A long road ahead.

From 1917 to 1991, politics in Russia started and finished with the Communist Party; it was the only game in town. What passed for elections were a contest between members of the same political party -- no candidates other than communists were allowed to run.

The people who ruled the country were dictators; some more brutal than others. The Communist Party owned everything -- land, factories, housing, farms. The masses went about their daily lives under the direction of the Party. They were told where to live, where to work, and where to travel. There was very little freedom of choice in anything.

The ideal behind this system was that everyone lived and worked for the good of the community. Individual needs were to be set aside for the good of society as a whole. All of society's wealth was to divided up equally, in the words of the architect of communism, Karl Marx, "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs."

This state-controlled system was set up by Vladimir Lenin after the Russian Revolution of 1917. Lenin's successors, most notably Joseph Stalin (1924-1953), absorbed many neighbouring countries (Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and others). Russia eventually took over 14 states to form the Soviet Union.

This vast country also had military, economic, and political control over most of Central Europe. At the same time, it exported its communist ideology to many nations in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

For the Western democracies, the Soviet Union was the force to be reckoned with. But, the power of the Soviet Union, under the domination of Russia, was built on sand not rock.

Karl Marx the idealist lived before the great psychiatrist Sigmund Freud and so seems not to have understood human behaviour. Humans perform best when they are offered rewards for their efforts. If there is no incentive for working hard they do as little as possible. Under communism, individuals learned to lie back and do nothing. Also, the idea of everything being owned by the community instead of individuals meant that nobody felt responsible for upkeep and maintenance; in the words of the Spanish proverb: "The cow of many is well milked and badly fed."

The Soviet economy was hopelessly inefficient. The goods produced in factories were of terrible quality and, despite, its rich farmland, the country could not feed its people. More and more of the economic output was diverted to support the huge military establishment.

It was a system that could not be sustained.

Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985. He was the first Soviet leader to realize the Soviet system needed some fundamental reform. He tried to change it within the framework of communism. His policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) were an attempt to open the windows to let in some fresh air. But, what came in was a full-blown gale that destroyed the Soviet Union and communism.

In a bloodless revolution in 1991, the republics that had formed the Soviet Union went their separate ways, leaving Russia under the control of Boris Yeltsin.

Mr. Yeltsin is a product of the old communist system. As a member of the Supreme Soviet he was a senior member of the ruling elite. The authoritarian nature of Soviet government is in his bones and sinew. When parliament obstructed him during 1993, he simply shut it down. When rebellious members refused to go home, Mr. Yeltsin called in the army and shelled them until they gave up.

But, politically, Boris Yeltsin is wily. He saw the end coming for communism before many others spotted it. He was quick to bale out of the system that had brought him to power. If he seems now to be a believer in democracy and free-market economics it's because he can read the tea leaves in his cup. David Remnick writes in his 1997 book "Resurrection" that Yeltsin is not the great defender of democracy most people believe him to be. He is a classic opportunist who chose the exact right moment to drop his communist past and appear as the defender of democracy. The dynamic, striking man (when he's not sick) with the shock of white hair and the film star charisma has become a tyrant-tsar. He has sanctioned war and even, while he was on a boat, ordered his guards to toss his spokesman (since fired) overboard.

As President of Russia he set about a rapid dismantling of communism and the building up of democratic institutions. Much progress has been made, but democracy in Russia remains a pale shadow of what we know as democracy in Canada.

Media is now in private hands and its owners have a cozy relationship with Mr. Yeltsin. As a result, his political opponents get almost no media coverage. Some irregularities take place during elections; favours and cash are exchanged for votes. And, four killings early in 1997 highlighted corruption within Parliament itself. In what carried all the marks of gangland hits, four parliamentary assistants were murdered. Criminals buy parliamentary assistant jobs for as much as $2,500 each, because the position gives them exemption from traffic laws and access to a variety of perks. Some deputies are said to have as many as 200 "political assistants." Deputies also find that selling their votes to business-people and crooks is a profitable fund-raiser. It's also claimed that Boris Yeltsin's administration is not above buying the votes of deputies with offers of cars and nice apartments.

The official salary of a deputy is about $500 a month. But, many parliamentarians have lavish lifestyles that suggest they have other sources of income. And, there are no laws on parliamentary ethics to control the corruption. But, warts and all, Russia's Parliament is more democratic than what went before.

Parliament has two houses. The Duma is the lower house and this is where laws are drafted. The upper house is the Federation Council and its main function is to protect regional interests. Parliament is where the two contending forces in Russia today push and pull one another.

On one side are the pro-Western, liberal forces. These are the people who want Russia to become a fully democratic society with a free enterprise economy. The public support for this group comes from younger, better-education, and mostly urban Russians. A leading spokes person is Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov. While, the Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, is building a national following as a leader of the business community.

Opposing them are people who want to go back to the more secure Soviet past. Supporters of this ideology tend to be older, mostly unskilled, and live in rural areas or small towns. Their leader is Gennady Zyuganov, head of the Communist Party.

Allied to this group in their opposition to reform are Russian nationalists under the leadership in Parliament of Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Outside parliament Alexander Lebed is a prominent nationalist.

Together, the communists and nationalists dominate the Duma. In fact, if the various anti-liberal factions had been able to put aside their differences they would have defeated Boris Yeltsin in the 1996 presidential election. As it was, Mr. Yeltsin won with 55% of the vote. And, with a constitution that concentrates power in the president's hands, he doesn't really have to worry too much about a grumpy and obstructionist parliament.

But, the Boris Yeltsin who won the 1996 election was not the same Boris Yeltsin who bullied Parliament into submission in 1993. Years of heavy drinking and a very serious heart condition left him exhausted and scarcely able to govern. A quintuple heart bypass operation in the fall of 1996 put him out of action for several weeks. Then early in 1997, he was back in hospital with a serious bout of pneumonia.

One result of the president's illness has been the stalling of the reform process. At a time when the country needs an active and involved leader, it has one who has been sidelined by ill health. Mr. Yeltsin seemed to recover some of his old vigour during the summer of 1997, but there are still concerns about how effective he can be.

The liberal daily newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta summed up the thoughts of many when Mr. Yeltsin was laid low by pneumonia: "It's completely clear that if the situation does not change for the better in the near future, then an already weakened Russia will suffer additional losses in domestic and, especially, foreign policy."

FACT FILE

In 1991, Boris Yeltsin won an open presidential election, making him the first person in history to rule Russia with the approval and support of the Russian people.

FACT FILE

In the 1996 presidential election, the former leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev ran but drew less than one percent of the vote.

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES:

1. Open files on each of the contenders for the Russian presidency. Scan media for reports on each and put them in your files. Periodically, review the files and hold a discussion on who seems most likely to become the next president of Russia.

2. Grand Duke Georgy Romanov, a 16-year-old who lives in Spain, is said to be the legitimate claimant to the 1,000-year-old Russian throne. There are many monarchists in Russia who want the young Grand Duke to return to Russia as a symbol of unity in an ethnically diverse and fractious country. Appoint a team of students to research the role of the monarchy in Russian history and to lead a discussion on the pros and cons of its restoration.