The Communist Party of Abkhazia (CPA) is a political party

Political party

A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

 in the Georgia

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

n break-away republic of Abkhazia

Abkhazia

Abkhazia is a disputed political entity on the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the south-western flank of the Caucasus.Abkhazia considers itself an independent state, called the Republic of Abkhazia or Apsny...

. The party leader is Lev Shamba.

The CPA was founded in March 1921 with the demand of a separate Abkhaz Soviet Republic

Republics of the Soviet Union

The Republics of the Soviet Union or the Union Republics of the Soviet Union were ethnically-based administrative units that were subordinated directly to the Government of the Soviet Union...

. It was then led by E. Eshba. Eshba had formed a Bolshevik

Bolshevik

The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....

 military-revolutionary committee in Sukhumi

Sukhumi

Sukhumi is the capital of Abkhazia, a disputed region on the Black Sea coast. The city suffered heavily during the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict in the early 1990s.-Naming:...

 in the summer of 1918. Eshba's group demanded direct integration of Abkhazia into the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. During the Soviet period, the CPA was a part of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Communist Party of the Soviet Union

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...

.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the CPA was reconstructed as an independent party. In 1988, the CPA demanded Abkhaz secession.

The CPA maintains close contacts with communist groups in Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. It is affiliated to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Shenin)

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union is an organization which split from the Union of Communist Parties — Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 2001 after disagreements between Oleg Shenin and Gennady Zyuganov over the creation of a united Communist Party of Russia and Belarus...

 led by Oleg Shenin

Oleg Shenin

Oleg Semyonovich Shenin was the leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , which should not be confused with the larger UCP-CPSU....

. However, unlike many of the other communist organisations in the region, the CPA has denounced the political legacy of Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

.

External links

• Appeal signed by CPA