Center for the Study of Democracy

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of a democratizing regime in Russia during the 1990s raise several questions about the contours of Russian political space: Do Russians have structured beliefs that motivate political behavior? Is there any ideology guiding Russian mass political beliefs? How has seventy years of Communist Party rule affected Russian political attitudes? Based on an analysis of the 1995-1996 and 1999-2000 Russian National Election Studies, I argue that an attitudinal belief system structured along an attachment to values inculcated through the communist experience is present in the Russian political mind. This belief system appears to be a legacy of the communist past and continued to play a motivating role in Russian political behavior throughout the first postcommunist decade. Moreover, attachment to these values has a greater effect on vote choice than do standard socioeconomic indicators.