the organization’s primary support comes from those generations who properly remember the Soviet Russia.

Over and above the retro imagery, the party is headed by a political relic. Gennady Zyuganov, 73, has been its leader since 1993. Barring an unexpected event, he will lead the party in his fifth presidential election next year. Few expect a breakthrough. His electoral support has been in clear decline since 1996 and the closely fought campaign against Yeltsin. Back then, his support was so strong that the entire Western-supported government machine was unleashed to stop him.

Communist party supporters carry a banner that reads 'the Great October's Socialistic Revolution' during a rally AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko

Earlier this year, rumours abounded that Zyuganov would stand down as party leader — to make way for a youngerwas, for example, the only faction in the Duma to demand an investigation into corruption allegations around Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Klychkov claims the Soviet Union was free of corruption: “Stalin died with just one suit and a pair of boots in his wardrobe, that's why people trusted him,” he says.

The young communists may have support from Russian society over Stalin’s role as the man who saved the war, but the nation is divided over the mastermind of the Bolshevik revolution. In this, the centennial year of the Russian revolution, a poll found that over half of Russians polled believe Lenin should be taken out of the mausoleum on the Red Square, and finally be laid to rest.

Asked if he thinks the Bolshevik leader should be put into the