Shining Path of this group are generally called "senderistas". All documents, periodicals and other materials produced by the organization are signed by the Communist Party of Peru (PCP). Academics often refer to them as PCP-SL. The Shining Path was founded in the late 1960s by Abimael Guzmán, a former university philosophy professor (his followers referred to him by his nom de guerre which was "Presidente Gonzalo"). His teachings created the foundation of its militant Maoist doctrine. It was an offshoot of the Communist Party of Peru — "Bandera Roja" (red flag), which in turn split from the original Peruvian Communist Party, a
Communist party the rise of revolutionary parties, their spread internationally, the appearance of charismatic revolutionary leaders and their ultimate demise during the decline and fall of communist parties worldwide have all been the subject of investigation. A uniform naming scheme for Communist parties was adopted by the Communist International. All parties were required to use the name 'Communist Party of ("name of country")', resulting in separate communist parties in some countries operating using (largely) homonymous party names (e.g. in India). Today, there are plenty of cases where the old sections of the Communist International have retained those names. In other cases names