Left Front (Russia)

Left Front

Левый фронт
Left Front Левый фронт
Leader	Sergei Udaltsov
Founders	Sergei Udaltsov; Anastasia Udaltsova; Geydar Dzhemal; Leonid Razvozzhayev
Founded	18 October 2008; 16 years ago
Preceded by	Vanguard of Red Youth
Headquarters	Moscow
Newspaper	Ultimatum
Ideology	Communism
Political position	Far-left
National affiliation	Opposition Coordination Council (2012–2013); National Patriotic Forces of Russia (from 2017)
Colors	Red and black
Slogan	"Another world is possible!"; ("Другой мир возможен!")
Anthem	"The Internationale"
Seats in the State Duma	1 / 450
Seats in the Federation Council	0 / 170
Party flag
Website
	www.leftfront.org
	Politics of Russia; Political parties; Elections;

The Left Front (Russian: Левый Фронт, romanized: Levyy Front) is a united front of leftist political organizations in Russia in opposition to President Vladimir Putin. It was most active in the early 2010s.

History

The first constituent congress of the Left Front was held on 18 October 2008, in Moscow. The main direction of work after the Congress was using social movements, unions, and labor collectives. The secondary focus of activists has been called "propaganda of action", in which the use of ideas and demands of leftist activists is supposed to be brought to society in the form of direct action, thus attempting to overcome the difficulties of access to media. In addition, the Left Front was the organizer of the annual summer youth camps, schools, political activists, conferences, study groups for the study of socialist thought and practice, film clubs, concerts and other activities.^[2]^[3]^[4]

In total, over one and a half years (summer 2008 – autumn 2009), there have been more than 40 regional conferences, established under the areas of the country offices of the front.^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]

Actions

The Left Front organizes a variety of authorized and unauthorized actions, rallies, and marches. The most famous of the promotions are meetings under the title "Day of Wrath", which is hosted by the organization in Moscow and in other regions of the country. In addition, the Left Front, together with its allies, despite a governmental ban conduct actions under the name of "anti-capitalism", which aims, according to organizers, to show the public presence of political forces of anti-capitalist orientation.^[10]

Position on the war in Donbas

The Left Front has declared its position against the War in Donbas and urged a ceasefire in 2014.

The fourth congress of the movement took place in Moscow on 23 August 2014. The delegates elected the new executive committee. No supporters of the pro-Russian republics were elected. However, ex-coordinator of the Left Front on organizational work and supporter of the pro-Russian Novorossiya confederation, Sergei Udaltsov, was elected to the executive branch of the movement by one vote. The congress also accepted a resolution declaring a "War against war!". The Donetsk People's Republic's representative to Russia, Darya Mitina, left the organization following the resolution.^[11]

The resolution read "We need the campaign for peace. Against the bloodshed and the mass selling of blood. This campaign shouldn't be the support of the war in the back areas of the 'opponent'. Being against the military operation of the Kiev government doesn't mean supporting Putin and Strelkov. Being against Putin doesn't mean supporting Kiev government military operation. People need a campaign for peace against the greedy and cruel politicians and oligarchs, making profit of the others' grief."^[12]

However, the party support the war against Ukraine after the Russian's full-scale invasion in 2022.^[13]

Structure

The highest governing body of the Left Front is the Congress. The Council of the Left Front carries out the current leadership of the movement, and the executive committee is an operational working body of the organization.^[12]