James Marson, Wall Street Journal: Russian Communists Rebrand to Attract Young Supporters
As parliamentary elections loom, party reimagines Lenin, Marx in a modern context.
MOSCOW—Vladimir Lenin is getting a makeover.
The Bolshevik leader, clad in jeans and clutching a laptop, is cutting a youthful figure on posters and in campaign pamphlets for the opposition Communist Party of the Russian Federation, ahead of parliamentary elections here Sunday.
It is all part of the party’s latest revolution. For years a shrinking haven for retirees nostalgic for the Soviet past, the party of the proletariat is appealing to young voters by rejuvenating its image. Other campaign literature features Joseph Stalin smoking an e-cigarette and Karl Marx wearing a leather jacket and declaring: “I’ll be back.”
“We need to speak in a language that the modern voter understands, to reflect the times we live in,” said Igor Petrygin-Rodionov, the artist behind the revamped images. “The proletariat is no longer just someone with a hammer; it can also be a computer programmer.”
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WNU Editor: They are not going to succeed. The youth of Russia have a different view of the world than my generation .... and they do not give a hoot if you put Karl Marx in jeans to make him look "cool". And as for the above poll that says that 15% will vote for the Communist Party .... I say it is about right. But it is a very soft vote, and most of this support comes from pensioners and those who are in their fifties.
3 comments:
The most interesting thing about the Communist Party today is how capitalist it is. I keep seeing stuff about it reaching out to the small businessman (billboard advertisements and so on aimed specifically at them, etc.), and I also remember reading a relatively recent interview in which Boris Titov complained that many of that demographic lean communist. Rather funny, that.
As for the youth vote, I'll grant you that they won't get a lot of it. I know some young communists (including one who studied in America), but in a country this big you're bound to find all sorts of people so that doesn't mean much.
I do not think this can work, if it is only images.
To talk to modern youngster, I think is needed more synthesis in theories and analysis and a direct confront with real history.
The Communists keep speaking to the masses. When will they start listening again?
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