"People said they lived better during the Soviet era, that they felt more valued" - https://archive.is/20260905161322/https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2026/09/05/in-germany-memories-of-the-soviet-legacy-are-at-the-heart-of-saxony-anhalt-s-state-election-i-do-not-consider-russians-to-be-enemies_6757193_4.html#selection-3657.208-3661.95 - interesting article exploring the cultural and geopolitical drivers of today's likely far-right election win in former East Germany.
If only we could see the rival communist and capitalist systems objectively, rather than through one or the other distorting lens.
Many times, working in Eastern European countries, including Russia, in the 90s and 00s, I would hear people complain about soviet life - but immediately follow that up with 'but at least you knew your children would be well educated, treated if they were ill, get a job and a home, however humble, when they left you...'
I remember a big group of easterners and westerners talking about television. Somebody from Albania reminisced how in the communist period they had only one channel, and most of an evening might be taken up by a broadcast of a classical music concert. Everybody laughed at the deprivation - then somebody said 'but you know we were all together - the next day you would talk and joke with all your friends about the programmes you had all seen... there was more of a community feeling'.
And I remember most clearly the verdict of a Berlin taxi-driver: "Yeah, communism was shit. Capitalism - more shit."
