Moscow: Two decades after the ban imposed by

then Russian President Boris Yeltsin on this day, the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) still lives on in

the modern political system of the former Soviet superpower.

The ruling United Russia party mostly comprises of the

Communist era `haves`, although the change in the regional

leadership by President Dmitry Medvedev, a past member of the

Young Communist League, has installed former CPSU youth wing

members in place of powerful ex-secretaries, who smoothly

moved to the posts of governors after the Soviet collapse.

The United Russia, formally led by Russian strongman

Vladimir Putin, is often termed as the `trade-union` of

ex-CPSU members by its opponents for the Soviet-style politics

and depriving the parliament of its voice by overwhelming the

Duma with the help of `administrative resources`.

Two decades on, the Russian society is still split on

whether it was for better or for worse the ban on CPSU that

had ruled over the Soviet Union for 74 years.

It is noteworthy that a month after the ban, the Union of

Soviet Socialist Republics collapsed, which once by Putin was

described as the `catastrophe of enormous proportions`.

Slightly less than half of Russians (47 per cent) believe

that Yeltsin`s decision was wrong, while only 26 per cent

approve of the move, according to a recent poll carried out by

the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM).

Twenty years ago, these figures were rather different,

with 38 per cent of people in favour of the decision and the

same number against it.

Today, the Communist party of the Russian Federation

revived as the parliamentary party in 1993 as the successor to

the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic`s Communist party, is

the second most powerful after the United Russia. It claims to

have support of 35 per cent people.

Many experts here believe that in case of fair elections

on December 4, the KPRF led by Gennady Zyuganov will improve

its position in new Duma and the ruling United Russia, which

has two-thirds majority in the outgoing house will have to be

satisfied with simple majority in the 450-strong lower house.

PTI