The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) faction in the State Duma: Evolution of recruitment structures

This article examines the evolution of recruitment structures at various stages of the existence of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) faction in the State Duma of the Russian Federation (convocations V–VIII). It presents the results of a quantitative study of the CPRF faction, which provides a detailed description of the sources of recruitment for the political elite analyzed. Using a structural-biographical method, the author identified key sources of personnel reproduction within the deputy faction based on a wide range of data from official websites, biographical portals, media materials, and other sources. It also presents the approach of the American sociologist R. Collins, in particular, his definition of the concept of “cultural capital”. It is concluded that within the faction, there is a core of deputies whose representatives have been consistently re-elected to parliament over the past four convocations. It is shown that, despite the constant renewal of the majority of deputies, the political elite as a whole remains stable. At the same time, the author concludes that there is a certain gap between the parliamentary core and the rest of the faction, which have somewhat different levels of representation in terms of recruitment sources.

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