ABSTRACT
Independent political organizations have existed in Russia for only a decade or so, and this period can be divided neatly into two. For the first five years of their development - including over two years of the post-communist period - the early political groups existed in a sort of political vacuum, with no free elections apart from the personality-based presidential election of 1991. A party without elections to contest has little raison d'être: few incentives for its members and little incentive to organize itself efficiently. The first multi-party parliamentary elections in December 1993 were therefore a milestone in party development in Russia. For the first time parties across the country had the opportunity, on a fully legal basis, to compete for power. What sort of political organizations existed across Russia to take up the challenge in December 1993, and in the succession of elections which has followed? Having arisen from scratch only five years earlier, what experience did they bring with them? Were they novices to the real world of politics?
