• QUORA: Why do so many Russians seem to miss the Soviet Union?

    From David P.@21:1/5 to All on Wed Aug 17 09:07:14 2022
    QUORA: Why do so many Russians seem to miss the Soviet Union? Do they really miss standing in line to buy food all day, shortages, famine, political repression, KGB rule, and the poor standard of living?
    Answered by Jon Shore, Jul 25
    I lived and worked in the Soviet Union during the mid to late 80’s and remember it well. My current family is Russian and most of them grew up in Soviet Latvia.
    There is certainly some nostalgia for the old Soviet era with some of my relatives. This nostalgia is based on some memories that are cleansed of the darkness by time and distance. They forget the bad and remember the good. The nostalgia is also heavily
    promoted by Russian media. Always showing old films from the period, promoting musical artists from that time who sing all the old favorites. Also, re-writing the history of the time. There is never any mention of the negatives from that time in the
    media.
    Personally the only things I am nostalgic for are my friends, cheap concerts and seeing the sites without any crowds.

    The Soviet system was like a vampire sucking the life blood out of everyone and every country it touched and siphoning all that energy and wealth back to a few people in Moscow. It was a system based on fear, corruption, lies and propaganda. Most post
    Soviet countries, including Russia, are still struggling with the results of this ‘experiment’.

    While most former Soviet republics are far better off now and are even better off than Russia, there is still a great deal of work to do to bring them up to western economic and infrastructure standards and to cleanse the old ubiquitous Soviet corruption.
    ----------
    [COMMENTS]
    Mateusz Wesołowski · Jul 25
    The answer is simple, people are nostalgic for when they were young and strong. Just happens to be that time was under communism for 40+ year olds.
    -----------
    Jean-Pierre Van Melis · Jul 25
    In short…. “Happiness is a good health and a bad memory”
    It’s human to remember the good and forget the bad. If you’re incapable of forgetting the bad it’s a recipe for a short life. It’s a survival mechanism.
    The ones still living now, by this definition, have forgotten the bad…. ---------------
    Mateusz Wesołowski · Jul 25
    Sure, and that’s understandable.
    But it’s important to remember. Just because someone lived through communism and remembers it fondly - does not mean that he’s an objective source of information.

    Also while there were many countries that were part of the soviet union or it’s puppet - we have to remember that the decisions were made in Moscow. Most other nations inside the soviet union considered soviet occupation a boot on their neck, when that
    boot was taken away they were happy to regain freedom and spoke openly about the horrors they suffered during communism. With Russia nobody took the boot of their neck… it was them that were doing the neck stomping.

    It’s hard to believe but even recently I’ve seen Russians saying that they miss the “good relations” they had with all the other communist countries during SU. The same time we remember as time of poverty and brutal oppression by a tyrannical
    regime, they remember as time of “good relations”. That’s soviet propaganda, but people believe it to this day. And sure the relations were “good” on the surface. When the relations were breaking down and people were rebelling Soviet union
    simply sent tanks. But the Russian people weren’t told that the people hate Soviet union and rebel against communism - instead they were told that it’s evil capitalist subversives that are committing a coup and soviet union is simply helping it’s
    brotherly nation that will be grateful to them for their help.

    This is hard to understand for me. In Poland we also had communism and propaganda but people never believed it and always looked between the lines. Smuggled forbidden books from the west and listened to western radio stations - even though it could
    easily get you a prison sentence and serious problems for your family. I have a suspicion that it took mental gymnastics and some effort by Russians not to know the truth. Since I spoke with a a Russian individual from that time that claimed the people
    knew the government was lying - they just chose not to learn the truth since it was dangerous.

    They may be remembering it with rose tinted glasses since admitting to a life built on lies now after they already lived it might be quite painful or worse shameful.

    With Russia there is another aspect, while it fared relatively better then other countries be it directly annexed or puppets during communism, it did collapse economically at the end when all those countries it controlled broke free. Between 1990 and
    2000 Russia had a period of extreme poverty and collapse of society. Since that period was after the fall of communism many people who went through it consider communism a better time then the lean years that materialized after communism collapsed. They
    don’t see that it’s that very communism that caused the years of poverty.

    The Russian people living today have a sad history with plenty of suffering. I would be sympathetic to them if they didn’t time after time decide to spread that suffering to all the nations around them. Even today.
    --------------
    Jean-Pierre Van Melis · Jul 26
    It works for us too…
    We remember well how miserable life was in the Sovjet-Union. This gave us a good feeling about not having to live in that continuously expanding prison….
    It literally had a fence around it!!
    -----------------
    Dave Kurtz · Jul 25
    THANK You SIR for this very HONEST OBSERVATION; it Shows that you Did Not DRINK the kool-Aid )POLAND Is now a Very Blessed NATION; and OPENING UP the Door for the WOMEN and CHILDREN; fleeing the Russian WAR CRIMES
    --------------
    Barbra Reed · Jul 29
    Thank you for your wise, insightful & detailed response. I hope that many people find your response.
    ----------------
    Michael Mannino · Aug 3
    Interesting comments. The heart of the USSR was Russia, a deeply paranoid, tyrannical state. I thought that Russia was a prisoner of its corrupt, tyrannical rulers. Now I see with the Ukraine war that a large part of the Russian mentality is conquest,
    brutality, and paranoia. Putin and his henchmen are evil for sure. Putin seems to have backing from a large part of the country although support is rather shallow due to fear of reprisals and unending propaganda. Russia is a pariah state now.
    ----------------
    Mateusz Wesołowski · Aug 3
    It is. The problem is we don’t subscribe to their ideology - so we don’t want to destroy them as they do with their enemies - this means that even if they are defeated we will still have to live with them. This means that unless we want a repeat we
    need to convince them. Otherwise the defeat will only breed resentment.

    In the end it’s them that have to want to change. Who knows, maybe sanctions will help with that. But with all the conformism i see in Russia today i doubt it will be anytime soon.

    Unless some factors change or we find a new approach.
    ---------------
    Jean-Pierre Van Melis · Mon
    Let them live and “develop” on their own as was done in the 20th century. In the end they will notice (again) that people are better of somewhere else.

    Somehow they persist now they weren’t and prefer to listen to Putin’s fairy tales.

    I don’t think they can pull it off another time to isolate their people from the rest of the world.

    In the beginning of the 20th century most people hardly left Russia, like most people in the western world were not travelling either. It wasn’t that hard to put a cage around it in the 2nd part of the 20th century if the cage was big enough for them
    to notice.

    Now many more people are travelling, including Russians. A new cage will be something they notice. They will also be able to see the difference in life beyond the cage and their own.
    ------------------
    Mateusz Wesołowski · Mon
    Possibly. Hopefully. Preferably before they are against a wall. Because that might force them to the negotiating table, or it may force them to fight to the death. They are proud people after all.

    I’m not negating what you say.

    I just think that there is also a risk that such isolation will fuel their aggression.

    I know too little to asses this risk properly. I don’t think anyone can do so atm - to many variables to calculate it with any degree of precision.
    ------------
    Focusontruth · Sun
    Our youthful years are always happy no matter what the circumstances and we would love to return to the careless times before having children and adult responsibilities. My maternal grandfather took his family from Russia during golodomor in Kuban into
    present day Iran. They lived in extreme poverty and threat of imprisonment, yet my mother, in her 90’s now, relives them like they were years of honey and gold.
    ----------------
    Vaughan Pratt · Jul 25
    My one visit to Russia was in July 1992 with my wife and two school children, where we spent time in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Tver on the Volga where I had been invited to speak at a conference.

    For context, at the end of the previous year Russian President Boris Yeltsin had declared that all activities of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union were illegal on Russian territory. As a result, a few weeks later the Soviet Union’s president
    Mikhail Gorbachev resigned, and by Christmas the Soviet Union no longer existed. We were there only half a year after those events.

    What we saw on some streets in Moscow in this immediately-post-Soviet period was thousands of people lining those streets elbow to the elbow, each with one product for sale, such as a lipstick. If they sold it they could go home for the day. A few miles
    further out we found a giant flea market with hundreds of tables. In the Red Square itself, only a block from the third-floor apartment where we were staying, things seemed relatively normal except for the ominous-looking apartment guards seated outside
    doing what would count as doorman duty in New York.

    A little over a year after our visit, the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis occurred, followed shortly thereafter by the adoption of a whole new Russian Constitution.

    In 1992 we were just innocent westerners with no understanding of the previous year’s dramatic changes, nor of the following year’s further changes. It was a very strange period to be a tourist in Russia. We came away mystified as to how Russians
    could find that sort of life tolerable. But then we also had no idea of whether things had been better or worse for them two years ago.

    What Yeltsin was up to while were there can be seen here. Not that we were at all aware of this at the time, even though we’d visited the Kremlin while in Moscow.
    --------------
    Joe Trapp · Jul 27
    I was in Russia in 1991, two months before Gorbachev was detained in the coup attempt and during the Russian elections. While most of the younger population, particularly educated ones, were relieved and hopeful of the growing freedom and contact with
    the outside world, there were a few segments of society that were either overwhelmed by the changes or dismayed entirely.

    First of all, the military. There were lots of uniformed military just walking aimlessly around. This was particularly true outside of Russia in countries like East Germany, where completely broke Russian soldiers were walking around museums and parks
    without really looking at anything; they were there because they could go for free and pass the time, day after day. There was a sense of “loss of honor.”

    Second, the elderly. While they are almost all dead now, I’m sure their predicament chilled many Russians. Their pensions were worthless, and they were begging in the streets in a very dignified but humiliated way. Our first stop getting off a plane in
    Leningrad was the Chesme Church, and along the walkway on either side were extremely wrinkled elderly, their hands out and their heads bowed.

    Last, there was a huge population of people who were like aquarium fish suddenly thrown into a fast running stream. This was very difficult for many people. It wasn’t all MacDonald's and Hollywood movies. And still there was a desperate Soviet-era lack
    of stuff. I went to GUM in Moscow, which was very beautiful, but very empty. I went to a camera store their that had film boxes to the roof on display. When I wanted to buy some, I was informed they were all empty. There were long lines everywhere, and
    often people would get into a cue without even knowing what was at the other end. We waited in one and got an ice cream cone.

    Safety was also becoming somewhat of an issue. We saw a few fights, got warned off by a couple of gangsters.

    It was a tough transition, and not everyone made it to the other side, but for a large portion, it worked out. People at least want to be connected to the Western world. I have relatives in Germany, some who were officials in the DDR (East Germany) and
    staunch communists. The highest ranking, in fact, who had Olympic athletes and generals as neighbors, was a Nazi officer during WWII. They too had a bit of a tough transition, but none of them have looked back at the DDR as the good old days. Even for
    the privileged (especially for them?) it was kind of a prison.

    Most people just want peace, security, freedom, and prosperity, but it’s difficult to maintain all four at a high level and more difficult to improve upon. What happened in Russia immediately after 1991 was similar to 1900s immigrants coming to America
    thinking “the streets were paved with gold.” It was a big disappointment to many when they found that prosperity did not come easily and immediately.
    ------------
    Barbra Reed · Jul 29
    Thank you for your outstanding response and your personal insights. This is why I come to Quora. We appreciate your first had account of your life situation/ encounter in post-Soviet Russia. Posts such as yours help us expand our understanding of the
    world and of history. Thank you!
    --------------
    Focusontruth · Sun
    Thankfully my family came out of this phase with the help of my father visiting and helping them financially. He came to the US from a German prison of war camp for the Polish army (he was from Byelorus) and Russian POW’s were not lucky at all. Our
    country was great after WWII because it took in refugees legally and the economy was great enough for them to prosper. After 50 years he was able to come home and see his two siblings before they all passed on within years of the fall of communism in the
    Soviet Union. The Russian Soviet elite wanted the common man to return to communism and so they kept products in warehouses and made artificial shortages to push people to want to return to the old ways. Thank God that it all went sour. Putin may be a
    villain for the West, but he is definitely a person who put Russia back on its feet. Russia was strong before communism and so he has done a lot for his country. Unlike our president Biden, who was done everything for the globalists to destroy our
    country, Putin does have Russia’s best interests in the forefront. So now globalists like Klaus Schwab are using the same tactics to take control of the globe. What’s in store….artificial famines…Gates buying American farmland to destroy food
    supply…yada yada…when will America wake up??? Lobbying is destroying our country!! Spread the word.
    ------------
    Michael Durham · Sat
    Very interesting just about the time putin was beginning his quest to be the richest man in the world 200–400 billion. Humans really can be despicable.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Oleg Smirnov@21:1/5 to All on Thu Aug 18 00:30:03 2022
    QUORA: Why do so many Russians seem to miss the Soviet Union?

    And how many?

    I lived and worked in the Soviet Union during the mid to late 80's and remember it well. My current family is Russian and most of them grew up in Soviet Latvia.

    The Soviet system was like a vampire sucking the life blood out of everyone and every country it touched and siphoning all that energy and wealth back
    to a few people in Moscow.

    This is a known Baltic-specific nationalist mythology.

    While most former Soviet republics are far better off now and are even
    better off than Russia,

    The Baltic states aren't bright. Huge part of their population has migrated
    to Europe to work as plumbers. The rest are drinking too much because their domestic life is dull and bleak (in the recent decade, the three have climbed to the very top in alcohol consumption). The Atlanticism sought to make the Baltics sort of showcase for Russia, so they gave them big money, but it did not work well eventually. While their GDP figures are relatively high, their real life doesn't look happy, which makes someone suspicious about trickery.

    ----------
    [COMMENTS]
    Mateusz Wesolowski Jul 25
    The answer is simple, people are nostalgic for when they were young and strong. Just happens to be that time was under communism for 40+ year olds.

    The USSR was a complex phenomenon, while this bunch of babblers, including
    a share of intentional duty trolls (known to live on Quora), make simplistic rationalizations which would fit to the post-Soviet Western indoctrination.

    Still the very fact that after 30+ years this importunate meditation goes on, proves what I wrote before <https://tinyurl.com/2xs8sqnd>: without the USSR, America doesn't have a proper meaning for its own existence, it has become an insane maniac which persistently needs to reinvent and re-invoke the USSR to somehow substantiate itself.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From wog wacker@21:1/5 to David P. on Sun Aug 28 18:41:29 2022
    On Wednesday, August 17, 2022 at 4:07:17 PM UTC, David P. wrote:
    QUORA: Why do so many Russians seem to miss the Soviet Union? Do they really miss standing in line to buy food all day, shortages, famine, political repression, KGB rule, and the poor standard of living?
    Answered by Jon Shore, Jul 25
    I lived and worked in the Soviet Union during the mid to late 80’s and remember it well. My current family is Russian and most of them grew up in Soviet Latvia.
    There is certainly some nostalgia for the old Soviet era with some of my relatives. This nostalgia is based on some memories that are cleansed of the darkness by time and distance. They forget the bad and remember the good. The nostalgia is also
    heavily promoted by Russian media. Always showing old films from the period, promoting musical artists from that time who sing all the old favorites. Also, re-writing the history of the time. There is never any mention of the negatives from that time in
    the media.
    Personally the only things I am nostalgic for are my friends, cheap concerts and seeing the sites without any crowds.

    The Soviet system was like a vampire sucking the life blood out of everyone and every country it touched and siphoning all that energy and wealth back to a few people in Moscow. It was a system based on fear, corruption, lies and propaganda. Most post
    Soviet countries, including Russia, are still struggling with the results of this ‘experiment’.

    While most former Soviet republics are far better off now and are even better off than Russia, there is still a great deal of work to do to bring them up to western economic and infrastructure standards and to cleanse the old ubiquitous Soviet
    corruption.
    ----------
    [COMMENTS]
    Mateusz Wesołowski · Jul 25
    The answer is simple, people are nostalgic for when they were young and strong. Just happens to be that time was under communism for 40+ year olds.
    -----------
    Jean-Pierre Van Melis · Jul 25
    In short…. “Happiness is a good health and a bad memory”
    It’s human to remember the good and forget the bad. If you’re incapable of forgetting the bad it’s a recipe for a short life. It’s a survival mechanism.
    The ones still living now, by this definition, have forgotten the bad…. ---------------
    Mateusz Wesołowski · Jul 25
    Sure, and that’s understandable.
    But it’s important to remember. Just because someone lived through communism and remembers it fondly - does not mean that he’s an objective source of information.

    Also while there were many countries that were part of the soviet union or it’s puppet - we have to remember that the decisions were made in Moscow. Most other nations inside the soviet union considered soviet occupation a boot on their neck, when
    that boot was taken away they were happy to regain freedom and spoke openly about the horrors they suffered during communism. With Russia nobody took the boot of their neck… it was them that were doing the neck stomping.

    It’s hard to believe but even recently I’ve seen Russians saying that they miss the “good relations” they had with all the other communist countries during SU. The same time we remember as time of poverty and brutal oppression by a tyrannical
    regime, they remember as time of “good relations”. That’s soviet propaganda, but people believe it to this day. And sure the relations were “good” on the surface. When the relations were breaking down and people were rebelling Soviet union
    simply sent tanks. But the Russian people weren’t told that the people hate Soviet union and rebel against communism - instead they were told that it’s evil capitalist subversives that are committing a coup and soviet union is simply helping it’s
    brotherly nation that will be grateful to them for their help.

    This is hard to understand for me. In Poland we also had communism and propaganda but people never believed it and always looked between the lines. Smuggled forbidden books from the west and listened to western radio stations - even though it could
    easily get you a prison sentence and serious problems for your family. I have a suspicion that it took mental gymnastics and some effort by Russians not to know the truth. Since I spoke with a a Russian individual from that time that claimed the people
    knew the government was lying - they just chose not to learn the truth since it was dangerous.

    They may be remembering it with rose tinted glasses since admitting to a life built on lies now after they already lived it might be quite painful or worse shameful.

    With Russia there is another aspect, while it fared relatively better then other countries be it directly annexed or puppets during communism, it did collapse economically at the end when all those countries it controlled broke free. Between 1990 and
    2000 Russia had a period of extreme poverty and collapse of society. Since that period was after the fall of communism many people who went through it consider communism a better time then the lean years that materialized after communism collapsed. They
    don’t see that it’s that very communism that caused the years of poverty.

    The Russian people living today have a sad history with plenty of suffering. I would be sympathetic to them if they didn’t time after time decide to spread that suffering to all the nations around them. Even today.
    --------------
    Jean-Pierre Van Melis · Jul 26
    It works for us too…
    We remember well how miserable life was in the Sovjet-Union. This gave us a good feeling about not having to live in that continuously expanding prison….
    It literally had a fence around it!!
    -----------------
    Dave Kurtz · Jul 25
    THANK You SIR for this very HONEST OBSERVATION; it Shows that you Did Not DRINK the kool-Aid )POLAND Is now a Very Blessed NATION; and OPENING UP the Door for the WOMEN and CHILDREN; fleeing the Russian WAR CRIMES
    --------------
    Barbra Reed · Jul 29
    Thank you for your wise, insightful & detailed response. I hope that many people find your response.
    ----------------
    Michael Mannino · Aug 3
    Interesting comments. The heart of the USSR was Russia, a deeply paranoid, tyrannical state. I thought that Russia was a prisoner of its corrupt, tyrannical rulers. Now I see with the Ukraine war that a large part of the Russian mentality is conquest,
    brutality, and paranoia. Putin and his henchmen are evil for sure. Putin seems to have backing from a large part of the country although support is rather shallow due to fear of reprisals and unending propaganda. Russia is a pariah state now.
    ----------------
    Mateusz Wesołowski · Aug 3
    It is. The problem is we don’t subscribe to their ideology - so we don’t want to destroy them as they do with their enemies - this means that even if they are defeated we will still have to live with them. This means that unless we want a repeat we
    need to convince them. Otherwise the defeat will only breed resentment.

    In the end it’s them that have to want to change. Who knows, maybe sanctions will help with that. But with all the conformism i see in Russia today i doubt it will be anytime soon.

    Unless some factors change or we find a new approach.
    ---------------
    Jean-Pierre Van Melis · Mon
    Let them live and “develop” on their own as was done in the 20th century. In the end they will notice (again) that people are better of somewhere else.

    Somehow they persist now they weren’t and prefer to listen to Putin’s fairy tales.

    I don’t think they can pull it off another time to isolate their people from the rest of the world.

    In the beginning of the 20th century most people hardly left Russia, like most people in the western world were not travelling either. It wasn’t that hard to put a cage around it in the 2nd part of the 20th century if the cage was big enough for them
    to notice.

    Now many more people are travelling, including Russians. A new cage will be something they notice. They will also be able to see the difference in life beyond the cage and their own.
    ------------------
    Mateusz Wesołowski · Mon
    Possibly. Hopefully. Preferably before they are against a wall. Because that might force them to the negotiating table, or it may force them to fight to the death. They are proud people after all.

    I’m not negating what you say.

    I just think that there is also a risk that such isolation will fuel their aggression.

    I know too little to asses this risk properly. I don’t think anyone can do so atm - to many variables to calculate it with any degree of precision.
    ------------
    Focusontruth · Sun
    Our youthful years are always happy no matter what the circumstances and we would love to return to the careless times before having children and adult responsibilities. My maternal grandfather took his family from Russia during golodomor in Kuban into
    present day Iran. They lived in extreme poverty and threat of imprisonment, yet my mother, in her 90’s now, relives them like they were years of honey and gold.
    ----------------
    Vaughan Pratt · Jul 25
    My one visit to Russia was in July 1992 with my wife and two school children, where we spent time in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Tver on the Volga where I had been invited to speak at a conference.

    For context, at the end of the previous year Russian President Boris Yeltsin had declared that all activities of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union were illegal on Russian territory. As a result, a few weeks later the Soviet Union’s president
    Mikhail Gorbachev resigned, and by Christmas the Soviet Union no longer existed. We were there only half a year after those events.

    What we saw on some streets in Moscow in this immediately-post-Soviet period was thousands of people lining those streets elbow to the elbow, each with one product for sale, such as a lipstick. If they sold it they could go home for the day. A few
    miles further out we found a giant flea market with hundreds of tables. In the Red Square itself, only a block from the third-floor apartment where we were staying, things seemed relatively normal except for the ominous-looking apartment guards seated
    outside doing what would count as doorman duty in New York.

    A little over a year after our visit, the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis occurred, followed shortly thereafter by the adoption of a whole new Russian Constitution.

    In 1992 we were just innocent westerners with no understanding of the previous year’s dramatic changes, nor of the following year’s further changes. It was a very strange period to be a tourist in Russia. We came away mystified as to how Russians
    could find that sort of life tolerable. But then we also had no idea of whether things had been better or worse for them two years ago.

    What Yeltsin was up to while were there can be seen here. Not that we were at all aware of this at the time, even though we’d visited the Kremlin while in Moscow.
    --------------
    Joe Trapp · Jul 27
    I was in Russia in 1991, two months before Gorbachev was detained in the coup attempt and during the Russian elections. While most of the younger population, particularly educated ones, were relieved and hopeful of the growing freedom and contact with
    the outside world, there were a few segments of society that were either overwhelmed by the changes or dismayed entirely.

    First of all, the military. There were lots of uniformed military just walking aimlessly around. This was particularly true outside of Russia in countries like East Germany, where completely broke Russian soldiers were walking around museums and parks
    without really looking at anything; they were there because they could go for free and pass the time, day after day. There was a sense of “loss of honor.”

    Second, the elderly. While they are almost all dead now, I’m sure their predicament chilled many Russians. Their pensions were worthless, and they were begging in the streets in a very dignified but humiliated way. Our first stop getting off a plane
    in Leningrad was the Chesme Church, and along the walkway on either side were extremely wrinkled elderly, their hands out and their heads bowed.

    Last, there was a huge population of people who were like aquarium fish suddenly thrown into a fast running stream. This was very difficult for many people. It wasn’t all MacDonald's and Hollywood movies. And still there was a desperate Soviet-era
    lack of stuff. I went to GUM in Moscow, which was very beautiful, but very empty. I went to a camera store their that had film boxes to the roof on display. When I wanted to buy some, I was informed they were all empty. There were long lines everywhere,
    and often people would get into a cue without even knowing what was at the other end. We waited in one and got an ice cream cone.

    Safety was also becoming somewhat of an issue. We saw a few fights, got warned off by a couple of gangsters.

    It was a tough transition, and not everyone made it to the other side, but for a large portion, it worked out. People at least want to be connected to the Western world. I have relatives in Germany, some who were officials in the DDR (East Germany) and
    staunch communists. The highest ranking, in fact, who had Olympic athletes and generals as neighbors, was a Nazi officer during WWII. They too had a bit of a tough transition, but none of them have looked back at the DDR as the good old days. Even for
    the privileged (especially for them?) it was kind of a prison.

    Most people just want peace, security, freedom, and prosperity, but it’s difficult to maintain all four at a high level and more difficult to improve upon. What happened in Russia immediately after 1991 was similar to 1900s immigrants coming to
    America thinking “the streets were paved with gold.” It was a big disappointment to many when they found that prosperity did not come easily and immediately.
    ------------
    Barbra Reed · Jul 29
    Thank you for your outstanding response and your personal insights. This is why I come to Quora. We appreciate your first had account of your life situation/ encounter in post-Soviet Russia. Posts such as yours help us expand our understanding of the
    world and of history. Thank you!
    --------------
    Focusontruth · Sun
    Thankfully my family came out of this phase with the help of my father visiting and helping them financially. He came to the US from a German prison of war camp for the Polish army (he was from Byelorus) and Russian POW’s were not lucky at all. Our
    country was great after WWII because it took in refugees legally and the economy was great enough for them to prosper. After 50 years he was able to come home and see his two siblings before they all passed on within years of the fall of communism in the
    Soviet Union. The Russian Soviet elite wanted the common man to return to communism and so they kept products in warehouses and made artificial shortages to push people to want to return to the old ways. Thank God that it all went sour. Putin may be a
    villain for the West, but he is definitely a person who put Russia back on its feet. Russia was strong before communism and so he has done a lot for his country. Unlike our president Biden, who was done everything for the globalists to destroy our
    country, Putin does have Russia’s best interests in the forefront. So now globalists like Klaus Schwab are using the same tactics to take control of the globe. What’s in store….artificial famines…Gates buying American farmland to destroy food
    supply…yada yada…when will America wake up??? Lobbying is destroying our country!! Spread the word.
    ------------
    Michael Durham · Sat
    Very interesting just about the time putin was beginning his quest to be the richest man in the world 200–400 billion. Humans really can be despicable.


    Russia should return to Communist rule.

    According to Gorbachev, the Soviet Union collapsed because of a personal feud between him and Yeltsin. Russia under Yeltsin was beholden to the US. That spelled trouble for Russia. The US quickly reduced the military capability of Russia. The Russian
    economy was ruined by the Shock Therapy of American advisors.

    Russia considers itself a democratic nation. But what good has democracy brought to Russia? The West does not recognise Russian democracy. It condemns Russia an autocracy, under a totalitarian regime, a dictatorship, etc.. The US is leading a Democratic
    Alliance to fight against Russia in Ukraine.

    One of Russia’s supporters is big and strong China. Communist China has declared a ‘no limit’ good relationship with Democratic Russia. But there’s still that ideological gap. If Russia were to come under a Communist regime again, that gap would
    be closed and the Chinese support for Russia would be beyond ‘no limit’.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From ltlee1@21:1/5 to Oleg Smirnov on Tue Aug 30 12:55:09 2022
    On Wednesday, August 17, 2022 at 5:31:08 PM UTC-4, Oleg Smirnov wrote:
    QUORA: Why do so many Russians seem to miss the Soviet Union?
    And how many?
    I lived and worked in the Soviet Union during the mid to late 80's and remember it well. My current family is Russian and most of them grew up in Soviet Latvia.
    The Soviet system was like a vampire sucking the life blood out of everyone
    and every country it touched and siphoning all that energy and wealth back to a few people in Moscow.
    This is a known Baltic-specific nationalist mythology.
    While most former Soviet republics are far better off now and are even better off than Russia,
    The Baltic states aren't bright. Huge part of their population has migrated to Europe to work as plumbers. The rest are drinking too much because their domestic life is dull and bleak (in the recent decade, the three have climbed
    to the very top in alcohol consumption). The Atlanticism sought to make the Baltics sort of showcase for Russia, so they gave them big money, but it did not work well eventually. While their GDP figures are relatively high, their real life doesn't look happy, which makes someone suspicious about trickery.

    ----------
    [COMMENTS]
    Mateusz Wesolowski · Jul 25
    The answer is simple, people are nostalgic for when they were young and strong. Just happens to be that time was under communism for 40+ year olds.
    The USSR was a complex phenomenon, while this bunch of babblers, including
    a share of intentional duty trolls (known to live on Quora), make simplistic rationalizations which would fit to the post-Soviet Western indoctrination.

    Still the very fact that after 30+ years this importunate meditation goes on,
    proves what I wrote before <https://tinyurl.com/2xs8sqnd>: without the USSR, America doesn't have a proper meaning for its own existence, it has become an
    insane maniac which persistently needs to reinvent and re-invoke the USSR to somehow substantiate itself.

    Try this from NYTimes:

    "Why Women Had Better Sex Under Socialism
    By Kristen R. Ghodsee
    Aug. 12, 2017

    When Americans think of Communism in Eastern Europe, they imagine travel restrictions,
    bleak landscapes of gray concrete, miserable men and women languishing in long lines
    to shop in empty markets and security services snooping on the private lives of citizens.
    While much of this was true, our collective stereotype of Communist life does not tell the
    whole story.

    Some might remember that Eastern bloc women enjoyed many rights and privileges unknown in liberal democracies at the time, including major state investments in their
    education and training, their full incorporation into the labor force, generous maternity
    leave allowances and guaranteed free child care. But there’s one advantage that has
    received little attention: Women under Communism enjoyed more sexual pleasure.

    A comparative sociological study of East and West Germans conducted after reunification in 1990 found that Eastern women had twice as many orgasms as Western women. Researchers marveled at this disparity in reported sexual satisfaction, ..."

    Armed with more researches, Kristen R. Ghodsee had published a book
    "Why Women Had Better Sex Under Socialism" two years ago.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From bmoore@21:1/5 to All on Tue Aug 30 15:45:50 2022
    On Tuesday, August 30, 2022 at 12:55:11 PM UTC-7, ltlee1 wrote:
    On Wednesday, August 17, 2022 at 5:31:08 PM UTC-4, Oleg Smirnov wrote:
    QUORA: Why do so many Russians seem to miss the Soviet Union?
    And how many?
    I lived and worked in the Soviet Union during the mid to late 80's and remember it well. My current family is Russian and most of them grew up in
    Soviet Latvia.
    The Soviet system was like a vampire sucking the life blood out of everyone
    and every country it touched and siphoning all that energy and wealth back
    to a few people in Moscow.
    This is a known Baltic-specific nationalist mythology.
    While most former Soviet republics are far better off now and are even better off than Russia,
    The Baltic states aren't bright. Huge part of their population has migrated
    to Europe to work as plumbers. The rest are drinking too much because their
    domestic life is dull and bleak (in the recent decade, the three have climbed
    to the very top in alcohol consumption). The Atlanticism sought to make the
    Baltics sort of showcase for Russia, so they gave them big money, but it did
    not work well eventually. While their GDP figures are relatively high, their
    real life doesn't look happy, which makes someone suspicious about trickery.

    ----------
    [COMMENTS]
    Mateusz Wesolowski · Jul 25
    The answer is simple, people are nostalgic for when they were young and strong. Just happens to be that time was under communism for 40+ year olds.
    The USSR was a complex phenomenon, while this bunch of babblers, including a share of intentional duty trolls (known to live on Quora), make simplistic
    rationalizations which would fit to the post-Soviet Western indoctrination.

    Still the very fact that after 30+ years this importunate meditation goes on,
    proves what I wrote before <https://tinyurl.com/2xs8sqnd>: without the USSR,
    America doesn't have a proper meaning for its own existence, it has become an
    insane maniac which persistently needs to reinvent and re-invoke the USSR to
    somehow substantiate itself.
    Try this from NYTimes:

    "Why Women Had Better Sex Under Socialism
    By Kristen R. Ghodsee
    Aug. 12, 2017

    When Americans think of Communism in Eastern Europe, they imagine travel restrictions,
    bleak landscapes of gray concrete, miserable men and women languishing in long lines
    to shop in empty markets and security services snooping on the private lives of citizens.
    While much of this was true, our collective stereotype of Communist life does not tell the
    whole story.

    Some might remember that Eastern bloc women enjoyed many rights and privileges
    unknown in liberal democracies at the time, including major state investments in their
    education and training, their full incorporation into the labor force, generous maternity
    leave allowances and guaranteed free child care. But there’s one advantage that has
    received little attention: Women under Communism enjoyed more sexual pleasure.

    A comparative sociological study of East and West Germans conducted after reunification in 1990 found that Eastern women had twice as many orgasms as Western women. Researchers marveled at this disparity in reported sexual satisfaction, ..."

    Armed with more researches, Kristen R. Ghodsee had published a book
    "Why Women Had Better Sex Under Socialism" two years ago.

    "Russia extended full suffrage to women in 1917, three years before the United States did."

    Ah yes, those free and fair elections in the USSR.

    *snicker*

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Oleg Smirnov@21:1/5 to All on Wed Aug 31 03:09:58 2022
    ltlee1, <news:def5f2c7-54c7-496b-9028-e00edf47aaa0n@googlegroups.com>
    On Wednesday, August 17, 2022 at 5:31:08 PM UTC-4, Oleg Smirnov wrote:

    The USSR was a complex phenomenon, while this bunch of babblers, including >> a share of intentional duty trolls (known to live on Quora), make
    simplistic rationalizations which would fit to the post-Soviet Western
    indoctrination.

    Still the very fact that after 30+ years this importunate meditation goes
    on, proves what I wrote before <https://tinyurl.com/2xs8sqnd>: without the >> USSR, America doesn't have a proper meaning for its own existence, it has
    become an insane maniac which persistently needs to reinvent and re-invoke >> the USSR to somehow substantiate itself.

    Try this from NYTimes:

    "Why Women Had Better Sex Under Socialism
    By Kristen R. Ghodsee
    Aug. 12, 2017

    When Americans think of Communism in Eastern Europe, they imagine
    travel restrictions, bleak landscapes of gray concrete, miserable men
    and women languishing in long lines to shop in empty markets and
    security services snooping on the private lives of citizens. While
    much of this was true, our collective stereotype of Communist life
    does not tell the whole story.

    Some might remember that Eastern bloc women enjoyed many rights and privileges unknown in liberal democracies at the time, including
    major state investments in their education and training, their full incorporation into the labor force, generous maternity leave
    allowances and guaranteed free child care.

    Yes, and the impact of this is also reflected in the statistics
    relating to the present. According to the Grant Thornton's "Women in
    Business" research (which I cited recently in another thread) the
    relatively high share of women in senior business management takes
    place not only in Russia but (to bit lesser extent) also in the East
    European nations once affected by the Soviet influence (plus Georgia
    and Armenia in Caucasus). According to their statistics, percentage
    of women in senior roles in Eastern Europe today is 1.7 times higher
    than in "progressive" North America (38% vs. 23%).

    But there's one advantage that has received little attention: Women
    under Communism enjoyed more sexual pleasure.

    A comparative sociological study of East and West Germans conducted after reunification in 1990 found that Eastern women had twice as many orgasms
    as Western women. Researchers marveled at this disparity in reported
    sexual satisfaction, ..."

    Armed with more researches, Kristen R. Ghodsee had published a book
    "Why Women Had Better Sex Under Socialism" two years ago.

    This is a porn part. Western 'leftism' often tend to sell soft porn
    under guise of social concern. For example, articles about domestic
    violence are usually focused on women beating, and there are often
    sexy pictures like this <https://is.gd/aYkva4>. Meanwhile, for those
    concerned about domestic violence would be more relevant to focus on
    children beating (because women are adults and children are not).
    But they are more fixated on women because it's much more sexy stuff,
    it's selling better, while children are less appropriate for use in
    this way.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From David P.@21:1/5 to bmoore on Tue Aug 30 19:59:32 2022
    bmoore wrote:
    ltlee1 wrote:
    Oleg Smirnov wrote:
    QUORA: Why do so many Russians seem to miss the Soviet Union?
    And how many?
    I lived and worked in the Soviet Union during the mid to late 80's and remember it well. My current family is Russian and most of them grew up in
    Soviet Latvia.
    The Soviet system was like a vampire sucking the life blood out of everyone
    and every country it touched and siphoning all that energy and wealth back
    to a few people in Moscow.
    This is a known Baltic-specific nationalist mythology.
    While most former Soviet republics are far better off now and are even better off than Russia,
    The Baltic states aren't bright. Huge part of their population has migrated
    to Europe to work as plumbers. The rest are drinking too much because their
    domestic life is dull and bleak (in the recent decade, the three have climbed
    to the very top in alcohol consumption). The Atlanticism sought to make the
    Baltics sort of showcase for Russia, so they gave them big money, but it did
    not work well eventually. While their GDP figures are relatively high, their
    real life doesn't look happy, which makes someone suspicious about trickery.

    ----------
    [COMMENTS]
    Mateusz Wesolowski · Jul 25
    The answer is simple, people are nostalgic for when they were young and
    strong. Just happens to be that time was under communism for 40+ year olds.
    The USSR was a complex phenomenon, while this bunch of babblers, including
    a share of intentional duty trolls (known to live on Quora), make simplistic
    rationalizations which would fit to the post-Soviet Western indoctrination.

    Still the very fact that after 30+ years this importunate meditation goes on,
    proves what I wrote before <https://tinyurl.com/2xs8sqnd>: without the USSR,
    America doesn't have a proper meaning for its own existence, it has become an
    insane maniac which persistently needs to reinvent and re-invoke the USSR to
    somehow substantiate itself.
    Try this from NYTimes:

    "Why Women Had Better Sex Under Socialism
    By Kristen R. Ghodsee
    Aug. 12, 2017

    When Americans think of Communism in Eastern Europe, they imagine travel restrictions,
    bleak landscapes of gray concrete, miserable men and women languishing in long lines
    to shop in empty markets and security services snooping on the private lives of citizens.
    While much of this was true, our collective stereotype of Communist life does not tell the
    whole story.

    Some might remember that Eastern bloc women enjoyed many rights and privileges
    unknown in liberal democracies at the time, including major state investments in their
    education and training, their full incorporation into the labor force, generous maternity
    leave allowances and guaranteed free child care. But there’s one advantage that has
    received little attention: Women under Communism enjoyed more sexual pleasure.

    A comparative sociological study of East and West Germans conducted after reunification in 1990 found that Eastern women had twice as many orgasms as
    Western women. Researchers marveled at this disparity in reported sexual satisfaction, ..."

    Armed with more researches, Kristen R. Ghodsee had published a book
    "Why Women Had Better Sex Under Socialism" two years ago.
    "Russia extended full suffrage to women in 1917, three years before the United States did."
    Ah yes, those free and fair elections in the USSR.
    -------------------
    In America, it's "Believe it or not!"
    In Russia, it's "Believe it or else!"
    --
    --

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From ltlee1@21:1/5 to David P. on Wed Aug 31 06:21:41 2022
    On Tuesday, August 30, 2022 at 10:59:33 PM UTC-4, David P. wrote:
    bmoore wrote:
    ltlee1 wrote:
    Oleg Smirnov wrote:
    QUORA: Why do so many Russians seem to miss the Soviet Union?
    And how many?
    I lived and worked in the Soviet Union during the mid to late 80's and
    remember it well. My current family is Russian and most of them grew up in
    Soviet Latvia.
    The Soviet system was like a vampire sucking the life blood out of everyone
    and every country it touched and siphoning all that energy and wealth back
    to a few people in Moscow.
    This is a known Baltic-specific nationalist mythology.
    While most former Soviet republics are far better off now and are even
    better off than Russia,
    The Baltic states aren't bright. Huge part of their population has migrated
    to Europe to work as plumbers. The rest are drinking too much because their
    domestic life is dull and bleak (in the recent decade, the three have climbed
    to the very top in alcohol consumption). The Atlanticism sought to make the
    Baltics sort of showcase for Russia, so they gave them big money, but it did
    not work well eventually. While their GDP figures are relatively high, their
    real life doesn't look happy, which makes someone suspicious about trickery.

    ----------
    [COMMENTS]
    Mateusz Wesolowski · Jul 25
    The answer is simple, people are nostalgic for when they were young and
    strong. Just happens to be that time was under communism for 40+ year olds.
    The USSR was a complex phenomenon, while this bunch of babblers, including
    a share of intentional duty trolls (known to live on Quora), make simplistic
    rationalizations which would fit to the post-Soviet Western indoctrination.

    Still the very fact that after 30+ years this importunate meditation goes on,
    proves what I wrote before <https://tinyurl.com/2xs8sqnd>: without the USSR,
    America doesn't have a proper meaning for its own existence, it has become an
    insane maniac which persistently needs to reinvent and re-invoke the USSR to
    somehow substantiate itself.
    Try this from NYTimes:

    "Why Women Had Better Sex Under Socialism
    By Kristen R. Ghodsee
    Aug. 12, 2017

    When Americans think of Communism in Eastern Europe, they imagine travel restrictions,
    bleak landscapes of gray concrete, miserable men and women languishing in long lines
    to shop in empty markets and security services snooping on the private lives of citizens.
    While much of this was true, our collective stereotype of Communist life does not tell the
    whole story.

    Some might remember that Eastern bloc women enjoyed many rights and privileges
    unknown in liberal democracies at the time, including major state investments in their
    education and training, their full incorporation into the labor force, generous maternity
    leave allowances and guaranteed free child care. But there’s one advantage that has
    received little attention: Women under Communism enjoyed more sexual pleasure.

    A comparative sociological study of East and West Germans conducted after
    reunification in 1990 found that Eastern women had twice as many orgasms as
    Western women. Researchers marveled at this disparity in reported sexual satisfaction, ..."

    Armed with more researches, Kristen R. Ghodsee had published a book
    "Why Women Had Better Sex Under Socialism" two years ago.
    "Russia extended full suffrage to women in 1917, three years before the United States did."
    Ah yes, those free and fair elections in the USSR.
    -------------------
    In America, it's "Believe it or not!"
    In Russia, it's "Believe it or else!"
    --
    --

    There exists no utopian called "Western democracy."
    Every system has it winners and losers partially reflects what aid a country could get from the rest of the world.
    https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2009/11/02/end-of-communism-cheered-but-now-with-more-reservations/

    2009 survey on whether people were better from communism after the end of communism:

    Hurgary Worse 72% About the same 16% Better 8%
    Ukraine Worse 62% About the same 13% Better 12%
    Bulgaria Worse 62% About the same 18% Better 13%
    ...

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From stoney@21:1/5 to All on Wed Aug 31 10:30:39 2022
    On Wednesday, August 31, 2022 at 9:21:42 PM UTC+8, ltlee1 wrote:
    On Tuesday, August 30, 2022 at 10:59:33 PM UTC-4, David P. wrote:
    bmoore wrote:
    ltlee1 wrote:
    Oleg Smirnov wrote:
    QUORA: Why do so many Russians seem to miss the Soviet Union?
    And how many?
    I lived and worked in the Soviet Union during the mid to late 80's and
    remember it well. My current family is Russian and most of them grew up in
    Soviet Latvia.
    The Soviet system was like a vampire sucking the life blood out of everyone
    and every country it touched and siphoning all that energy and wealth back
    to a few people in Moscow.
    This is a known Baltic-specific nationalist mythology.
    While most former Soviet republics are far better off now and are even
    better off than Russia,
    The Baltic states aren't bright. Huge part of their population has migrated
    to Europe to work as plumbers. The rest are drinking too much because their
    domestic life is dull and bleak (in the recent decade, the three have climbed
    to the very top in alcohol consumption). The Atlanticism sought to make the
    Baltics sort of showcase for Russia, so they gave them big money, but it did
    not work well eventually. While their GDP figures are relatively high, their
    real life doesn't look happy, which makes someone suspicious about trickery.

    ----------
    [COMMENTS]
    Mateusz Wesolowski · Jul 25
    The answer is simple, people are nostalgic for when they were young and
    strong. Just happens to be that time was under communism for 40+ year olds.
    The USSR was a complex phenomenon, while this bunch of babblers, including
    a share of intentional duty trolls (known to live on Quora), make simplistic
    rationalizations which would fit to the post-Soviet Western indoctrination.

    Still the very fact that after 30+ years this importunate meditation goes on,
    proves what I wrote before <https://tinyurl.com/2xs8sqnd>: without the USSR,
    America doesn't have a proper meaning for its own existence, it has become an
    insane maniac which persistently needs to reinvent and re-invoke the USSR to
    somehow substantiate itself.
    Try this from NYTimes:

    "Why Women Had Better Sex Under Socialism
    By Kristen R. Ghodsee
    Aug. 12, 2017

    When Americans think of Communism in Eastern Europe, they imagine travel restrictions,
    bleak landscapes of gray concrete, miserable men and women languishing in long lines
    to shop in empty markets and security services snooping on the private lives of citizens.
    While much of this was true, our collective stereotype of Communist life does not tell the
    whole story.

    Some might remember that Eastern bloc women enjoyed many rights and privileges
    unknown in liberal democracies at the time, including major state investments in their
    education and training, their full incorporation into the labor force, generous maternity
    leave allowances and guaranteed free child care. But there’s one advantage that has
    received little attention: Women under Communism enjoyed more sexual pleasure.

    A comparative sociological study of East and West Germans conducted after
    reunification in 1990 found that Eastern women had twice as many orgasms as
    Western women. Researchers marveled at this disparity in reported sexual satisfaction, ..."

    Armed with more researches, Kristen R. Ghodsee had published a book "Why Women Had Better Sex Under Socialism" two years ago.
    "Russia extended full suffrage to women in 1917, three years before the United States did."
    Ah yes, those free and fair elections in the USSR.
    -------------------
    In America, it's "Believe it or not!"
    In Russia, it's "Believe it or else!"
    --
    --
    There exists no utopian called "Western democracy."
    Every system has it winners and losers partially reflects what aid a country could get from the rest of the world.
    https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2009/11/02/end-of-communism-cheered-but-now-with-more-reservations/

    2009 survey on whether people were better from communism after the end of communism:

    Hurgary Worse 72% About the same 16% Better 8%
    Ukraine Worse 62% About the same 13% Better 12%
    Bulgaria Worse 62% About the same 18% Better 13%
    ...

    With so many people in former USSR countries rated worst off than before, they should hurry rejoin Russia to be USSR again. They should know USSR can give them much protection and security time for work and leisurely love life, too. They get best of both
    world than what the Western culture is lacking of love, but dangerous to them too.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From ltlee1@21:1/5 to stoney on Wed Aug 31 13:20:02 2022
    On Wednesday, August 31, 2022 at 1:30:41 PM UTC-4, stoney wrote:
    On Wednesday, August 31, 2022 at 9:21:42 PM UTC+8, ltlee1 wrote:
    On Tuesday, August 30, 2022 at 10:59:33 PM UTC-4, David P. wrote:
    bmoore wrote:
    ltlee1 wrote:
    Oleg Smirnov wrote:
    QUORA: Why do so many Russians seem to miss the Soviet Union?
    And how many?
    I lived and worked in the Soviet Union during the mid to late 80's and
    remember it well. My current family is Russian and most of them grew up in
    Soviet Latvia.
    The Soviet system was like a vampire sucking the life blood out of everyone
    and every country it touched and siphoning all that energy and wealth back
    to a few people in Moscow.
    This is a known Baltic-specific nationalist mythology.
    While most former Soviet republics are far better off now and are even
    better off than Russia,
    The Baltic states aren't bright. Huge part of their population has migrated
    to Europe to work as plumbers. The rest are drinking too much because their
    domestic life is dull and bleak (in the recent decade, the three have climbed
    to the very top in alcohol consumption). The Atlanticism sought to make the
    Baltics sort of showcase for Russia, so they gave them big money, but it did
    not work well eventually. While their GDP figures are relatively high, their
    real life doesn't look happy, which makes someone suspicious about trickery.

    ----------
    [COMMENTS]
    Mateusz Wesolowski · Jul 25
    The answer is simple, people are nostalgic for when they were young and
    strong. Just happens to be that time was under communism for 40+ year olds.
    The USSR was a complex phenomenon, while this bunch of babblers, including
    a share of intentional duty trolls (known to live on Quora), make simplistic
    rationalizations which would fit to the post-Soviet Western indoctrination.

    Still the very fact that after 30+ years this importunate meditation goes on,
    proves what I wrote before <https://tinyurl.com/2xs8sqnd>: without the USSR,
    America doesn't have a proper meaning for its own existence, it has become an
    insane maniac which persistently needs to reinvent and re-invoke the USSR to
    somehow substantiate itself.
    Try this from NYTimes:

    "Why Women Had Better Sex Under Socialism
    By Kristen R. Ghodsee
    Aug. 12, 2017

    When Americans think of Communism in Eastern Europe, they imagine travel restrictions,
    bleak landscapes of gray concrete, miserable men and women languishing in long lines
    to shop in empty markets and security services snooping on the private lives of citizens.
    While much of this was true, our collective stereotype of Communist life does not tell the
    whole story.

    Some might remember that Eastern bloc women enjoyed many rights and privileges
    unknown in liberal democracies at the time, including major state investments in their
    education and training, their full incorporation into the labor force, generous maternity
    leave allowances and guaranteed free child care. But there’s one advantage that has
    received little attention: Women under Communism enjoyed more sexual pleasure.

    A comparative sociological study of East and West Germans conducted after
    reunification in 1990 found that Eastern women had twice as many orgasms as
    Western women. Researchers marveled at this disparity in reported sexual satisfaction, ..."

    Armed with more researches, Kristen R. Ghodsee had published a book "Why Women Had Better Sex Under Socialism" two years ago.
    "Russia extended full suffrage to women in 1917, three years before the United States did."
    Ah yes, those free and fair elections in the USSR.
    -------------------
    In America, it's "Believe it or not!"
    In Russia, it's "Believe it or else!"
    --
    --
    There exists no utopian called "Western democracy."
    Every system has it winners and losers partially reflects what aid a country could get from the rest of the world.
    https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2009/11/02/end-of-communism-cheered-but-now-with-more-reservations/

    2009 survey on whether people were better from communism after the end of communism:

    Hurgary Worse 72% About the same 16% Better 8%
    Ukraine Worse 62% About the same 13% Better 12%
    Bulgaria Worse 62% About the same 18% Better 13%
    ...
    With so many people in former USSR countries rated worst off than before, they should hurry rejoin Russia to be USSR again. They should know USSR can give them much protection and security time for work and leisurely love life, too. They get best of
    both world than what the Western culture is lacking of love, but dangerous to them too.

    Currently they are a lot talk of another civil war in the US. Why?
    Of course the US would be a better country if the two parties could work together.
    Unfortunately, bipartisan cooperation is not among US politicians' choices.

    As for Ukraine, there are forces driving toward the West as well as toward Russia. Hence,
    the Donbas region is having a civil war since 2014. According to Russia media, tens
    of thousands of Ukrainians have already chosen to become Russians.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From stoney@21:1/5 to All on Thu Sep 1 11:41:52 2022
    On Thursday, September 1, 2022 at 4:20:04 AM UTC+8, ltlee1 wrote:
    Currently they are a lot talk of another civil war in the US. Why?
    Of course the US would be a better country if the two parties could work together.
    Unfortunately, bipartisan cooperation is not among US politicians' choices.

    As for Ukraine, there are forces driving toward the West as well as toward Russia. Hence,
    the Donbas region is having a civil war since 2014. According to Russia media, tens
    of thousands of Ukrainians have already chosen to become Russians.

    Each has their own God who did not want them to work together. Their God of the two parties wants them to fight to death to destroy and eliminate and prevent them to continue mounting attack and killing and destroying people in other countries. Thus, the
    killing of minority people and sold-out sales of guns in gun shops will be evidences of civil war in the coming to them.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)