Communist moralizing

KPRF leader Gennady Zyuganov is gearing up for the State Duma elections with the same old claims

Jesus Christ was the first communist on the planet, KPRF leader Gennady Zyuganov proclaimed during a Komsomolskaya Pravda radio broadcast on September 1. The Russian Orthodox Church replied that “it does not consider it correct and appropriate to compare the incarnation of God with any political and economic doctrines, including communism.” However, this isn’t the first time Zyuganov has referred to Jesus as a communist. Meduza discovered that Communist Party leader has been making this claim for at least 20 years — and more often than not, he brings it up ahead of parliamentary elections.

November 29, 1999 (20 days before the elections)

“The first communist was Jesus Christ, who felt sorry for the suffering, the infrim, for the sick, for the weak, and the orphaned. For which, as a matter of fact, he was crucified.”

August 31, 2011 (95 days before the elections)

“As a matter of fact, the first communist was Jesus Christ. Who did he stand up for? For the orphaned, for the poor, for the suffering. Put the Code of the Builders of Communism next to Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. Our predecessors copied from the Sermon on the Mount 100 percent.”

April 20, 2016 (151 days before the elections)

“Christ was the first communist in the new chronology. He raised his voice for the orphaned, for the suffering, for the poor, for the sick, for the needy — everyone who [was] hurt and having trouble. And in this regard, if he were alive, he would be in our [ranks].”

September 1, 2021 (16 days before the elections)

“The first communist on the planet in the new chronology was Jesus Christ. Put Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount next to the Moral Code of the Builders of Communism — [they’re] one and the same, you just gasp.”

Story by Alexander Baklanov with additional reporting by Denis Dmitriev

Translation by Eilish Hart