Political Parties as a Historical Phenomenon: the Transformation of Forms of Political Participation and the Place of the Communist Party in Modern Russia

The article analyzes the historical transformation of the institution of political parties from the moment of its emergence in the 17th–18th centuries up to the present stage, with an emphasis on the evolution of the Russian party system of the post-Soviet period and the position of the Communist Party in this process. The study covers the period of 1990–2025, tracing the changing role of parties in the context of the emergence of alternative forms of political mobilization, such as media leaders, digital platforms, network movements and situational protest coalitions. Based on a comparison of Russian and international experience, the author reveals a tendency to reduce the monopoly position of parties in the system of political representation while maintaining their formal institutional status, which allows us to raise the question of whether the traditional party form meets the challenges of our time. The CPRF is presented as a case of a party balancing between maintaining organizational continuity with the Soviet era and the need to adapt to fundamentally different operating conditions, reflecting the general contradictions of the evolution of party structures in the era of digitalization and individualization of political participation.