Historical Legacies of Communism

Alexander Libman is Professor of Social Sciences and Eastern European Studies at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, and a research affiliate at the International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow. He is the author, co-author or co-editor of ten books. Anastassia V. Obydenkova is a visiting Professor at Barcelona Institute of International Studies, leading research fellow at National Research University Higher School of Economics, research affiliate at Institute for Economic Analysis of Spanish Council for Scientific Research. She was a Fox Fellow at Yale University, Fung Fellow at Princeton University, and Davis Senior Research Scholar at Harvard University. She is the author of multiple articles and books.

• 1. Introduction; 2. The CPSU legacy: Leninism or clientelism? 3. Cultural environment and Soviet cinematography as a legacy of the CPSU; 4. Measuring CPSU legacies; 5. Democracy; 6. Corruption; 7. Inequality; 8. Mortality; 9. Attitudes towards migrants; 10. Economic development and innovations; 11. The origin and persistence of legacies; 12. Conclusion.

'In this highly original study, Libman and Obydenkova show that the saturation of Communist Party membership in various regions of Russia during the Soviet period remains associated with such contemporary phenomena as lower levels of inequality and democracy and greater bureaucratic corruption – decades after the demise of the Soviet state. In so doing, they adeptly demonstrate the Communist Party's persisting legacies for contemporary Russia.' Mark R. Beissinger, Henry W. Putnam Professor of Politics, Princeton University