The Agrarian Party of Russia (APR), led by Mikhail Lapshin, calls itself a party of the peasantry. Oriented toward inhabitants of Russia's provinces and those working in the agriculture sector, the party has so far had a relatively stable but small following.

The party's most salient feature is its close connection to the Communist Party (KPRF). The APR essentially shares the KPRF's ideology, having been founded in November 1993 - following President Boris Yeltsin's October clash with a rebellious parliament - by former Communist Party members. Not that they left the KPRF for ideological reasons; the first Agrarians were "emissaries" sent to promulgate Communist ideas among the masses.

After Yeltsin's victory over the hard-line Russian parliament, the Communists had decided to divide their electorate. The name "Agrarian Party," its founders felt, would "legalize" some of the Communist ideology during a period in which Russians had become almost completely alienated from ideology. At the time, repeated calls were made to ban the KPRF, and the APR's creation worked as a "life preserver."

Both parties form the core of the National Patriotic Union of Russia (NPSR), a coalition of various organizations united by a nostalgia for Soviet times.

The APR is essentially a party of former collective and state farm executives who remain devoted to the grossly inefficient Soviet system of agriculture. Most of the party's backbone would not benefit from a system of agriculture based on private ownership of land. Therefore, preservation and restoration of a system based on collective and state farms is a chief goal.

Rural inhabitants have traditionally been a conservative social and political force, suspicious and skeptical of innovation and the promises of Russia's new rulers.

The Bolsheviks shed rivers of blood earlier this century forcing peasants into collectivized farms, creating an oppressive system that squashed personal incentive and efficiency.

But during this decade, Russian reformers ran into the same problems faced by Lenin and Stalin during collectivization: conservatism, mistrust, and fear of losing one's land.

Faced with an overwhelming number of problems and obstacles after the collapse of the Soviet Union, many farmers resorted to the state for help, as they had been used to doing for decades. Some saw help as the state's activity aimed at adopting sensible laws, balancing taxation, and providing a certain protection to domestic agricultural producers, but most simply asked for money in the form of subsidies and soft credits.

The Agrarian Party clearly defined its demographics and found its niche calling for the protection of farmers' interests. The party faction's activity in the State Duma (lower house of parliament) consists basically of lobbying for the party's special bills concerning the agricultural industry and land property issues, along with supporting the KPRF on every vote.

However, the once monolithic clan of agrarians recently revealed a rift in the strategic planning for the upcoming parliamentary elections this year.

The Leader of the Duma agrarian faction Nikolai Kharitonov is confident that the party should team up with Communists for the elections.

Meanwhile Lapshin insists on the agrarians palying their own game.

However, these are more likely to be tactical rather than ideological discrepancies stemming from personal interests of the agrarian leaders.

The Communists themselves, when discussing disagreements with their brothers-in-arms, think of it as mere bargaining for the distribution of seats on the party list.