COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE PROGRAM GUIDELINESOF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATIONAND THE PARTY “COMMUNISTS OF RUSSIA”IN TERMS OF IDEOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES

The article presents a comparative analysis of the policy documents of two contemporary communist parties in Russia — the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) and the Communists of Russia. The study aims to identify the fundamental ideological differences between these political actors in their understanding of the theoretical foundations and practical tasks of the communist movement at the present stage. The methodological basis of the research consists of a comparative analysis of the parties’ programs, employing problem-chronological, systemic, and structural-functional approaches. The analysis reveals significant divergences between the CPRF and the Communists of Russia in their interpretations of the historical experience of socialism in the USSR, the causes of the crisis and collapse of the Soviet state, the nature of contemporary Russian society, as well as the driving forces, methods, and stages of socialist transformation. It is established that while the CPRF leans toward a more moderate and gradual strategy of socialist transformation within the framework of a mixed economy and parliamentary democracy, the Communists of Russia consistently advocate for a radical course based on proletarian revolution and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The study concludes that there exist objective ideological, theoretical, and political differences within the Russian communist movement, reflecting a real differentiation among communist forces, despite the clear dominance of the CPRF as the leading left-wing party.