Communism in modern Eastern Europe?

[Albion]

How much support does it have and by whom? Is it popular or failing and is it mainly amongst the older generations or are there many ideological students involved?

What is general public opinion in your countries and your own views? Would it ever stand any chance of returning and how has the economic crisis affected beliefs about communism and capitalism?

Please excuse all the questions, I'm just curious as to what the general mood is surrounding it in the different countries.
No Osweo, please.

[Äike]

How much support does it have and by whom? Is it popular or failing and is it mainly amongst the older generations or are there many ideological students involved?

What is general public opinion in your countries and your own views? Would it ever stand any chance of returning and how has the economic crisis affected beliefs about communism and capitalism?

Please excuse all the questions, I'm just curious as to what the general mood is surrounding it in the different countries.
No Osweo, please.

In Russia, ex-commies practically rule the country, like Putin.

Estonia isn't an Eastern-European country, but if we look at Eastern-Europe as ex-Commie zone, then I can say a few things about the situation here.

Over here, communism is non-existent. There are no communist parties here, nor are there are any people who support communism.

In 2012, you could say that there's no real difference between a country like Estonia and a modern Western country. Even in the USSR, Russians saw Estonians as "Westerners" and Russian tourists visited Tallinn's old town, to get a feeling of walking around in a historical "Western" town.

Commies occupied this country from 1940 to 1941 and from 1944 to 1991. No one supported them even during the Soviet occupation.

To sum it up, people have never supported Communism in Estonia, even during Communist rule/occupation.

[Joe McCarthy]

The only openly Communist Party with any real strength is, predictably, in Russia. It's the second strongest party in the country and its support base is pensioners, industrial workers, and some disaffected students.

Parties that are essentially retreads of old Communist Parties have some strength in places like Serbia, Germany, and probably a couple of other places I'm not thinking of offhand.

[Unurautare]

Eastern Slavs are still missing it a lot,especially Belarus and Ukraine and Slavs from Rep.Moldova,because during the USSR the whole socialist block would work for them,while now they are poor as Africa or poorer. Everybody else(non-slavs and non-jews) generally hates Communism and see them as a invading plague that ruined the normal life of their countries and of themselves for generations.


EDIT: Russia also supports the Communists in Transnistria and Rep.Moldova.

[Joe McCarthy]

Yes, Moldova. For some reason they slipped my mind. The Communist Party there is unique in that it's been the only post-Soviet party to hold a majority in parliament. They are seen by many as a reformed party, unlike the Russian though.

[morski]

If I'm not mistaken they had a lower standard in the USSR in 70s and 80s than the rest of the Comecon countries. DDR for sure and I remember a lot of anecdotal stories about how dirt poor the Russians were compared to us back then.

[Waidewut]

In Latvia we have a "Socialist party of Latvia", which is Marxist by definition and it's within a political union with parties who support the Russian minority .
They have 3 seats out of 100 in our parliament and 1 out of our 8 Europarliament seats, so they aren't a considerable political force.

A part of the brainwashed old people, who don't remember Stalin-time terror, support communism and the "good Soviet times". They mainly remember 0% unemployment and free health care.

[Äike]

In Latvia we have a "Socialist party of Latvia", which is Marxist by definition and it's within a political union with parties who support the Russian minority .
They have 3 seats out of 100 in our parliament and 1 out of our 8 Europarliament seats, so they aren't a considerable political force.

A part of the brainwashed old people, who don't remember Stalin-time terror, support communism and the "good Soviet times". They mainly remember 0% unemployment and free health care.

Wtf, communism actually exists in Latvia? You are more Eastern-European/Slavic influenced than I thought.

In Estonia, the political party that descends from the former Estonian Commie party (Eestimaa Ühendatud Vasakpartei/Estonian United Left Party) has 0 seats out of 101 in the parliament and 0 seats of 6 in the European parliament. Most people don't even know that they exist.

I sincerely pity Latvia and hope that all Latvians will vote against making Russian a 2nd official language in Latvia.

[Peyrol]

Eastern Slavs are still missing it a lot,especially Belarus and Ukraine and Slavs from Rep.Moldova,because during the USSR the whole socialist block would work for them,while now they are poor as Africa or poorer. Everybody else(non-slavs and non-jews) generally hates Communism and see them as a invading plague that ruined the normal life of their countries and of themselves for generations.


EDIT: Russia also supports the Communists in Transnistria and Rep.Moldova.

How is viewed Ceausescu in Romania?

I know many romanians here that are a bit nostalgic.

[The Ripper]

Wtf, communism actually exists in Latvia? You are more Eastern-European/Slavic influenced than I thought.

So if all the Russians in Estonia started to vote for "The Communist Party" and they then received 30%, would you be wondering how Estonia is surprisingly Slav-influenced?