In the twelve months following the XXVIII Congress the problems which had afflicted the party were substantially exacerbated. It soon became clear that the Congress had neither resolved the growing differences within party ranks nor generated sufficient commitment and enthusiasm to dispel the malaise which had permeated the party. The organisational fracturing of the party, which had become manifest with the Democratic Platform's announcement at the Congress that it would leave the party, proceeded apace during the following year; according to one report, in March 1991 there were up to ten ‘platforms, avenues and movements’ operating in the party.

Organisational splintering

The concerns about the implications of the party splitting were publicly reflected in an attack upon the Democratic Platform (and Popov and Sobchak) for leaving the party shortly after the congress ended. The Democratic Platform was accused of plotting this well in advance and of being determined to carry it through regardless of anything that the party did; they were unwilling to recognise ‘the congress’ evolution toward democratisation'. But the Democratic Platform was itself not a united body. The announcement of the projected departure from the party at the Congress crystallised the split that had been emerging within the organisation from the June conference of the group. When that section around Shostakovskii announced its intention to depart, another section organised itself into the Working Group of Communist Reformers Section of the Democratic Platform in the CPSU.