Marxist-Leninist party co-founded by the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussia and de facto head of the Byelorussian SSR, Yefrem Sokolov, and Viktor Chikin, who became Party Chairman. Party was renamed Communist Party of Belarus at the time that the nation became independent of the USSR on August 25, 1991. Party supports Belarus' re-union with Russia as a subject republic and works closely with the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and the Russian government of Vladimir Putin to achieve that end. Party is allied to the government of President Alexander Lukashenko and has many members as cabinet and rank-and-file members. Party holds 17 seats in the Senate and 11 (out of 110) seats in the House, ranking it the second-largest party in both chambers of parliament, after Belaya Rus. Party has been led by its First Secretary Aleksey Nikolayevich Sokal since May 14, 2017 [Kommunističeskaja Partija Belarusi (KPB/CPB/КПБ)].
