“Many see nonsystemic leftists as rejects and losers who secretly jerk off somewhere and have nothing serious to offer,” said Sergei Udaltsov, the leader of the Left Front, as he concluded his plea for Russian leftists to support the Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin. “Let’s abandon the [Eduard] Bernstein approach that’s about process and not results. Enough masturbating in the corner, let’s embrace this system to the death!”

Udaltsov’s speech, delivered at an early February forum on the Russian presidential election, pointed to a dilemma that leftists have debated throughout history — to what extent should a left-wing movement participate in the system it ultimately seeks to destroy? The issue before Udaltsov and others was whether to support Grudinin or join the liberal opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s call to boycott the election. Challenge the system from within or from without. It’s an old question.

What to do about the Russian presidential election is just one of many questions that have plagued Russia’s small and fractured left. In a country where Lenin’s body still lies mummified on Red Square, Communist iconography adorns the facades of many buildings, and polls suggest that a majority of the Russian population would welcome a return to socialism, the Russian left’s battle for political relevance nevertheless looks Sisyphean.