The comparison was not between putin's Russia and Russia 50 years ago. It was between Russia and USA. Despite everything that is fucked up and wrong with US Government, I would hope (perhaps naively), its still better than Russia in terms of human rights at least?
> I would hope (perhaps naively), its still better than Russia in terms of human rights at least?
That depends on a lot of factors:
- are you homosexual
- ethnically caucasian
- A subscriber to Islam
- have a name that matches the name of someone on a no-fly list
- an 'enemy combatant' (ages 13 and up)
- an activist of sorts
Or anyone of a hundred other arbitrary criteria. Those could make the difference between a safe & secure life 'just' being harassed periodically by people in uniform or spending time in Gitmo or Siberia.
Actually, that matters in Russia a lot, too. Although, their meaning of the word is different (Russian Caucasians are people originated from around the Caucasian Mountains; that's where all the guerilla fighting is currently going on).
I am a recently naturalized US Citizen, from Russia. In magic scenario USSR would be restored, I would go back and work in an institute, like my father happily did.
Before you happily go to (hypothetically restored) USSR, please read about the fate of Italian aircraft designer Robert Bartini, who moved to USSR in 1923. In 1938 he was imprisoned and spent 14 years working in sharashkas:
Hell, you didn't need to be an Italian to get "conscripted" into a sharashka. Some of the best Russian aircraft designers (e.g. Tupolev) were contributing to the Russian war (WWII) effort from prison.
Thanks, but I'm pretty sure I am aware of the actual ratio of the horror stories to reality.
The reality is not as bleak as what the western propaganda made USSR out to be while it was out to destroy the only alternative political system on the same planet.
> I am aware of the actual ratio of the horror stories to reality
And what is the ratio? For example, try calculating this ratio for aircraft designers of the period: imprisoned_designers / free_designers. I don't think the result would be pretty.
I was interested enough to make (completely unscientific) assessment of what happened to some of the emigrants to USSR.
I've looked through all 8 Finnish emigrants listed in Wikipedia category [1]. The result isn't pretty: 3 executed during Great Purge, 1 commited suicide, 1 killed during civil war, 1 "lucky" to die just before Great Purge. The rest 2 were politicians (one of which was very high ranking). No scientists or engineers or technicians.
And here is the same assessment of all 7 American emigrants listed in Wikipedia category [2]: 3 spies; 1 scientist (Arnold Lokshin); 1 composer (Karl Rautio); 1 short-term technician, not allowed to go back to US, Gulag prisoner (Alexander Dolgun); 1 car toolmaker, not allowed to go back to US for 44 years (Robert Robinson).
Ignoring spies, we've got 2 miserable fates, and 2 good fates. So your ratio for US emigrants is 2/2. And those two are good mostly because of political reasons: the composer of Anthem of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic; and asylum seeking scientist.
Do you still want to move to (hypothetically restored) USSR?
I didn't realize until much later, but linking to a 60 year old events as a detriment to an action NOW is absolutely ridiculous. It's like, yeah, thank god I'm not Japanese, so I don't have to be imprisoned in a concentration camp right now!
Initially you wrote: "In magic scenario USSR would be restored, I would go back and work in an institute".
You didn't mention what kind of USSR would you like to be restored. Of course, there were different periods in Soviet history, with various rate and cruelty of persecutions. To stress my point I chose one of the most hideous periods. But unfair persecutions were always there.
If USSR was restored, it would obviously be the period of 2013. The pre-Gorbochev era was what my 'father' should obviously reference. The 'cruelties' of the Soviet period are directly related to the cruelties of the world at large, such as preparations for WW2.
> The 'cruelties' of the Soviet period are directly related to the cruelties of the world at large, such as preparations for WW2.
This statement is so generic, that it's very hard to argue about it. "World at large", "directly related" - what do mean by those exactly?
Pre-Gorbachev era was certainly safer to live in than Stalin era. But I would argue that "cruelty" was actually one the pillars of the Soviet system. Totalitarian system couldn't survive without the excessive use of force. That's why it's called "totalitarian". Less cruelty leads to less control, and finally leads to collapse of the system. Foreign intervention had very little to do with the collapse of USSR.
The problem is that most people wouldn't call it "Soviet misery". You were given a lot of things for free, so who cares you couldn't say bad things about the government? If you had a guaranteed job(at which you could just slack off and do nothing for the entire day with pretty much no consequences, since you knew you were getting paid at the end of the month regardless), free house/apartment paid for by the state, free medical care, free education, including higher education and state-sponsored holidays twice a year - why would you complain?
In fact I come from a country which used to be communist(Poland) and a lot of people(older people) say that it was fantastic. Obviously they don't realize that these policies pretty much ruined our economy and were unsustainable in the long run, but they don't care - they want their nice jobs, free stuff from the government and paid holidays twice the year.
