Historical Legacies of Communism: Modern Politics, Society, and Economic Development [Hardcover]

Reveals how the legacy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union affects modern politics, society and economic development in post-Communist Russia.Libman and Obydenkova reveal how legacies of Communism have survived in politics, economic development, culture, and society, thirty years after the disintegration of the USSR. This study is built on case studies, interviews and an analysis of mass media previously only available in Russian and discussed here in English for the first time.Libman and Obydenkova reveal how legacies of Communism have survived in politics, economic development, culture, and society, thirty years after the disintegration of the USSR. This study is built on case studies, interviews and an analysis of mass media previously only available in Russian and discussed here in English for the first time.Libman and Obydenkova reveal how legacies of?the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU)?have survived in the politics, economic development, culture, and society of post-Communist regions in the 21st?Century. The authors show how this impact is not driven by Communist ideology but by the clientelistic practices, opportunism and cynicism prevalent in the CPSU. Their study is built on a novel dataset of the CPSU membership rates in Russian regions in the 1950s-1980s, alongside case studies, interviews and an analysis of mass media previously only available in Russian and discussed here in English for the first time. It will appeal to students and scholars of Russian and Eastern European politics and history, and anyone who wants to better understand countries which live or have lived through Communism: from Eastern Europe to China and East Asian Communist states.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 innovatiol"