Creation Following
Ukraine's independence on 24 August 1991,
Leonid Kravchuk as the
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament) signed several important documents among which was the disbandment (26 August) and later the prohibition (30 August) of
communist parties. This led to the collapse of the communist-majority faction, informally known as the "
group of 239", led by
Oleksandr Moroz. Four days after the prohibition of communist parties, Moroz called on communists to unite in a new left-wing party. The founding congress of the party was held in
Kyiv on 26 October 1991 and Moroz was elected leader. The party's programme, approved at a second congress held in November 1992, emphasised the party's status as the successor to the Communist Party of Ukraine and proclaimed the party's goal of achieving socialism through "people's democracy". but by this point Kuchma had already resigned as prime minister. In March 1994, the party participated in the country's
first parliamentary election since independence and won 14 seats, becoming the fourth-largest party in the Verkhovna Rada behind the Communist Party,
People's Movement of Ukraine (Rukh), and the
Peasant Party of Ukraine (SelPU). By mid-1994, the party controlled a parliamentary faction of 25 deputies, as deputies from other parties, especially those from the
Peasant Party of Ukraine (SelPU) opted to sit with the Socialists, and Moroz was elected
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (speaker of parliament) with the support of Communist deputies. and the party's central leadership left the decision of who to endorse for the presidency to individual branches. Most followed the Communist Party in supporting Kuchma, the eventual winner. Over the course of Moroz's term as chairman, relations between himself and Kuchma became increasingly strained. The duo notably clashed on the issue of constitutional reform; Kuchma favoured increasing the power of the presidency and transforming Ukraine into a unitary state, while Moroz and the left-wing in parliament sought to empower parliament and advocated decentralisation. The adoption of a temporary, in June 1995 did not ease tensions, and Moroz repeatedly rebuffed efforts to pass "pro-presidential" drafts of a
basic law. The
semi-presidential republican constitution, a compromise, was eventually adopted by parliament with the necessary two-thirds majority in June 1996. She and Volodymyr Marchenko, who was also expelled from the party, founded the
Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine a month later in April 1996. The bloc managed to secure 8.55% of the votes, 29
proportional seats, and 5
constituencies out of 450 in the Verkhovna Rada. The Peasant Party later started its own parliamentary faction with 15 deputies in the autumn of 1998 but disbanded in 2000 as many of the Peasant Party's deputies followed their faction leader into the newly formed pro-presidential
Solidarity led by
Petro Poroshenko. For the
1999 Ukrainian presidential election, Moroz was a member of the "Kaniv Four", an alliance of presidential hopefuls that included former
Prime Minister of Ukraine Yevhen Marchuk, Mayor of
Cherkasy Volodymyr Oliynyk, and the Peasant Party's Oleksandr Tkachenko. The four agreed to support Marchuk as the joint candidate after protracted negotiations, but the alliance fell apart when Moroz abruptly announced his decision to stand for election. Despite being considered the most likely candidate to defeat Kuchma, Moroz failed to advance past the first round of voting, having come third with only 11.29% of the vote. Plagued by allegations of electoral fraud, Kuchma also faced accusations of having funded the Progressive Socialist Party in order split the left-wing vote.
2000s During the 2000s, the party was member to a series of protests and conflicts in opposition to the presidency of Kuchma and pro-Kuchma parties. It opposed the
2000 Ukrainian constitutional referendum called by Kuchma with the intention of expanding the powers of the presidency and decreasing that of the Ukrainian parliament. While the amendments were approved by voters, their implementation was obstructed when Kuchma was implicated in the
Cassette Scandal, also known as Kuchmagate. Moroz publicly accused Kuchma of being involved in the disappearance and murder of journalist
Georgiy Gongadze, who had been found decapitated in Kyiv. He played select recordings that supposedly proved Kuchma ordered the abduction of Gongadze to journalists using a cassette player, which earned the scandal its name. One of the party's members who gained national prominence as a result of his involvement in the protests,
Yuriy Lutsenko, would later become the minister of internal affairs under the government of
Yulia Tymoshenko as well as
Prosecutor General of Ukraine. Separately, a group of former party members consisting of , , , and Vasyl Aresto, founded the splinter
All-Ukrainian Union of Leftists "Justice" in April 2000. and the party's youth wing endorsed the
Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united), a member of the pro-Kuchma alliance led by
Viktor Medvedchuk. The party was a participant in the
Rise up, Ukraine! protests which called for early presidential elections. The party was a participant in the
Orange Revolution in 2004, a series of protests sparked by the
fraudulent results of the
2004 Ukrainian presidential election. Moroz had been the party's candidate but shifted his support to
Viktor Yushchenko after garnering just 5.82% of the vote in the first round. The election's initial result, which gave the victory to Kuchma-supported
Viktor Yanukovych was contested by international observers. Yushchenko was declared the winner of the re-run, and Yanukovych resigned as prime minister to allow for the appointment of a new
coalition government led by Yulia Tymoshenko, which counted the Socialist Party alongside
Our Ukraine, the
Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, and the
Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Ukraine. The government's inauguration was the first time the party held power as part of the executive branch of the central government. It received three ministerial portfolios, with
Stanislav Nikolaenko assuming the position of Minister of Education and Science,
Yuriy Lutsenko as Minister of Internal Affairs, and
Oleksandr Baranivsky as Minister of Agrarian Affairs. The coalition was replicated at the regional level, with the party gaining the position of chairman of the regional state administration in two
oblasts, as well as the appointment of
Valentyna Semenyuk-Samsonenko as director of the
State Property Fund of Ukraine. In 2005, the
Ukrainian Party of Justice - Union of veterans, handicapped, Chornobyl liquidators, and Afghan warriors merged into the Socialist Party. The party and Moroz played a key role in the
2006 Ukrainian political crisis. Negotiations to re-form an "orange" coalition after the March
2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election between the Socialist Party, Our Ukraine, and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc were complicated by mutual distrust and disputes over the allocation of positions in government; Moroz supported Tymoshenko's claim to the premiership, and she in turn supported Moroz's candidacy as chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, but Tymoshenko herself was unpopular among Socialist Party members, while Our Ukraine held counter negotiations with Yanukovych's Party of Regions. Three months of negotiations seemed to close to an end after Moroz announced he would no longer seek the chairmanship and promised to support Our Ukraine's presumptive candidate,
Yury Yekhanurov, paving the way for the
coalition's confirmation on 21 June. However, when Petro Poroshenko was revealed as Our Ukraine's candidate, Moroz submitted his own candidacy and was elected with the support of deputies from the Socialist Party, Party of Regions, and the Communist Party, which formed the basis for the creation of the
Anti-Crisis Coalition. Moroz would justify the turnabout by claiming Our Ukraine had intentionally engineered the coalition's breakup by nominating a candidate it knew the party couldn't accept, and had planned to use that as their justification for entering into an alliance with the Party of Regions. The party's decision to walk back on its agreement with its erstwhile "orange" allies proved controversial and had a lasting impact on the party's image, as it was now seen as traitorous and corrupt. When a power struggle between Yanukovych and Yushchenko led to the
2007 Ukrainian political crisis and a
snap election in September the same year, the party's vote share collapsed. It received just 2.86% of the national vote, 0.14% short of the minimum 3% threshold for entry into parliament. Much of the criticism for the poor electoral result within the party was directed against
Yaroslav Mendus, who was in charge of the party's campaign during the election, and the party's "
grey cardinals". Others in the leadership such as Valentina-Semenyuk and Mykhailo Melnychuk were similarly targeted. Their critics included well-known members of the party such as
Volodymyr Boyko, a
red director and a major financial contributor to the party, youth leader
Yevhen Filindash, and former ministers Stanislav Nikolaenko, and Oleksandr Baranivsky. However, no changes were ultimately made to the composition of the party's leadership in that year's congress. Continued dissension within the party culminated in the expulsion of Nikolaenko and Baranivsky, who alongside
Mykola Sadovy, were branded "schismatics" by Moroz. Both Nikolaenko and Baranivsky had previously put forward a programme to reform the party at a congress in April 2008, advocating the introduction of a two-term limit for both the party's leader and head of the central control commission, the party's disciplinary body. They also proposed introducing secret ballots for elections, purportedly with the aim of removing Moroz from the leadership. The two would go on to join the splinter
"Justice" party along with some 300 members in March 2009. Other critical figures such as Yevhen Filindash left the party in April 2008. Mykola Sadovy was handed a reprimand. In a press conference in November 2009, Moroz stated he had no regrets about joining the Anti-Crisis Coalition, saying: "I'm not ashamed but proud of the fact that I managed to halt the crisis of power. The economy operated normal and, the parliament adopted 80% of the laws [it considered] by a constitutional majority of votes. We were close to the decentralization of power. That's why Tymoshenko and Yushchenko's supporters forced the president to dismiss the parliament and remove me and my political forces illegally".
2010s The party nominated Moroz as their candidate in the
2010 Ukrainian presidential election, and garnered just 0.4% of the vote. The election was eventually won by Viktor Yanukovych. Moroz stepped down as leader in July 2010 and was replaced by
Vasyl Tsushko, the incumbent minister for the economy in the
Azarov government. Moroz was made the party's honorary leader. The other candidates included
Mykola Rudkovsky, one of the party's financers holding the position of first secretary of the political council, Viktor Subotin, the general manager of
Turboatom, and Valentina-Semenyuk. The party's electoral misfortunes continued in that year's
local elections, where just 38 councilors from the party were elected across 11 oblasts and three city councils. It performed the best in the
Chernihiv and
Poltava Oblasts where the party won 11% and 5.8% of the votes respectively. Tsushko himself resigned as leader in July 2011, citing the difficulty of combining his position in government as head of the
Anti-Monopoly Committee with party responsibilities. Sources within the party claimed the true reason was Tsushko's deteriorating health. In the leadership election held afterward, Moroz, who ran on a platform of bringing the party into opposition to the Azarov government, managed to defeat Rudkovsky, who was alleged to have the backing of the ruling Party of Regions. That same month, the party was reported to have been expelled from the
Socialist International for failing to comply with "the fundamental values and principles of the International". However, the minutes of the meeting where the decision was undertaken showed that the party had been expelled "due to not being actively engaged in SI activities, having no representation, or not having paid membership fees for some time". Rudkovsky left the party in December 2011 after a planned merger of 11 left-wing parties failed, accusing Moroz of sabotaging the unification process to maintain his
cult of personality. The party had been member to an agreement announced in November that year which would have seen ten other left-wing parties merge into the Socialist Party, whereupon it would adopt a new name. This plan fell apart when the party's political council refused to ratify the merger agreement and demanded the other parties merge into the Socialist Party without any conditions. Only five parties agreed to do so; the
Peasant Party of Ukraine,
Socialist Ukraine, Children of War, "Children of War" People's Party of Ukraine, and Cossack Glory, while the remaining five parties opted to merge and form the
United Left and Peasants. In January 2012, the
Ministry of Justice declared the merger between the Peasant Party and the Socialist Party illegal. Rumours that Moroz would resign as leader amid reports of his deteriorating health appeared in April 2012 ahead of that year's party congress.
Petro Ustenko was elected the party's leader after being nominated by Moroz, winning 267 votes out of 342. He previously served as the party's first deputy chairman responsible organisational work as well as head of the party's election headquarters. In the
2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the party failed to win any representation. It garnered just 0.46% of the
party list vote and failed to win in any of the 58
constituencies it contested in. The party's poor performance in the parliamentary elections as well as Ustenko's failure to secure the party's finances culminated in a crisis in 2013. That year's congress was postponed from July to October, as Rudkovsky was readmitted after winning a seat in parliament as a self-nominated candidate in 2012. He reportedly held several meetings with members where he promised to provide funding for the party. At this point, Rudkovsky was a member of the Party of Regions' parliamentary faction. Sources close to the party described the situation as an "internal struggle" between Moroz and Rudkovsky. The resultant congress adopted a new party statute and created two new positions; leader, which would be held by Ustenko, responsible for the party's organisation, and chairman, by Rudkovsky, who would be responsible for the party's political direction. Valentina-Semenyuk was touted as a possible contender for the leadership but withdrew when nominated, as did Moroz. Political scientist Andrey Zolotarev considered Rudkovsky's election to be part of a plan by the ruling Party of Regions to weaken the popular support of its erstwhile Communist ally. In the aftermath of the
Euromaidan and
Revolution of Dignity, which saw the overthrow of Yanukovych and the dismissal of the Party of Regions-led government, acting president
Oleksandr Turchynov ordered the
Ministry of Justice to open investigations against the Communist Party for "anti-state activities" in May 2014, putting its continued existence into doubt. The Socialist Party, being the country's oldest left-wing party, found itself in a position where it was likely to inherit a sizable portion of the Communist electorate in the upcoming
2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election, increasing its political and monetary value immensely. In that context, a congress was held on 21 June where the decision was made by a majority of delegates present to return to the party's previous statute, whereupon Rudkovsky was elected the party's sole leader. Ustenko contested the legitimacy of the congress and its results, hiring a security firm to raid the party's offices, resulting in a protracted legal battle. Both Ustenko and Rudkovsky accused each other of intending to sell off the party. The State Register's refusal to register the results of the party's congress left it unable to participate in the
2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election; its members were part of the electoral list of the
Bloc of Left Forces instead. The party won 0.08% of the vote and returned no deputies. For similar reasons, the party couldn't participate in the
2015 Ukrainian local elections. Citing "unsatisfactory health", Rudkovsky stepped down as leader and fled the country in 2015. He was replaced by Mykola Sadovy at the second stage of the twentieth congress held in August. In June 2017, the
Administrative Court of Cassation confirmed the Kyiv District Administrative Court's 2015 decision that the results of the 2014 congress were to be implemented in full and that the State Register's refusal to do so was illegal. In July 2017,
Illia Kyva announced that he had been elected as the party's chairman on his
Facebook page. The former leader of the far-right political party
Right Sector in eastern Ukraine, Kyva's election was described by Moroz as an attempt by Ustenko's faction to nullify the administrative court of cassation's decision. Ivan Bokyi, a former chairman of the party's parliamentary faction, described Kyva's election as a government-linked raid against the party. Ustenko later admitted that Kyva's election was part of an agreement with internal minister
Arsen Avakov, to whom Kyva was an advisor; he was to help the party prepare for future presidential and parliamentary elections. The same month, the State Register was updated and listed Kyva as the party's chairman and Ustenko the leader. In response to Kyva's election, Sadovy's faction opted to elect
Serhiy Kaplin as their leader. Kaplin was a people's deputy linked to Avakov's rival, politician and oligarch
Serhiy Lyovochkin. This faction subsequently agreed to enter into a coalition with Kaplin's Social Democratic Party (SDP) as well as the
Party of Pensioners for upcoming elections. In January 2018, Ustenko and his faction's members were removed from the State Register. Ustenko accused Kyva of being responsible and announced his expulsion from the party. In response, Ustenko launched a lawsuit to nullify the changes made to the State Register. In March 2018, Kyva's faction approved a new programme where it adopted an outwardly pro-European
Atlanticist attitude, advocating for the Ukrainian membership in the
European Union and
NATO. It also adopted a new logo, a yellow fist on a crimson background, and nominated Kyva as its candidate for the
2019 Ukrainian presidential election. He won just 0.03% of the vote and was replaced as the party's leader by Serhiy Cherednychenko. This faction nominated candidates for two constituencies in the
2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Cherednychenko in the 144th district and pro-Russian oligarch
Oleksandr Onyshchenko in the 93rd district. It also co-operated with the pro-Russian
Opposition Platform — For Life, with Kyva being elected as a member of its closed list. In January 2019, Kaplin's election as chairman of the Sadovy faction was nullified, and the party opted to support Moroz's candidacy in the presidential election instead. However, Moroz withdrew from the race four days before the first round of voting.
Russian invasion and banning On 24 February 2022, Russia launched an
invasion into Ukraine. On 6 March, Kyva was charged with
high treason after making a number of statements justifying the invasion and blaming it on Ukrainian president
Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He had fled to Russia a month prior to the invasion. The SPU was one of several political parties suspended by the
National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine as a result of the invasion, along with
Derzhava,
Left Opposition,
Nashi,
Opposition Bloc,
Opposition Platform — For Life,
Party of Shariy,
Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine,
Union of Leftists, and the
Volodymyr Saldo Bloc. On 15 June 2022, the Eighth Administrative Court of Appeal banned the party and all of its property was transferred to the state. Vikor Zaika, who was also the director of the Illia Kyva Charitable Foundation "Liberation", was the party's official leader at its banning. The
Security Service of Ukraine and Ministry of Justice cited the party's alleged anti-Ukrainian and pro-Russian activities, statements of its previous leaders, as well as Kyva's continued influence over the party as its justifications. On 18 October 2022, the final appeal against the party's ban lodged by Sadovy's faction was dismissed by the
Supreme Court of Ukraine. == Ideological development ==