Power and opposition in the former Soviet Union: The communist parties of Moldova and Russia

Much of the literature on communist successor parties has concentrated far more on East-Central Europe than the former Soviet bloc and on the 'social-democratic' successors than those of a neo-communist hue. This article aims to extend the comparative impact of studies of such successor parties by analysing two of the principal 'neo-communist' successor parties in the former Soviet Union (FSU): the Russian CPRF (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) and PCRM (Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova). I argue that legacy-based approaches, which focus on the 'patrimonial communist' history of the FSU, explain much of the general context for party origins, political profile and the political capital possessed by the neo-communists, but are far less persuasive at explaining both the timing and extent of party return and their longer-term trajectory and electoral success than previously accounted for in the literature. In particular, differences in the political environment (such as the role of presidentialism versus parliamentarianism) and (especially) the role of political agency are seen to have greater importance.