Red Phoenix?

This paper focuses on providing an explanation for the behavior of a party in post-Soviet Russian politics which has been largely ignored - the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF). It concentrates on the political behavior of the CPRF from 1991 to mid-1995 by making reference to western theories of party development and behavior. In particular it focuses on the effects of both the features of the political environment facing the party and the party's internal organizational characteristics on the proximal and distal behavior of the CPRF. The `proximal' analysis deals with the nomination choices the CPRF made in the December 1993 State Duma election to the single-member electoral districts, which are compared to those of two other opposition parties participating in the election: the Agrarian Party (AP) and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The `distal' analysis then focuses on post-election developments, especially on how the results of the election affected the behavior of the CPRF regarding the government and other political parties.