Quote Originally Posted by Hanna View Post
Ok, so what happened to the leaders of the Communist party in Soviet times? I mean, other than Gorbachev, I know what he did.. But what about the others, they can't all have retired... Are most of them still active politically, if so in what party? Or did they go into private business....?
Differently. Some of them, I think, the majority, (Ligachev, Ryzhkov) entered CPRF but never reached prominent positions. Some of them (Primakov) initially joined opposition but aligned with the government after Putin came to power. Some of them abandoned communist views even before the breakup of the USSR. Still the middle-level functionaries mostly continued their carrier as before but under new banners.

Quote Originally Posted by Hanna View Post
Oops, I just realised: Conservativism in Russia is a completely different thing than in Britain, for example. I guess Conservativism in Russia is "back to the USSR" in some form or shape....
Yes. But all major parties more or less employ this agenda. "Back in the USSR" for many if just preservation of traditional values, family roles, patriotism, ban on "Western" things like homosexualism and gay propaganda, no legalized drugs, no sex education, ban on beer and tobacco advertisement for the youth, no sex on TV, no juvenile courts, strong military, veterans' and pensioneers' rights, no simplified choose-a-b-c-style exams, no revision of the WWII results, no propaganda against the Red Army, support for Russians in the neighboring countries, stricter anti-corruption laws and state control and so on.