Background
Zyuganov was born in Mymrino, a farming village in Oryol Oblast on 26 June 1944.
Zyuganov was born in Mymrino, a farming village in Oryol Oblast on 26 June 1944.
Zyuganov taught mathematics but soon turned to party work in Oryol Oblast, beginning in 1967. He became the First Secretary of the local Komsomol and the regional chief for ideology and propaganda. As the Communist Party of the Soviet Union fell into disarray, Zyuganov helped form the new Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), and became one of seven secretaries of the new group's Central Committee. In 1993, he became its chairman. Zyuganov quickly emerged as post-communist Russia's leading opposition leader. Zyuganov entered the 1996 presidential election, as the standard-bearer of the Russian Communist Party. In the election on June 16, Zyuganov finished second with 32%. Zyuganov has also been Chairman of the Union of Communist Parties - Communist Party of the Soviet Union (UCP-CPSU) since 2001. In the presidential election on March 2, 2008, Zyuganov garnered 17.76% of the vote and came in second to Medvedev's 70.23%. In September 2011, Zyuganov again became the CPRF's candidate for the 2012 presidential election. In the 2012 Russian presidential election on 4 March 2012, Zyuganov once again came in second place by receiving 17% of the vote.
He's married and has 2 children.