During World War II, it was the driving force of the Moldovan resistance against Axis occupation.

The party began to weaken politically during the Perestroika period, which was marked by riots against Soviet rule.

[3][4] The party leader, Semion Grossu was replaced with Petru Lucinschi on November 16, 1989.

In 2011 a group of communists led by the executive secretary of the old Communist Party of Moldova, Igor Cucer, came to the public attention, claiming that they are the "real communists" and they want to revive the party (PCM) formally;[7] they also stated that the PCRM has become a pseudo-Communist and liberal-bourgeois party serving the interests of one of the county’s richest men, Oleg Voronin, son of president of Moldova from 2001 to 2009 and leader of the PCRM Vladimir Voronin.

Cucer claimed then: "The PCRM's 8-year rule made the poor poorer and the rich richer".