Gennady Zyuganov (Геннадий Андреевич Зюганов) was born on June 26, 1944, in Mymrino, Oryol region. His parents were teachers.

Education: Physics and mathematics education, Oryol State Teachers Institute, 1969. Masters, science, Academy of Social Sciences of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, 1980. Ph.D., science, Moscow State University.

1963-1966: Served in the Soviet armed forces

1966: Joined the Communist Party

1970-1978: Deputy to Oryol city and regional councils. Led the regional committee on youth issues.

1974-1978: Taught advanced mathematics the Oryol State Teachers Institute (he returned to teach philosophy from 1981-1983)

1974-1983: Head of the Oryol Party propaganda division

1983-1989: Instructor, head of the propaganda division and deputy director of the agitprop division of the Central Committee of the Communist Party

1989-1990: Deputy director of the ideology division of the Central Committee of the Communist Party

1990: Secretary of the Central Committee and member of the Communist Party Politburo. Chairman of the standing committee on humanitarian and ideological issues for the Russian Communist Party.

Early 1991: Calls for Mikhail Gorbachev's ouster as general secretary

August 1991: Loses bid for first secretary of the Communist Party to Valentin Kuptsov

1991-1992: Following Yeltsin's ban on the Communist Party, Zyuganov was involved in several hard-line organizations, including the Russian Slavic Assembly and the National Salvation Front. (President Yeltsin's ban of the Communist Party was struck down by the Supreme Court in December 1992.)

February 1993: Elected chairman of the Communist Party's Central Committee

September-October 1993: Zyuganov was inside the White House during much of President Yeltsin's showdown with parliament. But according to media reports, Zyuganov called for a peaceful resolution to the crisis and left the building when its defenders took up arms.

December 1993-present: State Duma deputy with the Communist Party (re-elected in 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2007). Leader of the Communist Party faction in the State Duma.

January 1995-present: Chairman of the Communist Party

Summer 1996: Finished second to Boris Yeltsin in a presidential runoff election, scoring 40.41 percent of votes to Yeltsin's 53.72 percent.

May 1999: Led failed attempt to impeach President Yeltsin

March 2000: Lost his second presidential bid, this time to Vladimir Putin, scoring 29.21 percent of the vote to Putin's 52.94 percent.

2008: Loses third presidential bid. Dmitry Medvedev won 70 percent of the vote compared with Zyuganov's 18 percent. Re-elected Communist Party chairman.

April 2011: Announced that he will run for president in 2012, a move analysts say had less to do with his chances of winning than with his own position within the Communist Party. A poll by the state-run VTsIOM agency in December 2010 gave Zyuganov just 4 percent of the vote if he ran against Medvedev, who would win with 50 percent.

Zyuganov has more than 150 scientific works on philosophy, history and politics to his name. He enjoys tennis and volleyball.

He is married and has two children.