The sleeping bear is starting to wake up.

"During perestroika, the Party was the object of universal hatred. But the fifteen years since its collapse have drastically changed public sentiments. First, the Party has finally receded into history - it no longer stirs emotion, and its place is in history books. Second, Russians' political apathy, cynicism, and fatigue have reached a point where their attitude towards the CPSU has become stunningly positive. According to a recent poll by the Public Opinion Foundation, 51% of Russians consider the CPSU's [the communist party's] role beneficial rather than harmful, and a mere 15% hold the opposite view. The same 51% think that it is advisable to learn from the CPSU's experience. No wonder so many Russians are ready to accept a one-party system and a special role for United Russia, and see Leonid Brezhnev, once no more than the butt of humiliating jokes, as the man whose rule was the strongest (after Stalin), and under whom life was at its best."

Story here.