Gennady Andreyevich Zyuganov marches under the Red Banner of the Communist Party, lamenting the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. Hoping to rise to power on a groundswell protest vote, Zyuganov, 51, is promising a return to the good old days, now thoroughly mythologized in the Russian popular imagination. Zyuganov's Communist Party includes a broad coalition of nationalists, monarchists and doctrinaire Communists united in their distaste for the new era of democracy and reforms. Playing to veterans, he consistently lauds the spirit of sacrifice and community often credited with Russia's victory over Germany in the Second World War. Tellingly, Zyuganov tries to avoid mentioning the "mistakes" of the past, covering the human rights abuses of the Soviet period with praise for "great leaders" like Lenin and Stalin. A man who claims to have read the Bible twice, Zyuganov has cleverly done away with the old Party ban on religion, making the party all the more palatable to nationalists who consider the Orthodox church and the Russian soul inseparable. Although a small highly visible nouveau riche class makes much of new reforms, one in three Russians live below the poverty line, and yearn wistfully for the days of Soviet greatness. These sentiments give Zyuganov hope that he can dislodge Yeltsin in June and reclaim Russia for the Communist Party. --Terence Nelan