While i dont live in Russia, I live in a country boardering it. What little i can remember before the collapse of the soviet union wasnt like the first poster said "we didnt have much but at least we had pride". Arround here we had hatred for our ocupiers.
Before i go any further ill give some insight into my family history which might explain my position. When the soviet ocupation came, my grandmothers and thousands of others were deported to siberia to die. She survived and made it back to Estonia where she met my grandfather who had fought the soviets during WW2 with the 20.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (estnische Nr.1) as a voulenteer to try to keep the soviets out. After the war for Estonia was lost he defected and managed to get back into the general population here and avoid repressions. My father had to serve in the Soviet armed forces, as did most of my relatives, he was a steersman in the navy. During his forced service he was severely injured in some sort of incident though he has never really told me much about it.
Anyway as for life during the soviet union compared to life now in an independant country, the two cant really be compared. What we had during the long soviet ocupation was survival, not life. Everything was in short supply, even the most basic food items. Everyone had to conform or had dealings with the secret police, hell even listening to foreign radio stations was illegal and several people were shot for doing so. The public transportation was not too bad actualy, it worked and was relatively on time and this is about the only good thing i can think of to say about that period. Everything was government controled, there were no elections there was just voting for candidates or a candidate that the party put there. The only people who miss that era are either completely brainwashed, dilusional or were unable to make it when the doomed from the start system that kept them sustained collapsed and now blame everyone else for their own failings.
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