Was Russia better off under the Soviet Union?

[Nairi]

I agree with that, but the despite the hardships, the Communists don't seem to be winning elections there.

Yes, people got freedom, found out how fake and corrupt actually Soviet system was and in general don't want to go back, but at times they have strong nostalgie for the times when they had no worries, state was taking care over everything. All ex Sviet Republics experience that now. It has been only 20 years, they need more time to come to terms with themselves

[Geronimo]

If you want to live like a sheep then Soviet Russia is the country for you. I can't believe that after all that's happened people still sob about that period of time. What I find particularly stupid is nostalgia coming from ex-soviet slave states.

[Joe McCarthy]

If you want to live like a sheep then Soviet Russia is the country for you. I can't believe that after all that's happened people still sob about that period of time. What I find particularly stupid is nostalgia coming from ex-soviet slave states.

People, particularly a defeated people, tend to remember fondly what made them great and powerful. Hitler was well regarded in West Germany twenty years after the Third Reich. From there his popularity collapsed.

[Sarmatian]

If you want to live like a sheep then Soviet Russia is the country for you.

If you think people in modern liberal democratic countries are much different from 'sheep' of the Soviet Union, think again. The social structure of modern Western countries is very twisted form of slavery in which people sincerely believe they have a free choice.

I can't believe that after all that's happened people still sob about that period of time. What I find particularly stupid is nostalgia coming from ex-soviet slave states.

If by that you mean Social Republics like Ukraine or Armenia then you are wrong. They have never been considered as slaves. In fact economies of many of them were heavily dependent on funding from Moscow.

[Sarmatian]

Looking at Russia under the Soviets and where it is now and forecasted to be in the future, was Russia better off under the Soviet Union and would it be better off if it were still Communist?

Its actually two questions and they have different answer.

First, from the point of view of average citizen Russia was better off under the Soviet Union. It had very well organized social infrastructures, production, defense and offered a high degree of security to law abiding citizen. Everything worked fairly well for those who didn't ask for much.

Second, it would not be better under Communist government now. The communist ideology itself has number of flaws that compromise stability of any system based solely on it.

While current state of affairs in Russia in general is worse than it was during Communist state I think its necessary to transform to more progressive state.

[derLowe]

Looking at Russia under the Soviets and where it is now and forecasted to be in the future, was Russia better off under the Soviet Union and would it be better off if it were still Communist?

I think USSR was a bigger Super Power than the Russia is now but I think that they would have struggled to compete in today world with the political model they had.

[beaver]

The Soviet people were not even allowed to listen to the Beatles.

Are you joking? The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd were on every tape-recorder, nobody cared what is allowed, what is forbidden. Where did you live?

[Joe McCarthy]

I think USSR was a bigger Super Power than the Russia is now but I think that they would have struggled to compete in today world with the political model they had.

That's a good possibility. One criticism of the USSR in the 80s is that it was failing to keep up in the information age, that being a Marxist state it was stagnating in an outmoded industrialism-centered ideology.

[derLowe]

That's a good possibility. One criticism of the USSR in the 80s is that it was failing to keep up in the information age, that being a Marxist state it was stagnating in an outmoded industrialism-centered ideology.

I am pretty sure we would not be where we are today in Information Technology if the soviet Union was still around, perhaps we would have excelled in other spheres but not in Information Technology. Can you imagine the USSR with Youtube or Email on a large scale?

[beaver]

Can you imagine the USSR with Youtube or Email on a large scale?

Soviets developed strong programms in these direcrions but all in the military sphere, to do at least the next model of car was impossible. For what? Only fight against agressors