Украинада тыйым салынған Коммунистік партия

Banned political party in Ukraine
the party founded in 1993

The Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU or KPU) 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. In 2002 it held a "unification" congress when both "old and new" parties merged. 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. 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". Regional party cells formed the pro separatist Communist Party of the Donetsk People's Republic. In May 2015, Ukraine banned Soviet communist symbols. Because of these laws, and the Communist Party's support for Donbas separatists, the party was barred from standing in elections. 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". 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. The Central Election Commission of Ukraine prohibited Symonenko's candidacy for the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election. Party officials reportedly supported the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. As a result, its ban was upheld and its assets were seized by the state in July 2022.

The KPU considers itself to be the direct successor to the original Communist Party of Ukraine, a branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) which was founded on 5 July 1918 in Moscow. The original communist party existed until 30 August 1991, when the CPSU and its branch in Ukraine were banned. Between 1991 and 1993, several small communist organizations were created throughout Ukraine. "Without clear legality", communists from all over Ukraine convened on 6 March 1993 for the All Ukrainian Conference for Communists in an attempt to reestablish the KPU. In reaction, the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) legalized the establishment of communist parties two months later. On 19 June 1993, the 1st Congress of the newly founded KPU was convened. Officially, it was designated as the 29th Congress to denote it as a direct successor to the Soviet KPU and it elected Petro Symonenko as First Secretary. In the 1994 presidential election, the KPU supported the candidacy of Oleksandr Moroz from the Socialist Party of Ukraine (SPU). The relationship between the KPU and SPU was strong throughout the 1990s, with Moroz even speaking to the 22nd KPU Congress (held in 1999). In the 1998 Ukrainian parliamentary election the party gained 24.65% The KPU argued that the creation of parties was encouraged by President Leonid Kuchma in order to syphon votes away from their party. The Constitutional Court of Ukraine recognized in 2001 that the ban on the Communist Party of Ukraine violated the Constitution of Ukraine. At the parliamentary election on 30 March 2002, the party won 19.98% The first ten members on the party list were Petro Symonenko (MP), Adam Martynyuk (MP), Ivan Herasymov (MP), Kateryna Samoilyk (MP), Omelian Parubok (MP), Valeria Zaklunna Myronenko (MP), Oleksandr Holub (MP), Valentyn Matvyeyev (MP), Oleksandr Tkachenko (MP) and Petro Tsybenko (MP). No later than 2006, the Communist Party office in Donetsk on regular basis provided material and logistical assistance to the separatist organization Donetsk Republic (banned in 2007) which with the assistance of the Communist Party was spreading printed information materials of separatist orientation in authorship of the ideologist of Donetsk internationalism Dmitriy Kornilov as well as by collecting signatures for "independence of Donbass" agitated for violation of territorial integrity of Ukraine through seceding several oblasts of Ukraine from Ukraine and uniting them into one quasi state formation based on Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson "republics". Even after the Donetsk Republic Party was banned for separatism on 6 November 2007 by the Donetsk district administrative court on the suit of the Chief Justice Administration of Donetsk Oblast based on materials of the Security Service of Ukraine, the Donetsk branch of Communists did not cease to assists separatists with its tents and printing capabilities periodically conducting joint campaigns with them. The party participated in the 2010 presidential election as part of the Election bloc of left and central left political forces. On 28 November 2006, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted the Law of Ukraine "About 1932–1933 Holodomor in Ukraine". The first article of the document states: "The Holodomor is a genocide against the Ukrainian people". The court found Stalin and others guilty of indirectly committing the crime. Members of the Communist Party were criticized for hindering journalist activity and cursing at protesters during the event. In the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the party won 13.18% of the national votes and no constituencies (it had competed in 220 of the 225 constituencies) and thus 32 seats. The party did win about one and a half million more votes compared with the results of the previous election. Independent candidate Oksana Kaletnyk joined the Communist parliamentary faction on 12 December 2012. Importance of Kaletnyk joining the Communists was due to parliamentary regulations on obtaining its own parliamentary factions which required to have at least one deputy who came to parliament by winning a constituency. Oleh Tyahnybok tried to challenge the creation of Communist faction, but on 30 January 2013 the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine declined his petition. Kaletnyk left the faction (at her own request) on 29 May 2014. The first ten members on the party list were Petro Symonenko (MP), Petro Tsybenko (MP), Iryna Spirina (Head of Psychiatric Department (Dnipropetrovsk Medical Academy)), Spiridon Kilinkarov (MP), Oleksandr Prysyazhnyuk (unemployed), Ihor Aleksyeyev (MP), Ihor Kalyetnik (Head of the State Customs Service of Ukraine), Adam Martynyuk (1st deputy Chairman of parliament), Valentyn Matvyeyev (MP) and Yevhen Marmazov (MP). In 2007 and 2012, the electorate of the party was estimated to be very loyal to the party. The party supported the vote of Mykola Azarov's candidacy for the post of Prime Minister that created the Second Azarov government. The government continued to negotiate with the European Union for Ukraine's integration in the European Union while (according to President Yanukovych) it was also in negotiations with Russia to "find the right model" for cooperation with the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia.

From November 2013 until February 2014, there were large protests throughout Ukraine. They were sparked by President Yanukovych's sudden decision not to sign the political association and free trade agreement with the EU, instead choosing closer ties to Russia. The Communist Party of Ukraine opposed the protests, but did not support Yanukovych. In January 2014 the party supported the draconian Anti protest laws that severely restricted freedom of speech and the right to protest. In January and February 2014, clashes in Kyiv between protesters and Berkut special riot police resulted in the deaths of 108 protesters and 13 police officers. On 22 February 2014, Ukraine's parliament voted 328–0 (about 73% of the parliament's 450 members) to remove Yanukovych from his post and to schedule an early presidential election for 25 May. However, the party did vote to remove Yanukovych. On 11 April, there was a scuffle in the Verkhovna Rada between KPU leader Petro Symonenko and two MPs from the far right "Svoboda" party, after Symonenko blamed them for the Russian annexation of Crimea and the pro Russian unrest. After repeatedly calling for calm, the parliament chairman suspended the session for fifteen minutes. On 6 May, a majority of MPs voted to expel the Communist Party from the parliamentary session hall for making a pro separatist declaration. In the 2014 Ukrainian presidential election, Symonenko initially again ran as a candidate of his party, but he withdrew from the race on 16 May. The Central Election Commission was unable to remove his name from the ballot because he withdrew from the race after the deadline of 1 May. In the election, he received 1.5% of the vote. On 8 July, the Ministry of Justice asked Kyiv's District Administrative Court to ban the activity of the party as a result of "a large amount of evidence regarding illegal activities and illegal actions on the part of the Communist Party" (according to Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko). The Party of the European Left and the European United Left–Nordic Green Left grouping in the European Parliament condemned the possible ban and declared their solidarity with the KPU. Russia's State Duma denounced the ban too and said it was "an attempt by the new Kyiv authorities to force political and civil forces that do not agree with the path taken by the ultranationalist powers to shut up". On 1 July, six MPs left the Communist Party faction in parliament, reducing it to 23 members. On 22 July, a vote supported by 232 MPs gave the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (the speaker of Ukraine's parliament) the power to dissolve a faction that has lost some of its members compared to the number it had while it was formed during the first parliamentary session after the previous election, pending a signature from President Petro Poroshenko. Later that day, Poroshenko signed this bill, giving effect to this new parliamentary regulation. Communist Party members were accused of openly supporting the Russian annexation of Crimea, supporting the breakaway Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic, and agitating for Russian annexation of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. The October 2014 parliamentary election further marginalized the party as it won no constituency seats and came 1.12% short of reaching the 5% election threshold. This meant that for the first time since 1918, Communists were not represented in Ukrainian national politics. The first ten members on the party list for the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election were Petro Symonenko (MP), Adam Martynyuk (MP), Kateryna Samoylyk (senior), Vasyl Sirenko (Koretsky Institute of State and Law, non partisan), Petro Tsybenko (MP), Ihor Aleksyeyev (MP), Serhiy Hordiyenko (MP), Yevhen Marmazov (MP), Spiridon Kilinkarov (MP) and Serhiy Khrapov (unemployed). In May 2015, laws that banned Soviet communist symbols (the so called "decommunization laws") came into effect in Ukraine, meaning that the party could not use communist symbols or sing the Soviet national hymn or "The Internationale". However, the Communist Party was not banned because it had filed an appeal against the Justice Ministry's decree on its activity termination. According to the Interior Ministry, this was legal as long as the new party did not use communist symbols. On 1 August, it elected a new leader Oleh Melnyk. The court suspended the appeal for the time being until the Constitutional Court determines the legitimacy of the law on decommunization. Nevertheless, the party appealed its ban at the European Court of Human Rights. The party still sends in its required financial reports and is still listed on the website of the Ministry of Justice and the website of the Department of State Registration and Notary. In February 2019, the Central Election Commission of Ukraine refused to register the candidacy of Symonenko for the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election due to the fact that the statute, name and symbolism of the Communist Party did not comply with the 2015 decommunization laws. According to a Kyiv Polytechnic professor, who published an article in The Guardian, the party came into conflict with the Ukrainian government after the Revolution of Dignity due to prominent displays of support for ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych during the Euromaidan protests and alleged involvement with the separatist movement in Donbas as well as the party's pro Russian government agenda. Two days after the Ukrainian parliament changed its regulations regarding the required size of parliamentary groups, the Communist Party faction was dissolved on 24 July 2014. According to political scientist Tadeusz A. Olszański, the party "effectively supports the separatist rebellion" during the Russo Ukrainian War. Explaining the withdrawal of the status of political party from the KPU and two of its satellites, the secretary of state security and defense Oleksandr Turchynov stated in July 2015 that the Communist Party took a treacherous position from the very first days of Russian aggression and acted as its Fifth Column.

On 6 July 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the KPU was again banned after a Lviv court ruling which turned over all its assets, including party buildings and funds, to the Ukrainian state. In a statement, the Eighth Administrative Appeal Court said that it had satisfied the claims of the Ministry of Justice and ordered the party's banning. "The activity of the Communist Party of Ukraine is prohibited; the property, funds and other assets of the party, its regional, city, district organisations, primary centres and other structural entities have been transferred to the state." During the Russian invasion, the party was reported to have taken a pro Russian stance, and the party's leader Petro Symonenko in March had fled to Belarus with the assistance of Russian forces during the Kyiv offensive. In August 2023, the Security Service of Ukraine opened an investigation against him on the charges of sedition and treason.

In its statute, the Communist Party claims that "on voluntary basis it unites citizens of Ukraine who are supporters of the Communist idea". The party considers itself a successor of the Communist Party of Ukraine of the Soviet Union and calls itself a "battle detachment of RKP(b)–VKP(b)–KPSS".

At least in the beginning, the party is best described as Soviet patriotic. As Yurii Solomatin, a member of parliament, noted in 2000, "we are Soviet communists; we are Soviet people; we are Soviet patriots". The party continues speaking about the existence of a "Soviet people" and "Soviet homeland" and at the beginning no concessions were given to local Ukrainian nationalism. There has been no talk of establishing a national communism unique to Ukraine and the 1st KPU Congress even criticized the notion of establishing a unique "Ukrainian communism". Instead, the KPU has opted promoting Ukraine as a "bi cultural state". At the 1st KPU Congress, Symonenko told the delegates that "'the interests, rights and specific traits of one nation above those of other nations and nationalities', and in which 'the Ukrainian language' should not be 'over' privileged, but left alone to enjoy 'its natural development, purged of the imposed language of the diaspora. The Russian language, as the native language of half the population of Ukraine, [should be given] the status of a state language alongside Ukrainian". Their views on patriotism is highly nostalgic. When the Union of Communist Parties – Communist Party of the Soviet Union (UCP–CPSU), a loose organization of post Soviet parties was formed, it was met with open arms. However, when the Communist Party of the Russian Federation proposed in 1995 to transform the organization into a modern day Comintern, the KPU opposed because of their Soviet patriotic views. In recent years, their commitment to Soviet patriotism has been partially replaced with a vaguer Eurasianism. Wishing not to reestablish a union with Russia "as a protectorate of the Russian bourgeoisie", "the Ukrainian Communists have rediscovered the natural link from Soviet to East Slavic or Eurasian nationalism in the supposed common 'economic civilization' and proclivity for collective labour of all the East Slavic peoples". As noted in the party journal Communist, the "'Soviet man did not emerge from nothing before him stood the courageous Slavic Rusich, the labour loving Ukrainian peasant, the self sacrificing Cossack". At the 4th KPU Congress, the party conceded that Ukraine would not join any particular union as long as it weakened the country's sovereignty. At the same time, Petro Symonenko publicly backed Ukraine's membership in the Eurasian Customs Union. Symonenko has often been referred to as a Ukrainophobe. Symonenko made controversy in 2007 when he accused the Ukrainian nationalist figure Roman Shukhevych of receiving two Iron Crosses from Adolf Hitler. Shukhevych's kids submitted a lawsuit against Symonenko in response. The Pechersk District Court of Kyiv city declared that Symonenko failed to present any proof of his claim and obligated "to refute the false information he spread about Roman Shukhevych at the next plenary session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine after the court's decision enters into force".

Writing on The Guardian, Ukrainian sociologist Volodymyr Ishchenko described the KPU as a "conservative and pro Russian group", whose leaders "became a part of the bourgeois elite and invited business support for their cause", pointing out that the richest deputy of the 7th Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada (Oksana Kaletnik) was a member of the Communist faction. Thus, according to Ishchenko "the only things the party has in common with the determined Bolshevik revolutionaries of the past who spared neither themselves nor others are devotion to the Soviet symbols and appeals to empty 'Marxist Leninist' phrases". The article was widely condemned as racist.

+ Verkhovna Rada Year Party list Constituency/total Overall seats won Seat change Government Popular vote % Seats/total19943,683,33213.6%86/450 8619986,550,35325.4%84/22527/225 35Minority support20025,178,07420.8%59/2257/225 552006929,5913.7%21/450N/A 4520071,257,2915.4%27/450N/A 620122,687,24613.2%32/225–/225 5Minority support2014608,7563.87%–/225–/198 322019Registration denied –/225 –/198

Presidency of UkraineElection yearCandidateFirst roundSecond roundNo. ofoverall votes% ofoverall voteNo. ofoverall votes% ofoverall vote1994Oleksandr Moroz (endorsed by the CPU)3,466,54113.31999Petro Symonenko5,849,07723.110,665,42038.82004Petro Symonenko1,396,1355.02010Petro Symonenko872,8773.52014Petro Symonenko272,7231.52019Petro SymonenkoRegistration denied