“Anyone who doesn’t regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart. Anyone who wants it restored has no brain”
-Vladimir Putin
On December the 26th of 1991 precisely at 7:32pm the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ceased to exist, the bright Red flag was lowered in Moscow's Kremlin’s complex and replaced with the three colored Russian flag. This was much more than the lowering of a flag though, it meant the end of the largest totalitarian neo-empire to ever exist, marked throughout its history with violence, revolution and corruption. However the government that followed was not that great either, and many people started to yearn for the old communist regime. But after decades of a corrupt communist government why did people start longing for it?
How was life there? Was it good? Life in the Soviet Union was harsh, with the privileged elite having all the luxuries of the former Tsars, while the vast majority made just enough to support their families. After World War II, during the cold war, the Soviet Union based its entire existence on being more powerful and stronger than the western countries, specifically the United States, without caring about the well-being of their population. After, came the Space Race which put an even bigger strain on the economy, with a lot of government funds being directed to beating Western countries and very little being left for its citizens. Daily needs of the people were put aside, whilst the government prepared for a Third World War and global domination. Was there poverty, inequality, and unemployment? Comparing the US poverty measure with the U.S.S.R. a big portion of the Soviet community lived below indigent conditions, and they couldn’t even afford a coat or a hat for harsh winter conditions. On the other hand, unemployment wasn’t a problem for the Union after 1930, as a matter of fact from the years 1961 to 1991 not working for four months in a row was considered a crime, further, full employment was a promise by the leadership of the republics.
The Soviet Union was known for their unique and quite criticized form of government. Throughout the years the Union was active, it received a lot of accusations from the international community, including human rights violations, lack of political freedom and also censorship. The soviets believed that having more than one political party would generate discord and discussions among their social classes; that's why the only party authorized was the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The political ideology of this party was Marxism and Leninism, it was developed by the Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin. This ideology advocates for the imperative establishment of a dictatorship championing the proletariat, ruled by a revolutionary vanguard party as the political prelude to the arrangement of communism.
The “Golden Age” myth that was spread by the Soviets through propaganda and brainwashing wasn’t as rosy as it is painted to be. Citizens were led to believe that the Soviet lifestyle was superior to that in Western countries and this harsh way of life came to be glorified. But even after all the evidence that life in the Soviet Union was not as it was said to be, why do some people long for this lifestyle?
According to a poll done by the Washington Post and using data from Levada, a polling firm, about 56% of Russians regret the fall of the Soviet empire. This number has dropped below 50% only once since 1992, in 2012 when it hit 49%. Apart from this year, this number has kept steady above 50%, with more than half of the Russian population missing the Soviet Union. Levada also asked those who answered the poll why they seemed to be inclined towards the USSR and their answers were mostly similar.
The most popular response was that people missed the economic stability that the communist government brought. The economy was so stable in the USSR that people were used to hoarding money because they knew the Rubles values would not change in 10, 20 years. After the fall of the Soviet Union, economic reforms took a turn for the worse and general living conditions considerably deteriorated. Corruption reached peak levels, and a deeply flawed privatization system was put into effect, where much of the country’s economy relied on shady, corrupt oligarchists. Ironically, the Russian economy was more transparent during the Soviet Union. Then, when the economy was finally starting to get better, the 1998 financial crisis hit and the gains that had been made were lost. When the now-president Vladimir Putin came into power in 1999 the economy began to stabilize. He confronted the oligarchs, signed into law a series of liberal economic reforms, and poverty in Russia was reduced by more than half in his first term. The most popular pillar of communism is the idea that everyone earns the same amount of money, no matter their profession or their education. The appeal of this ideal is very popular amongst the lazy. mediocre citizens who want to earn easy money.
The second most popular response was “a lost sense of belonging to a great power”. This nostalgia may not be limited to Russia though. A recent survey by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Bank found that more than half of the respondents from former Soviet states said that they believed a return to an authoritarian regime, such as communism, would be an improvement from their current governments. This same study also found that life satisfaction and happiness remained low in past Soviet countries, even after more than three decades of the fall of the regime. Overall, the legacy of the Soviet Union, going from lifestyle to architecture to art, can still be seen in these countries creating a deep divide between Western and Eastern Europe.
The third most popular response was that people missed the stability that the Soviet Union brought. Surely, times were hard and unequal, but people were guaranteed basic needs such as food and education. This is due to the fact that the USSR had GOSTs or state standards for all kinds of things. Ice cream contained milk and sugar, and meat was actually meat. Bleak, identical apartment blocks were owned and distributed by the government, and while tenants had no choice in the housing they were offered they were guaranteed a roof over their heads. Healthcare was free, and though Russians still have it, what free medicine you could have during the Soviet Union was much better than what you could get for free now.
In conclusion, we believe that people mainly miss the Soviet Union for its easy, yet harsh, lifestyle. People did not have to worry about taxes, or pensions, and they lived in a bubble created by the USSR believing that absolutely everyone had the same opportunities and incomes. For communist people living in western countries, it is easy to say that communism is the best form of government, when they have not seen the true hardships that come with it. Below all the utopia that the Soviet Union tried to create through propaganda and brainwashing, is a corrupt government and elites that hid how much they benefited from the working class, meanwhile, most of its citizens were content with what they were given by the government. Many people also stated that they miss the Soviet Union but don’t want it restored, confirming even more our theory of the longing of the easy lifestyle.
