I'm not sure this is meaningful. A lot of people yearn back for the days of Maggie Thatcher and Ronald Raygun as well.
Submitted 2 years ago by yogthos@lemmy.ml to socialism@lemmy.ml
http://www.idcommunism.com/2021/12/30-years-later-63-of-russians-regret-_0971784939.html
Comments
ttmrichter@lemmy.ml 2 years ago
yogthos@lemmy.ml 2 years ago
It's pretty significant when you look at what happened to things like quality of life and life expectancy in the vast majority of former USSR republics. For example, mortality among Russian men rose by 60% since 1991, four to five times higher than in Europe. Guess what happened in the 90s to cause this.
Halce@lemmy.ml 2 years ago
There’re different reasons you can yearn for something tho. What you seek in yearning for it. A stable job for example (and an educational path that guarantees employability). Universally accessible housing. Targeted addressing of local problems, like quick relief efforts after a disaster etc...
As for freedom of the press, you only have one now if you colour within the lines. Just ask Julian Assange.
You have to remember the Soviet parliament was democratically elected by the people and popular after the dissolution too. It had to be literally firebombed out of existence by a U.S puppet.
nachtigall@feddit.de 2 years ago
^This. Nostalgia often fools people.
yogthos@lemmy.ml 2 years ago
Yeah, nostalgia for things like guaranteed food, housing, healthcare, and education. Nostalgia for never having to worry about losing your job and ending up on the street, or not being able to retire in dignity. Old people are especially nostalgic for the times when they didn't have to live under the bridges and scavenge for food in the garbage.
k_o_t@lemmy.ml 2 years ago
that's not very meaningful i'm afraid
say, russia turned out to be like scandinavian countries after the fall of the ussr, russians would have been happy for the fall of the ussr, even though scandinavian countries rely on worker exploitation in third world countries, this only indicates that for a lot of people the quality of life took a plunge after the fall of the ussr
living in russia sucks, welcome to the real world, people are so tired and exhausted that they can't give a shit, just wanting to live a good quality life, without caring about the consequences of their lifestyle, which is very characteristic of capitalism now that i think about it
yogthos@lemmy.ml 2 years ago
Of course this is meaningful. The transition from communism to capitalism in the former USSR is a huge scale experiment. If Russia turned out to be like Scandinavian countries then at least it could be said that capitalism didn't make things worse for the people. Yet, quality of life dropped significantly across pretty much all the former republics. Millions of people now have direct lived experience under both systems, and they can see which one works best.
k_o_t@lemmy.ml 2 years ago
sure
i'm not defending capitalism obv, but the reverse happened for some former soviet republics, so imo such a conclusion should be drawn by comparing quality of life not of individual former soviet republics, but rather from all of them as a collection
nachtigall@feddit.de 2 years ago
Interestingly, the fall of Soviet communism is perceived (significantly) more positively in most Eastern European countries [1].
While I do not deny the influence of economic inequality and capitalism or the other factors mentioned in the article, my experience with Russians shows that nationalist/imperialist beliefs and the desire to be a superpower carry more weight when it comes to regretting the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2019/10/15/european-public-opinion-three-decades-after-the-fall-of-communism/
Dogmeat@lemmy.ml 2 years ago
One of the big things for me to take away from this article is that the 84% of the people who are actually old enough to remember living in the USSR regret it's dissolution.