In this chapter of our book, we investigate the effect of the CPSU legacy on the economic performance of Russian regions. We use a broad catalogue of indicators, looking at the economic growth, foreign trade (both the overall volume and the geographic orientation) and innovation activity of Russian firms, measured by patent applications and the number of issued patents. We find that the CPSU legacy does not affect economic growth. However, it has an influence on the innovation activity of Russian firms. In regions with larger CPSU membership in the past, firms are characterized by lower innovation activity. Again, this is most likely linked to the persistence of Soviet bureaucratic practices.

In this chapter, we study how the CPSU legacy affects the levels of income inequality in Russian regions. Equality is one of the key elements of the Communist ideology; yet after the collapse of the USSR former Communists were relatively successful in adjusting to the new market economy, which could make them less willing to support redistribution. Our analysis shows that, controlling for the differences in income per capita, the CPSU legacy is associated with lower levels of inequality. However, these differences are not driven by public redistribution or by charitable activity. We hypothesize that the effects of the CPSU legacy are connected to the development of informal networks in regional societies, which could serve as a redistribution device.

This chapter looks at the consequences of the CPSU legacies for public policy. We single out one particularly important aspect of it: healthcare and, especially, differences in the mortality rates across regions of Russia. We show that CPSU legacies are associated with higher male mortality and attribute this to poorer performance of the healthcare system due to it inheriting many negative features of the Soviet era. This effect is particularly pronounced in rich regions, where CPSU legacies preclude the development of institutions necessary for solving the modern healthcare challenges of “man-made and age diseases.” In poorer regions, where the main problem for healthcare is the weakening of the old Soviet infrastructure, the CPSU legacy can actually have a positive effect due to the persistence of bureaucratic practices

The chapter investigates how the CPSU legacy affects the subnational variation in the level of corruption in Russia. It shows that Russian regions with a higher share of CPSU members in their population in the past are characterized by higher corruption; the effect is present for both demand for bribes and willingness of the population to pay bribes (as well as acceptance of bribery as a social phenomenon). This legacy of the CPSU, again, is mediated by the persistence of the Soviet-era bureaucracy.

While in the previous chapters we look at how the CPSU legacy affects the functioning of the state in Russian regions (and, in particular, the way subnational bureaucracy operates), in this chapter we look at the impact of the CPSU legacy on public attitudes, and in particular attitudes toward migrants. Russia is an important magnet for labor migration from the former Soviet Union. While from the point of view of ideology former Communists should embrace this migration, due to the importance of the proletarian internationalism in the Communist ideology there is also an alternative hypothesis: Communists, due to their stronger involvement in the Soviet power structures, could to a larger extent have internalized the actual day-to-day practices of ethnic discrimination that existed in the Soviet Union. Our results indeed show that CPSU legacies are associated with greater intolerance toward labor migrants.

The chapter looks at how the CPSU legacy influences subnational political pluralism and competitiveness across Russian regions. We show that regions of Russia that were characterized by a larger share of CPSU members in their population in the past today exhibit lower levels of political pluralism, even if one controls for other predictors of subnational democracy or authoritarianism. This effect does not seem to be linked to the persistence of the Soviet elites. Rather, it is associated with the functioning of bureaucracy: in regions with a high CPSU membership share in the past, bureaucratic practices have remained more stable since the Soviet era, and this provided the incumbents with an instrument they could have used to consolidate their political control over the region.