It was founded in 1996, uniting several communist groups that opposed president Yeltsin's policies. Its leader was Sazhi Umalatova, a Russian politician of Chechen nationality, who was a devoted opponent of Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin. Umalatova supported the August coup in 1991 and the anti-Yeltsin opposition in the October 1993 events. However, she later became an ardent supporter of President Vladimir Putin.