Moscow: Two decades after the ban imposed by
then Russian President Boris Yeltsin on this day, the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) still lives on in
the modern political system of the former Soviet superpower.
The ruling United Russia party mostly comprises of the
Communist era 'haves', although the change in the regional
leadership by President Dmitry Medvedev, a past member of the
Young Communist League, has installed former CPSU youth wing
members in place of powerful ex-secretaries, who smoothly
moved to the posts of governors after the Soviet collapse.
The United Russia, formally led by Russian strongman
Vladimir Putin, is often termed as the 'trade-union' of
ex-CPSU members by its opponents for the Soviet-style politics
and depriving the parliament of its voice by overwhelming the
Duma with the help of 'administrative resources'.
Two decades on, the Russian society is still split on
whether it was for better or for worse the ban on CPSU that
had ruled over the Soviet Union for 74 years.
It is noteworthy that a month after the ban, the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics collapsed, which once by Putin was
described as the 'catastrophe of enormous proportions'.
Slightly less than half of Russians (47 per cent) believe
that Yeltsin's decision was wrong, while only 26 per cent
approve of the move, according to a recent poll carried out by
the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM).
Twenty years ago, these figures were rather different,
with 38 per cent of people in favour of the decision and the
same number against it.
Today, the Communist party of the Russian Federation
revived as the parliamentary party in 1993 as the successor to
the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic's Communist party, is
the second most powerful after the United Russia. It claims to
have support of 35 per cent people.
Many experts here believe that in case of fair elections
on December 4, the KPRF led by Gennady Zyuganov will improve
its position in new Duma and the ruling United Russia, which
has two-thirds majority in the outgoing house will have to be
satisfied with simple majority in the 450-strong lower house.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, November 06, 2011, 18:20