— Ch. 1 · Founding And Early Years —
Communist Party of Ukraine.
~5 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
On the 6th of March 1993, communists from across Ukraine gathered in Makiivka for an All-Ukrainian Conference. This meeting marked the reestablishment of the Communist Party of Ukraine after its predecessor had been banned on the 30th of August 1991. The Verkhovna Rada legalized these new communist parties two months later. Petro Symonenko was elected First Secretary at the 1st Congress held on the 19th of June 1993. He has led the party continuously since that day.
The party claimed to be the direct successor to the Soviet-era branch founded on the 5th of July 1918 in Moscow. In the 1994 presidential election, they supported Oleksandr Moroz from the Socialist Party of Ukraine. Their relationship remained strong throughout the 1990s with Moroz speaking at their 22nd Congress in 1999. By the 1998 parliamentary election, the KPU won 24.65% of the vote and secured 123 seats in Parliament. They became the largest party in the legislature during this period.
Electoral Rise And Fall
In the 1998 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the party gained 24.65% of the vote and 123 seats. This victory allowed them to field their own candidate in the 1999 presidential election. Party leader Symonenko received 23.1 percent of the votes in the first round. He trailed behind Leonid Kuchma who received 38.0 percent of the votes. In the second round Symonenko received 38.8 percent but lost to Kuchma.
Support sharply declined by the time of the 2004 presidential election. Symonenko received only 5% of the votes and came in fourth place. The party lost much support particularly after the Orange Revolution. In the 2006 parliamentary election they won 3.66% and 21 seats. By the 2012 election they had recovered slightly with 13.18% of the national votes and 32 seats. However the October 2014 parliamentary election marginalized them further as they won no constituency seats and failed to reach the 5% threshold. For the first time since 1918 communists were not represented in Ukrainian national politics.