Was Russia better off under the Soviet Union?

[derLowe]

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

Don't get me wrong, USSR had some fine weapons and great technology at the time. My comments were aimed at the consumers, the average people.

[Padre Organtino]

Soviet Union was actually defeated in Cold War. And it was clearly a war with terrorist acts on both sides, murders and tortures that even now are not really shed light upon by the Media. At the end of the day it was coordinated attack with selected paralysis of key industries and work of hidden agents that killed off USSR not inner problems.
Before accusing me of conspirologism and etc note that I have studied the economic model of the Soviet Union and its political system and I know very well about all the inefficiencies and problems it had.
Whether the average Russian benefited from it or not is a tricky question. I would say that Russians now have high potential and a chance for building a truly free and properous society but their previous generation has clearly lost from collapse of USSR.

[Geronimo]

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.

Give me a break, you watched one to many zeitgeist movies, in western democratic countries nobody's gonna shove you in a moskvich and then shoot you in the back of the head, or send you to a labour camp for taking the liberty to speak your mind. I'm talking about basic human rights here ...

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.

I wasn't necessarilly talking about economy, but since you brought this up Russia was buying resources for pennies from those socialist republics. Don't you tell me how non-russians were treated in Soviet Union.

[beaver]

Don't get me wrong, USSR had some fine weapons and great technology at the time. My comments were aimed at the consumers, the average people.

I agree with you and just talk about system differences.

Soviet Union was actually defeated in Cold War.

Not by weapons but by The Beatles - Russians adored Westerners at these times. The west could get Russia barehanded then. All has changed as for now. You know Russian - read any Russian forum. Strong anti-western haters. Putin won partly because his command managed to convince all that he is Anti-Western and the people on the Bolotnicov square were Pro-Western. Now he will surrender Syria and will kiss all Western leaders who supported him (including Angela Merkel )

[Contra Mundum]

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?

Bootleg copies. The government censored the Beatles for years.

[Teyrn]

The only things to compare contemporary Russia to are:

Soviet Union.
Russia of the czars.

I really don't know, but I'm leaning towards under the reds- they gave us a run for our money for quite a while.

[Sarmatian]

Give me a break, you watched one to many zeitgeist movies, in western democratic countries nobody's gonna shove you in a moskvich and then shoot you in the back of the head, or send you to a labour camp for taking the liberty to speak your mind. I'm talking about basic human rights here ....

I think you are mixing periods of Soviet Union. There is a huge difference between USSR of 1930's and USSR of 1970's-80's.

But if you think in the West you can freely speak your mind about whatever you want and get away with it you are good example of the perfect slave.

Fred A. Leuchter is a good example of 'western freedom'. He was a successful businesman until he has been asked to perform investigation and make report on it. He did it but by chance his professional opinion contradicted commonly accepted story about Holocaust. As result his life was ruined by intentional financial and public actions against him.

The only difference from Soviet Union is that different methods are being used in the West. But anyone who dare to speak up any ideas potentially harmful for individuals in power are getting destroyed.

BTW don't you know the human rights are overrated

I wasn't necessarilly talking about economy, but since you brought this up Russia was buying resources for pennies from those socialist republics. Don't you tell me how non-russians were treated in Soviet Union.

Russia didn't buy anything from other republics because it was one of republics itself. Cental government was ruling over everything and its wasn't pro-Russian. For communists all people are same regardless of their ethnicity and Soviet Union spent huge recources to promote ethnic equality.

[Sarmatian]

Soviet Union was actually defeated in Cold War. And it was clearly a war with terrorist acts on both sides, murders and tortures that even now are not really shed light upon by the Media. At the end of the day it was coordinated attack with selected paralysis of key industries and work of hidden agents that killed off USSR not inner problems.
Before accusing me of conspirologism and etc note that I have studied the economic model of the Soviet Union and its political system and I know very well about all the inefficiencies and problems it had.
Whether the average Russian benefited from it or not is a tricky question. I would say that Russians now have high potential and a chance for building a truly free and properous society but their previous generation has clearly lost from collapse of USSR.

The average Russian of 1980's has lost a lot from collapse of Soviet Union. In USSR people were limited in their freedom to decide for themselves for a few generations. Once they were left on their own in governing vacuum it has had disastrous consequences. But as I said before it was necessary.

[Nairi]

Don't you tell me how non-russians were treated in Soviet Union.

I am not sure what you are referring here to but I don't recall any story of non Russians being mistreated by Russians during USSR. It was opposite, there was no nationalism and all Republics were respectful and good to each other.

[Albion]

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.

The Soviet nostalgia is often from left-wingers in "the west" who are looking for an alternative.