COMMUNIST PARTIES OF WESTERN EUROPE: PHASES OF HISTORICAL RISE AND DECLINE THROUGH THE PRISM OF THE DYNAMICS OF ELECTORAL PREFERENCES
The article presents the results of a study of the history of the communist parties of Western European states in the context of assessing the degree of their social influence. The aim of the work was to identify the phases of the rise and fall of the communist parties in Western Europe. The research methodology consisted in correlating the history of the communist parties with the results of elections to national parliaments. The factors that led to the growth or loss of the popularity of the communist movement among Western Europeans were identified. Special attention was paid to ideological splits within the Communist Parties and their attitude to the CPSU line. The conclusion is made about the achievement of the apogee of the popularity of the Communist parties in the first post-war years on the wave of the Victory in the Second World War, associated with the special role of the USSR. The subsequent decline of the communists in Western Europe is explained by the loss of the attractiveness of the Soviet project, by the erosion of the original values. At the present historical stage, a new rise in the popularity of the left forces is recorded, which is associated with a modern systemic crisis and a search for alternatives to capitalism.