The All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) is a Marxist communist political party that has presence in several warlord states throughout Russia. Previously the ruling party of the now-defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, descended from the radical Bolshevik faction within the early 20th century Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, the Communist Party has been, like the Soviet Union itself, split into multiple groups, each active within their own warlord state.
As of 1962, when the game begins, three Russian warlord states are ruled by the Communist Party: Irkutsk, Tyumen and Buryatia. Irkutsk's faction, led by Genrikh Yagoda, follows the more economically liberal Bukharinism, the political mainstream in the Soviet Union; as the game develops, it then has the potential of evolving either into a more economically liberal but also highly authoritarian securocracy under Yagoda, or remaining mostly the same under Sergey Bessonov.
Tyumen's faction, led by Lazar Kaganovich, follows Marxism-Leninism, which, in some aspects, contrasts Bolshevism and favors large-scale economic planning with little to no private enterprise as well as a greater emphasis on the collectivization of assets and agriculture into the workers state, rather than allowing it be circulated in a privatized "free" market. Marxist-Leninists also favor a more centralized planning of the economy, stressing the usage of national economic planning to guide an economy's future development. During the internal power struggle, Marxist-Leninist policies may be preserved should Kaganovich remain in power or be altered or mostly abandoned if Nikita Khrushchev is successful in the power struggle and takes power in Tyumen, also known as the West Siberian People's Republic.
Finally, Buryatia's faction (named Sablintsy in-game, Russian for Sablinites), led by Valery Sablin, abandons a democratic-centralist government and the dictatorship of the proletariat (a concept adhered to by most Marxists) in favor of his own form of supposed Marxism that the Sablinites themselves call "Leninism" but which is in many ways different from Vladimir Lenin's actual policies. Compared to the Bukharinists and the Stalinists, Sablinites favour decentralised planning with greater independence of local producers, a policy similar to that of the NEP, with autonomous elected soviets with participation allowed for all left-leaning parties. However, the Sablinites also have the option of turning towards more centralized policies, with a goal of returning a more coherent and doctrinal form of Marxism as well as the introduction of socialist economic centralization should the politics of the country change. Depending on which path they choose, the Sablinites will be identified either as basic (or default) communists (if they follow a "libertarian" path), or Bukharinists (if they follow an "authoritarian" path).
Outside of these three warlord states, it can be assumed that the other communist parties that can take power in the former Soviet Union, like the Communist Party of Komi, the Uzbek Communist Party, the Communist Party of Turkmenistan and the Communist Party of Tajikistan, have split off from the original All-Union Communist Party. The same can be said of some parties that are no longer communist, like the People's Democratic Socialist Party in Komi.
It can also be assumed that those communist warlord states that are run by the military, such as the West Russian Revolutionary Front and the People's Revolutionary Council, still maintain some remnants of the Communist Party in their territories, though they no longer play a key role in governance. Georgy Zhukov in particular reinstates the All-Union Communist Party after regional reunification, although it is only shown in focuses and events and not in the actual in-game change of the ruling party.
Trivia[]
- In OTL, the All-Union Communist Party has, of course, survived alongside the Soviet Union up until 1991, with its mainstream ideology being Marxism-Leninism until the 1950s, followed by revisionist socialist, rather than Bukharinism. It would also eventually be renamed to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1952, a change that has not happened in TNO's timeline due to the Union collapsing before that. That said, the Communist Party of Komi will be renamed the Communist Party of the Soviet Union upon reunification.