John T. Ishiyama, "'Red Versus Expert': Candidate Recruitment and Communist Party Adaptation in Post-Soviet Politics," Party Politics, 4 (July 1998), 297-318.

First Paragraph:
The return of the postcommunist parties to the political scene in Eastern Europe and in the former Soviet Union has become of increasing interest, not only to political scientists but to the public at large (Racz, 1993; Zubek, 1994; Agh, 1995; Evans and Whitefield, 1995; Mahr and Nagle, 1995; Waller, 1995). Nowhere has the importance of these parties in postcommunist politics been so evident as in the Russian Federation, particularly with the political revival of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF). Surprisingly, although there has been a considerable amount of attention paid to the postcommunist parties and party systems in Eastern Europe, relatively little systematic attention has been paid to the case of the KPRF (Ishiyama, 1996a). Indeed, although the party's electoral gains in 1995 were generally expected, the magnitude of communist gains took many western analysts by surprise. These gains, coupled with the strong showing of the KPRF candidate, Gennady Zyuganov, in the presidential elections of 16 June 1996, have rekindled an interest in a party that had, until recently, been relatively ignored.

Figures and Tables:
Table 1: Votes and seats won by party, 1993 and 1995
Table 2: Size of city of permanent residence for all candidates by party for 1993 and 1995, in percentages (number of candidates in parentheses)
Table 3: Difference of means test for variable POLNOT for all candidates, 1993 and 1995, by party
Table 4: Political notability of all candidates by size of city of permanent residence, KPRF, 1995
Table 5: Political notability of all candidates by size of city of permanent residence, APR, 1995
Table 6: Political notability of all candidates by size of city of permanent residence, LDPR, 1995
Table 7: Difference of means test for political notability of KPRF single-mandate district candidates, 1993 and 1995
Table 8: Mean POLNOT scores for KPRF single-mandate district candidates by city size of permanent residence, 1993 and 1995
Table 9: Coefficient estimates for probit analysis, dependent variable = KPRFWIN, only non-incumbent candidates

Last Paragraph:
What are the long-term consequences of the 1995 election on the future development of the KPRF? A likely scenario would involve its further fragmentation, particularly if the enemy that unifies them (President El'tsin) passes from the political scene. The influx of two kinds of Duma deputies, those who are not dependent on any particular political ideology and those who are party diehards, may further divide the party from within. Indeed, Remington and Smith (1995) noted that after the 1993 election, district deputies tended to have more extreme views than party list deputies and tended to be more cohesive in their voting patterns than the party list deputies. The results of the 1995 parliamentary election are likely to exacerbate this tendency toward internal division between the 'moderate' party center and the more radical local organizations in the rural areas and smaller cities. Although the presidential election served to rally the party and its various wings, the 'truce' is likely to be temporary - support for Zyuganov's candidacy stemmed largely from opposition to El'tsin. To be sure, parties have survived and even flourished despite such divisions between center and local organizations (witness the major parties in the USA, for instance), and there is always the possibility that a balance will be struck between the center and local party organizations within the KPRF as well. However, this time the issues that divide the leadership and the local organizations are over basic principles of the party's identity, and it is unlikely that these differ-ences will soon be resolved. Whatever the case, the results of the 1995 elec-tion will have important and far-reaching consequences for the future development of the KPRF and its role in the democratization of Russian politics.