Background of this meme’s creation:

Kyle:

Hello Andrey! With the anniversary of the war, Americans are once again asking if they should support the KPRF. Do you know of any sources that discuss their ties with oligarchs and other opportunist behaviors?

Arguing “what is an imperialist” war is useless against most people here, but showing that the KPRF isn’t a communist party is much more effective.

I have compiled most of our previous links here: https://kylecommunist.com/kyle/kyles-opinions-on-ukraine

Andrey:

Hi. I am at work today, and I don’t have too much time, but, speaking of the KPRF, as I think, most Russians interested in politics would agree that only those who are unfamiliar with our situation with parliamentary parties might think of the party as a communist one. In my view, it is impossible take our "parliamentary opposition" seriously, therefore most leftists here even do not try to discuss their ties with oligarchs, because it is just another version of United Russia with the red flag. The best known example of their ties with capitalists is their candidate for the 2018 presidential elections Pavel Grudinin. His financial situation is described in the Russian article about him (although there's an English article, too) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavel_Grudinin

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Грудинин,_Павел_Николаевич Those who think that it is a communist party, may visit their official website or their YouTube channel to get idea of what this party really is.

It never occurs to anyone to consider them real communists, so no one discusses their ties. XD

…

Hello Kyle! I have not seen any messages to you because I tried to find anything related to to the KPRF and its leader Zyuganov. IMHO, attempts to find any ties with oligarchs would not be the most successful approach. Real big oligarchs are connected either with United Russia or with foreign organizations, as I think. In Russia, there are not so many different clans of oligarchs. Most of them sell raw materials (oil, gas and metals) , therefore they have mostly the same interests and such a competition of different "elites" as in the US does not exist. This is the reason why they do not need big number of different parties, competing media goups, etc. Besides, the main source of negative information about the KPRF and their ties is United Russia and our state-allied media (it is necessary to keep this party under control). It would be much better to prove that in reality the KPRF is not a communist party. It is enough to take a look at their site and YT channel: it is difficult to find something related to Marxist theory there. As I heard, being a parliamentary party, they receive a lot of money from the state, but they do not try to organize any Marxist circles, do not make any videos about Marxism (for example, about dialectical materialism, historical materialism, etc). People vote for this party just to show that they are not satisfied with our current policy and have positive opinion about socialism and the Soviet period in particular. I found a short excerpt from an interview with Zyuganov, where he refused to talk about Marxism with the journalist. As for the journalist, Maxim Shevchenko, he considers himself a communist (if I am not mistaken), but it looks like he knows nothing about our leftist bloggers. The KPRF seems to be the only communist organization he has ever heard of. It will take a time to make a transcript (there are no subs), but, in a nutshell, Zyuganov says that Lenin "saved the Empire", China "successfully combine state and private property, and planned and free-market economy", it makes no sense to discuss Marx because "we have to move forward". Besides, yesterday our male nurse who was conscripted soon after mobilization had been announced made a video call to those who work at his (surgical) department. It turns out that he is ill now, and their commanders "dismissed" them to stay in the houses abandoned by local people who fled to the territory controlled by the Ukrainian government. As for the surgeon, he told me, that in the village where he was born 12 people were conscripted (as he said, there were 600 people in total). Some of them were killed, one of them lost his leg and his arm. It seems like our authorities conscripted mostly the poorest people in the countryside. For example, here, in the city, this male nurse is the only conscripted man I know personally. Their motivation has nothing to do with "patriotism", "chauvinism", etc. They have no money to leave the place where they live, and the families of those who were killed in action receive 10 000 000 roubles ( disabled can get 2 000 000). In short, the choice is not that great: either to be imprisoned, or to get a chance to die for 10 mln roubles).

Some links related to the KPRF : "Communist Party leader G.A. Zyuganov sent a message of congratulations to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the restoration of the Patriarchate." https://kprf.ru/party-live/cknews/171095.html

How red Putinists supported the special operation in Ukraine (Vestnik Buri) https://youtu.be/BxeQVYnMme8

Klim Zhukov: "Grudinin is not a rival to Putin, our people simply don't know him" (2018 election campaign) : https://www.nationaljournal.ru/articles/2018-01-29/zhukov/4188/

Sergei Gavrilov [*a Deputy of the State Duma representing the KPRF] was approved as a member of the Board of the International Public Organization "Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society" https://kprf.ru/dep/gosduma/activities/165930.html

Kyle:

Wow. The story of the male nurse is very sad. I think these are some of the stories that need to make their way to America. American communists are convinced that Russian citizens are laying down their lives in service to Socialism much like the great patriotic war. In fact, I think this is exactly their fantasy. They wish that there was a strong man to lead them, so they put that mantle on Putin’s. They insist the Russian army is doing good by invading another country. Mostly, I think they want to support any opposition to America. But they are missing the most important lessons from Lenin: these people want proletarians to take up arms against each other. They will not see this so boldly, I don’t even think they realize what they are saying. But if actually if you were supporting a war against the workers of one country by the workers of another country, that is opportunism.

This is why it is so difficult to explain to them that the KPRF is not a communist party: their want to believe overrides logical and physical evidence. 🙁

In my opinion, Putin using the KPRF to put forward the motion to go into Donbas was the smartest, most tactical ploy to create disharmony in the west. And even if it wasn’t intentional, the effect has worked to create conflict.

Many US communists call me a traitor for supporting an international proletarian front. This is where I worry that they are role-playing a Stalin power fantasy from the 1940s. They see people working beyond borders as Trotskyism. But this fails to account for the fact that our elite now works beyond borders as well.

I noticed that Russian Comrades are much more excited to work internationally.

I struggle to understand what US communists are fighting for if they will not support an international proletariat movement. In truth, I think they crave the conservative values espoused by the Russian government. That is the subtext I see, at least. They seem willing to twist Marx and Lenin’s words to suit their ambitions.

I wish I could say that these are conservative elements within America, but these are relatively progressive people choosing to support Putin. That makes me further believe they see the Russian people as pawns in a chess game. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Just yesterday, I was called a Trotskyist by someone from Chile. They were upset that I said Americans and Russian people need to work together against our mutual bourgeois elements. In conclusion, they were upset that I said the proletariat needs to work together to fight the bourgeoisie. I don’t know what that person hopes to achieve if their goal is not to defeat the bourgeoisie? XD

Andrey:

What is remarkable is that Trotsky was a so-called "defensist" during WWI, whereas Stalin was in line with Lenin and opposed the war.))) The problem of many American communists is that they don't trust American media (and I agree with them), but consider our media ( a reliable source. ( Sorry, the battery is empty

Kyle:

You are very, very correct with the last line - they condemn one capitalist controlled media while praising another 😂

Thank you of the chat! Good night! Talk to you later!

Andrey:

I agree with you regarding the way Putin used the KPRF. I am sure it was not their own initiative, and he showed that they do what they ordered to. He compromised them and let United Russia look "not guilty". As for those American communists who supported the KPRF, in my view, people like simple solutions. It is much easier to support someone else than to think independently. Therefore people like leaders, "Fathers of peoples/of the Nation", etc. I recalled a story (probably, it is just a legend). Once Stalin told his son Vasily, pointing to one of the ceremonial portraits: "Do you think that you are Stalin? Or that I am Stalin? No! Here he is, Stalin!" Even liberals, despite their cult of individualism, like to create their own leaders, idols, such as popular bloggers, liberal politologists, journalists and so on. I translated the short excerpt from the interview with Zyuganov I told you about. You may think that some Zyuganov's explanations were intentionally omitted in that clip, but I watched the whole one-hour long interview, and that was really everything he said about Marxism. The only thing that might be interesting is his positive opinion about the situation in China (how Chinese capital is protected, etc).

Kyle:

Well said!

By the way, we use this meme in the US to show how the Democratic Party fakes leftism. That is to say most Americans refuse to see a difference between a liberal and a communist.

Do you think this meme might also reflect the effects of the KRPF and United Russia?

I have mentioned this concept loosely on stream when making a comparison, saying “the KRPF is to Russian communists as the Democratic Party is to American Communists.” But I’m curious if you might agree or not))

Keep in mind, this is not a 1:1 comparison, so much as a quick rebuttal. There is of course a level of nuance)

Andrey:

As for the role of the KPRF, indeed, it makes people think that its members are real communists, so, for a lot of people, to be a communists means to share the KPRF members' views.

I would say a little differently (the infographic) Democrats/KPRF lead us away from the path to a better future, conservatives lead us into the (dark) past. I am afraid, many people are not enough politically educated to use this terminology. That is, Демократы уводят с пути в лучшее будущее, республиканцы ведут нас в (темное) прошлое. КПРФ уводит с пути в лучшее будущее, Единая Россия ведет нас в прошлое. The word (темное) is optional.

The translation "эффект храповика" is correct, and everything you wrote is grammatically correct, but уводит вправо sounds better that двигает все вправо.

Ratchet Effect

Background of this meme’s creation:

Kyle:

Andrey:

Kyle:

Andrey:

Kyle:

Andrey:

Kyle:

Andrey: