ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explains about the evolution of the communist movement in the Russian Federation from the last years of the U.S.S.R.’s existence through Russia’s presidential elections of June–July 1996, when the chief contenders were the incumbent president, Boris N. Yeltsin, and his communist challenger, Gennadii A. Ziuganov. It examines in particular the theoretical positions and political strategy of the CPRF chairman, Gennadii Ziuganov, whose writings have led some in the West to view him as a potential “national Bolshevik,” or fascist. The book focuses on the party that would soon become the most important communist organization in post-Soviet Russia. It addresses the escalating tensions between the executive and legislative branches of government during 1992 and the first half of 1993, which culminated in Yeltsin’s dissolution of the Russian Congress of People’s Deputies and the bloody clash that followed.
