"The Communist Party was in control of 80 per cent of the Left electorate a mere five years ago. It is a mere third now. A major portion has shifted under the impact of the Rodina, Agrarians, Pensioners' Party and other pseudo-parties which are profiteering on Left rhetoric," he said to his party's Central Committee plenary session, underway in the Moscow environs.
Zyuganov came strongly down on the Communist staff and activists to describe them as "slack and moth-eaten". "The Communist Party has not learned to this day how to work in the current situation-and many hate to learn," he snapped.
The power race is dominating the Left-oriented public mind to the detriment of Left protest, pointed out the leader as he called to "transform Left hope into Left protest".
As for present-day Communist tactics, the way he sees them, Zyuganov thinks his party ought to join hands in certain fields with Liberals. "They are opposing the regime-but they are inconsistent and half-hearted about it," he remarked. The Communist stance on Liberals is to follow the motto, "Walk apart, attack together," which allegedly belongs to Lenin. "The Communist Party will never degrade into Liberals' flunkeys," he stressed.
"Now is the time to stop whining. Let us no longer bewail the Russian soul on its deathbed-it is high time to pray for its convalescence," called Zyuganov, adding a pious metaphor to his atheist party's action programme.
