CPRF managerial vertical in St. Petersburg and Leningrad region: Peculiarities of member reproduction

Abstract

The article considers the structure of the management vertical within the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) on the example of two regions of Russia: the city of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region. The results of a qualitative study of the party elite and deputy corps of the CPRF in the two regions combined are presented, in the course of which the sources of recruitment of the analyzed political elite are revealed in detail. Through the use of the structural-biographical method, the author identified the key sources of reproduction within the regional political elite through a detailed study of a wide range of data from official websites, biographical portals, mass media materials, etc. The study concludes that the basis of the CPRF’s managerial vertical in both regions is an alliance bet ween party officials (of various types) and businessmen. It is argued that despite the process of constant renewal of members of the top party leadership and representatives of the deputy corps in both regions, the political elite is generally stable. At the same time, the author concludes that the share of the managerial vertical, which refers to the descendants of business, as a rule, is more interested in obtaining exactly parliamentary mandates in order to be able to influence the content of legislative acts in the analyzed regions.