Features of the Historical Policy of the LDPR

The LDPR is the oldest of modern Russian political parties, a permanent successful participant in federal elections. Parties occupying extreme positions in the political spectrum are characterized by having their own ideas about the past, which they actively promote. Over the decades of active activity, the LDPR has managed to develop its own distinctive historical policy based on the views of the long-term leader of the party, V. V. Zhirinovsky. The author of the article analyzes the attitude of the Liberal Democrats to the key events of national history, identifies the features of their party policy in the field of memory, compares approaches with other political parties. The main sources were official documents of the LDPR, interviews, books and articles by party leader V. V. Zhirinovsky, publications carried out with the support of the party. Unlike other political parties, the LDPR addresses not only the historical events of the turbulent XX century, although it occupies a major place in the historical policy of the party. The main leitmotif of the national history of the LDPR considers opposition to the collective West, which for centuries after the collapse of the united Christian Church, tried to eliminate a competitor in the face of the East, and in particular Russia. The expansion of the West took place both by force and ideologically, which the party assesses as more destructive. Through the prism of this confrontation, the LDPR considers most of the key events, the most striking example of Western intervention was the 1917 revolutions inspired by him. The party considers the Russian Empire to be the ideal of the state. The formation of the LDPR's historical policy has not been fully completed, and the party has not yet formulated a single point of view on certain issues.

LDPR, symbolic politics, Historical politics, Collective memory, Zhirinovsky, October Revolution, Stalin, collapse of the USSR, Russian Empire, origin myths