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Communism has few adherents in Tiraspol. Between 80 and 100 elderly party members joined the anti-government protest.

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - Angry over what they see as too much capitalism and a lack of respect for Pridnestrovie's past communist history, approximately one hundred aging members of the country's two communist parties organized a protest march and public meeting in Tiraspol this Tuesday.

The participants yelled communist slogans and launched open criticism of the political system, singling out the government of President Igor Smirnov. The communists promised to continue a united stand in their criticism of Smirnov's policies. They see his government as neglecting social commitments in favor of private business interests and yielding to free-market proposals by a majority in Parliament. Since the last election in December 2005, Pridnestrovie's parliament has been in control of center-right opposition party Renewal which has pursued a policy of democratic reform and privatizations which the communists strongly dislike.

Although the two communist parties are in opposition to both the Smirnov-led government of Pridnestrovie and the center-right majority in parliament, they do not consider themselves allies of the ruling Communist Party of Moldova. The leading member of that party, Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin, wants Pridnestrovie to become part of Moldova. This is unacceptable to Pridnestrovie's homegrown communists who, like most other voters in the unrecognized country, staunchly pursue independent statehood and reject any talk of unification with Moldova as completely unrealistic.

The Pridnestrovie Communist Party has submitted an opposition candidate to challenge Igor Smirnov in the upcoming 10 December presidential election. Nadesha Bondarenko, the first female candidate for president, is the editor of the party newspaper Dnestrovskaya Pravda ("Dniester Truth").

89th revolution anniversary

Tuesday's protest was formally dedicated to the 89th anniversary of the 1917 Russian Bolshevik revolution, an event not widely celebrated in contemporary Pridnestrovie, and had no support from the government. On the other side of the Dniester river, in Moldova, a similar event was organized by the ruling Communist Party of Moldova in Chisinau on Tuesday afternoon. Unlike in PMR, the event in Moldova included participation of important government officials and was organized with government support.

The about 100 participants in the Tiraspol-based protest march adopted a resolution at the end of the manifestation, declaring the 1917 revolution as "the main event of the 20th century." No incidents or violence were reported, and no arrests took place.

Tuesday marked the first time that Pridnestrovie's two communist parties, the Pridnestrovie Communist Party (PKP) and the Communist Party of Pridnestrovie (KPP), met in the same square in Tiraspol.

Oleg Khorzhan, leader of the Pridnestrovie Communist Party (PKP), said that "such holidays must be celebrated together despite ideological divergences." He did not specify what the ideological differences consist of between the Communist Party of Pridnestrovie (KPP) and the Pridnestrovie Communist Party (PKP), and a meeting participant questioned by The Tiraspol Times was unable to explain in which way the two Communist factions differ, apart from pointing out that the KPP - led by Vladimir Gavrilchenko - is the more conservative of the two.

Pridnestrovie, also known as Transnistria or Transdniester, declared independence from the Communist-dominated MSSR (Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic) in September 1990, following a surprise win earlier that year of forces opposed to the Communist Party in the region's the first-ever democratic elections.

Coming as a shock to local Communist leadership, Smirnov beat his official challenger, the First Secretary of the city’s Central Party Committee, Leonid Tsurkan, by a 2-to-1 margin. Ever since independence was declared later that year, the Communist Party’s influence continually became smaller and smaller. Today it is estimated that Tiraspol, formerly a Communist stronghold, is now home to only between one and two hundred committed Communists, out of a total population of 159,163 inhabitants in the city. Most voters, regardless of political affiliation, support independent statehood and international integration for the new and emerging country.

See also:
» Communist Party accuses Smirnov's government of negligence [1]
» Communists field female candidate for 2006 presidential election [2]