ABSTRACT
The role of history as a determinant of contemporary political and social events has recently received substantial attention in political science scholarship. The heterogeneity of Russian regions did not emerge only in the 1990s, when different regions of Russia entered the process of regime transition, different parts of Russia were characterized by different social and political histories, which could reflect the contemporary political variation. This chapter investigates how differences in Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) membership affected the level of sub-national democracy in Russia in the period from 2001-2010, in other words, a decade after the fall of the Soviet Union. The Communist party was probably one of the most important institutions in the Soviet Union. The rules of party admission changed throughout Soviet history, but the CPSU has always been quite restrictive in admitting applicants to its ranks. The legacy of the CPSU could hypothetically be associated either with institutions or with attitudes and behavior.
