This chapter studies three interdependent questions. First, it looks at what we call the “temporal depth” of the legacies: how far we can go into the past to observe a link between the variation in the CPSU membership rates across regions and the contemporary social and political outcomes? Second, we study the persistence of legacies: how does the effect of the CPSU legacies change if we look at more recent indicators of Russia’s regional development as opposed to earlier ones. We document high persistence of the effects of the CPSU legacy: while for some indicators the CPSU effects decrease over time (although remain significant), there are indicators for which the CPSU effects actually become stronger. Third, we study whether the CPSU legacy affected the variation across Russian regions in the 1990s (as opposed to the 2000s and the 2010s - i.e., the period we study in other chapters of this book).

In this chapter of our book, we investigate the effect of the CPSU legacy on the economic performance of Russian regions. We use a broad catalogue of indicators, looking at the economic growth, foreign trade (both the overall volume and the geographic orientation) and innovation activity of Russian firms, measured by patent applications and the number of issued patents. We find that the CPSU legacy does not affect economic growth. However, it has an influence on the innovation activity of Russian firms. In regions with larger CPSU membership in the past, firms are characterized by lower innovation activity. Again, this is most likely linked to the persistence of Soviet bureaucratic practices.

This chapter presents the measurement approach we use to capture the variation in the CPSU membership rate in the regions of Russia. Specifically, we discuss how the data from the Congresses of the CPSU can be used to obtain the variation we are interested in; we also look at alternative sources of information available from archival sources and Soviet-era publications. The chapter also discusses how the heterogeneity of Russian regions will be used in our analysis to identify the effects of the Communist legacies, as well as introduces other datasets of the Communist era we apply in our study

In this chapter, we develop the theoretical framework of the book. Specifically, we advance the concept of the Janus-faced legacies of the CPSU. On the one hand, the CPSU is seen as an example of “Communist” legacies, associated specifically with the functioning of Communist rule in Russia. On the other hand, CPSU legacies can be associated with the prevailing clientelism and patronal politics of the Communist era. CPSU legacies could be associated with the ideological loyalty of the former Communists to the party, but also (and this appears to be more likely, given the contemporary accounts) with opportunism and willingness to adjust to any political environment in order to promote one’s career. The chapter links the investigation of the book to the broader literature on historical legacies, as well as outlines the main hypotheses guiding our investigation.

The conclusion summarizes the main findings of the study and puts them into perspective, highlighting our contribution to the general political science scholarship. In particular, we show the importance of our findings in three main contexts: the post-Soviet countries, the post-Communist countries (including countries currently ruled by the Communist parties like China), and the single-party regimes and their legacies. We discuss the implications of our study for these countries, identifying main contributions and suggesting avenues for future research.

This chapter looks at the cultural environment in which the CPSU legacy flourishes. Specifically, it focuses on Soviet movies and their perception by Russian society. It shows that Soviet cinematography still enjoys very high popularity in Russia (to a larger extent than modern Russian movies or even foreign movies) and describes how Soviet movies (directly or indirectly) create a favorable environment for the persistence of the legacies of the Communist past. It also briefly looks at how the Communist era is discussed in modern Russian cinema and how it reuses the concepts and ideas of Soviet cinematography.

In this chapter, we study how the CPSU legacy affects the levels of income inequality in Russian regions. Equality is one of the key elements of the Communist ideology; yet after the collapse of the USSR former Communists were relatively successful in adjusting to the new market economy, which could make them less willing to support redistribution. Our analysis shows that, controlling for the differences in income per capita, the CPSU legacy is associated with lower levels of inequality. However, these differences are not driven by public redistribution or by charitable activity. We hypothesize that the effects of the CPSU legacy are connected to the development of informal networks in regional societies, which could serve as a redistribution device.

This chapter looks at the consequences of the CPSU legacies for public policy. We single out one particularly important aspect of it: healthcare and, especially, differences in the mortality rates across regions of Russia. We show that CPSU legacies are associated with higher male mortality and attribute this to poorer performance of the healthcare system due to it inheriting many negative features of the Soviet era. This effect is particularly pronounced in rich regions, where CPSU legacies preclude the development of institutions necessary for solving the modern healthcare challenges of “man-made and age diseases.” In poorer regions, where the main problem for healthcare is the weakening of the old Soviet infrastructure, the CPSU legacy can actually have a positive effect due to the persistence of bureaucratic practices

The chapter investigates how the CPSU legacy affects the subnational variation in the level of corruption in Russia. It shows that Russian regions with a higher share of CPSU members in their population in the past are characterized by higher corruption; the effect is present for both demand for bribes and willingness of the population to pay bribes (as well as acceptance of bribery as a social phenomenon). This legacy of the CPSU, again, is mediated by the persistence of the Soviet-era bureaucracy.