21.   An electoral college vote might tend to favor Ruutel since the college could include many rural and elderly people who look with nostalgia to the Soviet past.

22.   Among some Russians, especially the elderly, there is growing nostalgia for the order of the Soviet past.

23.   But it conceals a country still strongly gripped by its Soviet past.

24.   But few believe there will be a complete return to the repression of the Soviet past if a Communist candidate were to win the presidency.

25.   He is widely popular among Belarusians who are nostalgic for the Soviet past, and he gained nearly unlimited powers last year in a national referendum.

26.   He is widely popular among Belarusians, who are facing economic hardships and are nostalgic for the Soviet past.

27.   He is not encumbered with any ideological baggage from the Soviet past.

28.   It raised questions about whether Estonia, which prides itself on being a leading reformer, can break the habits of its Soviet past.

29.   It will also be a ballot on whether Ukraine keeps chasing Western market reforms or turns back to the Soviet past.

30.   Lukashenko is openly nostalgic for the Soviet past and has little tolerance for dissent.