Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party
캄푸치아 인민혁명당
The Marxist–Leninist ruling party of Cambodia (the People's Republic of Kampuchea) from 1979 to 1991. It was set up in January 1979 by communists who had broken with Pol Pot's Communist Party of Kampuchea and fled to Vietnam, and who declared themselves the successors of the original Khmer People's Revolutionary Party founded in 1951. In October 1991 it renamed itself the Cambodian People's Party and abandoned Marxism–Leninism.
In depth
The original Khmer People's Revolutionary Party was founded in 1951, after the Indochinese Communist Party was divided into Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese parties. According to the German-language source, Sơn Ngọc Minh became acting chairman, and the party depended heavily on its Vietnamese counterpart from the start. After the Geneva Conference of 1954 about 1,000 members went into exile in North Vietnam, and in September 1960 a group of former Paris students around Pol Pot took over the remaining organisation and renamed it the Workers' Party of Kampuchea, later the Communist Party of Kampuchea. The founding date differs between sources: the English-language source says Tou Samouth founded the party on 21 September 1951, while noting that the re-founded party regarded 28 June 1951 as its founding date.
Fleeing the purges of 1978, pro-Vietnamese cadres such as Heng Samrin and Chea Sim escaped to Vietnam, and on 2 December the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation was formed. On 5 January 1979 (5–8 January in the French-language source) they held a congress that claimed the legitimate succession of the 1951 party. They called it the Third Party Congress, refusing to recognise the CPK congresses of 1963, 1975 and 1978. Pen Sovann was elected first secretary, and according to the French-language source the party had about sixty members. After Vietnamese troops took Phnom Penh the party became the ruling party, but it kept its existence secret until its Fourth Congress in May 1981.
The Fourth Congress set patriotism and proletarian internationalism, building a Marxist–Leninist party, and cooperation with Vietnam, Laos and the Soviet Union as the party line, and kept the name People's Revolutionary Party to distinguish itself from the 'reactionary Pol Pot party'. In December 1981 Pen Sovann was abruptly dismissed and Heng Samrin became general secretary; the French-language source suggests he fell for opposing Vietnamese immigration policy. At its Fifth Congress in October 1985 the party claimed 7,500 full members. It had three factions, around Heng Samrin, Chea Sim and Hun Sen, and from 1988 it supported market reforms.
At an extraordinary congress on 17–18 October 1991 the party renamed itself the Cambodian People's Party, renounced Marxism–Leninism and accepted a multi-party system. After losing the 1993 election the Cambodian People's Party still entered a coalition government, and it has remained the ruling party since.