November 2014)
    Central Election Commission announces official results of Rada election on party tickets, Interfax-Ukraine (11 November 2014)
  12. ^ "Ukraine Communists deny financing terrorism, accuse Security Service chief of lying". Kyiv Post. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  13. ^ "Ukraine bans Soviet symbols and criminalises sympathy for communism". The Guardian. 21 May 2015. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
  14. ^ Ukraine's Justice Ministry outlaws Communists from elections, Kyiv Post (24 July 2015).
  15. ^ Justice Ministry bans three communist parties from taking part in election process as they violate Ukrainian law – minister, Interfax-Ukraine (24 July 2015)
  16. ^ "Court rules complete ban of Communist Party of Ukraine". www.unian.info.
  17. ^ "Ukraine bans Communist party for 'promoting separatism'". the Guardian. 17 December 2015.
  18. ^ "The European Court has begun consideration of a complaint against the KPU's ban". Ukrainska Pravda. 30 December 2016.
  19. ^ "Ukraine court bans Communist Party". Daily News & Analysis. 17 December 2015.
  20. ^ (in Ukrainian) The CEC refused to register nearly fifty presidential candidates, Ukrainska Pravda (8 February 2019)
  21. ^ Roschina, Olena (11 August 2023). "Ukraine's Security Service serves leader of banned Communist party with notice of suspicion and describes his escape to Russia". Ukrainska Pravda.
  22. ^ (in Russian) А куда пропал Петр Симоненко? Оккупанты помогли ему выехать, Obozrevatel (12 May 2022)


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