Why do 74% of Russians regret the demise of the Soviet Union, and beleive life was better under communism?

Question

Source(s)

2005 Survey conducted by Richard Pipes (Harvard)

http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300112887

Answer 1

Because for 74% life was better under communism?

Ask any professor of state university or MD in state hospital...
Ok, where do I start?

1) State distributed virtually free housing.
2) Free education. Full-time students in universities are paid so they don't need to work.
3) Very low prices. (the quality of goods make them not worthy even low price, but it's another question)
4) Low crime rate.
5) No need to 'keep up with the Johns' .. They make the same and buy the same cheap crap unless they have some connections to get imported goods.
6) For most life is simple - you go to free kindergarten, free school, free university and you get a job right when you got your diploma. Then you will have free education for your children and so on.


Now
A lot of people spend 80% of income on food.
High prices. (higher than in US)
Real estate prices are well out of reach for average buyer.. yeah, no mortgages for more than 10 years and very high interest rate.
High corruption. Businesses pay bribes and kick backs to officials, otherwise they are going to be shot down by IRS or some other inspection.
High crime rate.
Democratic election - candidates representative of big business, former communists politicians or mafia. Sorry to say that, but there is no one to vote for.

Answer 2

The soviet Union's demise is a red herring America started going down hill after the 1960s when people decided it was not their responsibility to make their own way in the world When a vocal group decided that bashing America was more fun then Praising it

Answer 3

I don't know where you got that information, since you chose not to provide a link, but assuming that's true, I would think it has something to do with security, primarily in the financial sense of the word. There may have been little to no possibility of upward mobility or expressing dissent, but basic necessities like having a home and enough food on the table were more or less assured by the state (based on documentaries and investigative reporting at the time- I can't claim to know anything about the former Soviet Union from personal experience).

Answer 4

The transition from reliance on the government to self sufficiency is painful and difficult.
When the Soviet Union collapsed a number of those "in the right place at the right time" obtained state property and became very wealthy...while others were left behind. It was not done equitably.
In the new Russian economy... the standard of living is now increasing for everyone, except for the pensioners who worked their lives under the Soviet system with the expectation they would be cared for, and have since been left behind.

Beyond that, there is a Russian pride that has been damaged by the fall from superpower status. You see Russia today trying to regain that status, often at the expense of responsible nations

Answer 5

Personally, I don't trust Harvard surveys, especially by Pipes, a well-known Russophobe.

You can manipulate the results by simply constructing the survey in a "proper" way. Never trust the surveys!

Answer 6

They forget how it was before the fall of communism. Their nostagia is for some fairy tale Soviet Union - they have forgotten what it was really like. I also think they are jealous of the some of the Russians who have taken capitalism by the horns and made a fortune. They begrudge the entrepeneurs, loathe those who work hard. That's what happens when the state provides...

Answer 7

Because most people prefer to follow. Most of the U.S.S.R.'s citizens had never lived under any other form of government; they weren't used to making decisions for themselves. They were told where to live, what job to do, and everything was meagerly provided by the State.
Today, the same thing is happening in the United States of America. People prefer to follow the rantings and ravings of their favorite media darling instead of thinking for themselves. Just as Hitler's propagandists convinced otherwise intelligent Germans that it was 'acceptable' to gas six million Jews, many Americans today blindly follow propagandists such as Franken, Limbaugh, Coulter and Hannity. Eventually they will come to be convinced that it's 'acceptable' to injure - or even kill - anyone who doesn't subscribe to their political philosophy.
That's when you will see the greatest democratic experiment in the history of the world begin to crumble.
As Adolph Hitler said: "How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think." -RKO 10/11/07

Answer 8

Did you see that study done over there that over half of young Russians see Stalin as a great leader and a good man??? Tells me all I need to know

Answer 9

I was born and had lived in the USSR for 27 years. I had left before it fell apart, and don't know what is going on there now but I do know that the course they chose is the same one implemented by the right wing in the US. Something to think about...

Answer 10

Because they haven't figured out how democracy works yet.

Russians are generally all the same. Ask them what they think of democracy and you get an answer along the lines of. Democracy is great, now if we can get someone in office that knows how to make it work...........

They just don't understand that its the people that make democracy work, not the elected officials.