Russia's reds in from the cold

But many experts say that the stubborn pride of lifelong Communists, and widespread nostalgia for the Soviet Union, do not fully explain the party's phoenixlike recovery.

"The original cause of communism was capitalism, and Yeltsin created one of the nastiest versions of capitalism ever seen," says Boris Kagarlitsky, a left-wing sociologist in Moscow. "It shouldn't be surprising that people who were experiencing harsh impoverishment and social humiliation would turn to the party that symbolized resistance to capitalism."

During the initial post-Soviet period, hyperinflation destroyed the savings of millions of ordinary Russians. Crooked privatizations of state assets put vast wealth in the hands of a small minority, while most people fell into poverty. A 1998 financial crash, brought on by Kremlin incompetence, slashed the buying power of already meager wages by two-thirds.

A popular joke of the mid-'90s asked: What has Yeltsin accomplished in a few years that the Communists couldn't in 70 years? The answer: He's made Communism look good.

Yeltsin's penchant for refighting his historic battle with communism, rather than building a viable new democratic movement, also played into the Communist Party's hands. In 1993, he mobilized tanks and troops to blast away the "Communist-dominated" - but freely elected - legislature.

In subsequent parliamentary elections, the Communists roared back, often taking a quarter or more of the votes. In 1996, the awkward and lackluster Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov captured more than 40 percent of popular support in a dirty campaign that narrowly reelected Yeltsin.

"Yeltsin liked confrontation, it was his political style," says Mikhail Ilyin, deputy editor of Polis, an independent Moscow-based journal of political studies. "But this had a polarizing effect on society. In effect, he forced people to choose between him and the Communists, and that did nothing to broaden the country's political choices."

However, Russia's current president, Vladimir Putin, could succeed in killing the Communist Party with compromise where Yeltsin's antagonistic approach failed.

A former KGB agent, Mr. Putin has restored many old symbols, such as the Soviet anthem. He has pledged not to remove Bolshevik founder Vladimir Lenin from his Red Square mausoleum, though Yeltsin threatened repeatedly to do so. Under Putin, military spending has been hiked and old Soviet allies, such as Cuba and North Korea, are back in favor. Perhaps most important, pensions have been significantly raised.

But how far Putin is ready to go in pleasing the Communists remains to be seen. A public appeal signed by Mr. Zyuganov and 42 other leading Communists last week urged the Kremlin to purge Yeltsin-era officials and give more power to the secret police in order to "cure a sick state."

"Traditional values are very important for Russians, and this accounts for the endurance of the Communist Party," says Mr. Ilyin.

"But few want to really go back to the past," he says. "Putin will probably respect the Communists as long as they stay in their place."

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