Russian Communist Party to use image of Stalin in State Duma pre-election campaign

The Russian Communist Party (CP) intends to use the image of Joseph Stalin in its pre-election campaign for parliamentary seats in Russia's State Duma, says the CP secretary for information analytics and election technologies, Sergei Obukhov.

The image of Stalin will help attract additional voters from outside of the “nuclear era electorate,” said Obukhov.

CP deputy chairman for ideology Dmitry Novikov says the communists' pre-election program will offer the prospect of “a new industrialization, employing Stalinist experience.”

“[Obukhov] does not rule out the possibility that ‘other players, including the ruling party,’ will use [the image of Joseph Stalin] in their campaigns, too.”

Regional CP offices have used the image of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin on various occasions. Most recently, Russia's CP paid for billboards stamped with a large portrait of Stalin to be installed across the Siberian city of Novosibirsk.