Russia's persistent communist legacy: nostalgia, reaction and reactionary expectations

A political scientist looks at nostalgia, differentiating it from reaction, a desire to see the past return, and from expectations of the eventual restoration of the Communist system. Using data collected for the 2005 New Russia Barometer survey, the article explores the determinants of each of these three variables and tests explanations based on a legacy of values inherited from the past, political and economic performance, social structure, and cognitive differences. A causal model relating nostalgia, reaction, and expectations of restoration is constructed and its implications for understanding the legacy of the Communist past in Russian politics today are analyzed