Gennady Zyuganov: socialist revolution possible in Russia

Gennady Zyuganov confirms that the Russian Communist Party (KPRF) is in irreconcilable opposition to the present power. The KPRF leader said this on Saturday at the 10th congress of the communist party, now underway at the Izmailovo concert hall in Moscow.

According to Mr. Zyuganov, the party will continue the struggle for "the restoration of renewed Soviet power and the socialist way of social production".

"A socialist revolution is possible in Russia", the KPRF leader declared. "The national idea must rely on the combination of scientific socialism and Russian patriotism," he added.

In his words, the communist party does not abandon the idea of a national referendum on the nationalization of natural wealth. He invited the party youth to be actively engaged.

In his 1.5-hour report the communist leader stressed that "the KPRF's main goal is the salvation of the Russian people". He spoke up for "criminal persecution for Russophobia and the misrepresentation of Russians in state bodies, the information-cultural sphere, mass media, and business".

In his speech Gennady Zyuganov developed the Marxist theoretical tenets, saying that "imperialism has now entered a new stage - globalism". According to him, "at this stage of historical development, the KPRF is now part of not only the international communist but also anti-globalist movement". He spoke up for "establishing the anti-globalist international".

Mr. Zyuganov is for "the all-round strengthening of the party and its grassroots organisations". He brought bitter criticism to bear on "the faction group of Sergei Potapov, which has done a tremendous damage to the party". "Splitters are out of place in our ranks", the KPRF leader uttered to applause.

In his opinion, "two points of view are now fighting within the party - to get infiltrated into the regime only preserving the name or to continue the struggle for socialism". "Time-servers have failed to turn the party into the channel of opportunist, collaborationist policy", he noted. Following Lenin's postulates, Gennady Zyuganov explains "the discord and vacillation in the party" by "the bourgeois and petty-bourgeois influence on the party".

The KPRF leader admitted in his report that discord and vacillation do exist in his party.

"To be or not to be - this is the party question now", Mr. Zyuganov said. And added that "the crisis in the KPRF is very much objective".

Simultaneously, the Communist leader accused the authorities of "waging all the time war of destruction against the party". Still, he believes, attempts at "depriving the party of its social and class character, taming it, making it socio-democratic have failed".

There is no split in the KPRF, Gennady Zyuganov told journalists during a break in the 10th congress.

"Almost all the party organizations are represented at this congress. Only three or four, like the Chukotka one, are absent", Mr. Zyuganov said.

The KPRF leader noted that, out of the 317 delegates, 248 are present and 24 are absent for valid excuses.

Answering a question, Mr. Zyuganov said: "oppositionists have no support in the party: none of the 18,000 primary organizations has voiced itself for removal from the post of chairman". "If they had a majority or at least influence, they would not have come to the congress", Mr. Zyuganov said to representatives of the party opposition.

The KPRF congress at the Izmailovo concert hall is being held in pitch darkness because of a power failure. Gennady Zyuganov was delivering the report by the light of two electric torches, illuminating the rostrum.

As earlier believed, the 10th congress of the KPRF would end work on Sunday night with the election of a new central committee.

KPRF deputy chairman Ivan Melnikov told RIA Novosti that the congress may close today. "We may work until midnight or 3 a.m.", he said. "The situation around the congress is no simple", he noted. "We were told that the power cable has been cut outside of Moscow. But there is light in adjacent buildings", he said.

The anti-Zyuganov congress of the KPRF, held coincidentally with the pro-Zyuganov congress, has the quorum, its press service said.

The alternative get-together is indoors and held in a secret location. Its organizers explain the secrecy by reasons of security in answer to "the war declared by Zyuganov's supporters".