ABSTRACT
The Congress of People’s Deputies resembles the Congress of the Communist Party, which elected the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and therefore, in that respect, resembles the elected Supreme Soviet. In turn, much as the Central Committee elected a Politburo, so the Supreme Soviet forms a Presidium. Leading the Presidium in the legislature is a chairman. The score of a parliamentarian is the generally recognized method of characterizing his or her political position in roll call analysis. Applied to the Russian parliament, the task of determining political ratings of deputies is greatly facilitated by the polarization of the body into two large and stable groups of deputies, which occupy diametrically opposed positions on literally all questions of political principle. An analysis of roll call votes allows to follow how the positions of the membership of factions and the corps of deputies as a whole changed at Congresses.
