More than three decades later, how is life like for the Russian people, the legitimate successors of the former Soviet Union? Is it true that "the people's living standards have steadily improved", as the Western media claims?
In fact, since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the entire history of the Soviet Union has been completely repudiated. On the one hand, the Soviet Union faced the dilemma of being "facialized" and "stigmatized" by the Western media, while on the other hand, over time, people tended to re-read only the shortcomings of the Soviet Union and forget how great a country it was.
Seriously, people now misunderstand the Soviet Union too deeply. The Soviets never ran out of bread in the era of the planned economy, and did not even use bills during the war. If you look at the civilian life of the Soviet era, you have everything, and there is no shortage of things like cars, consumer goods, fashion products, etc.
Do you think that a country that industrialized in the 1930s, a modern country that was close to 70% of the GDP of the United States at its peak, you have been living in "deep water" for a long time? I am afraid that such a deep water is a little absurd.
Let's look at another set of data. In 1980, the Soviet Union generated 12,950 tons of electricity, while the United States was 43 million tons at this time, and the gap between the two was more than three times. As for the production of natural gas and oil, the Soviet Union was far ahead.
If this only means that the Soviet Union is rich in fossil energy, then the purchasing power of the Soviet people is enough to show everything.
In 1980, U.S. automobile production was 1.33 million units, compared with 6.58 million units in the Soviet Union, or 20.2 percent of that of the United States. Dairy production in the Soviet Union was 90.6 million tons, and in the United States it was 58.3 million tons. There is also the long-criticized food shortage in the Soviet Union, which was not short of food at that time, reaching 189.1 million tons in 1980. You say, can the people of such a rich country eat without bread?
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the whole country fell into chaos. The so-called "rushing to the embrace of democracy and freedom" is even more nonsense, and you can see the specific suffering of the Soviet people after the disintegration.
When Yeltsin came to power, he vigorously promoted so-called "shock therapy" as a means of stimulating the Russian economy and his dream of achieving capitalist goals in 100 days.
To achieve this goal, Yeltsin also issued government bonds at the beginning of his presidency, so that every Russian citizen could own the national bonds. Of course, not only Yeltsin was so optimistic, but even the Russian residents estimated that the country would soon return to stability, but the Russians' expectations were soon shattered.
Stimulated by shock therapy, the Russian economy continues to collapse, and more than 70% of the people live below the poverty line for a long time.
In view of this situation, the pension system of Russian residents in the Soviet era was abolished, and the wealth of the country was taken over by the special classes of the Soviet era. This directly leads to a small number of people getting rich and most people going to extreme poverty. The Soviet era brought to an end the life of equality for all, and happiness was no longer common.
In addition, it is accompanied by a soaring price level. Can you imagine a country's currency depreciating to 1600 times? This is the norm for the inhabitants of russia after the dissolution of the country. The rapid depreciation of the ruble directly led to the withdrawal of the currency from the international trading scene.
The chaos of the country has turned social chaos into a pot of porridge. It is reported that the crime rate in Russia has soared after the dissolution, with an average of more than five people dying on the streets of Moscow every day. The high crime rate is accompanied by the lifting of Prohibition. As a product of mental consumption, alcohol can completely paralyze the Russian people who are in a state of food and clothing, so for a period of time anyone can use alcohol, and drunken men can be seen everywhere on the streets of Moscow.
Of course, the life of Russian officials during this period can be called worry-free and extravagant. They used their power to embezzle and accept bribes and embezzle state-owned assets, which led to the resentment of the people in the early days of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In addition, when Russia was first founded, a "de-Sovietization" movement was launched. It is not an exaggeration to call this movement a "catastrophe", and in fact it is a smear and denial of Soviet history. They pulled down statues of Lenin, burned the history books of the former Soviet Union, and humiliated veterans who fought bloody battles for the Soviet Union. If a country does not have heroes, the country is finished, and what it means to insult heroes means a total negation of the history of the Soviet Union.
When anything about the Soviet Union was smashed and burned, the mood of the Russian people was ignited.
In October 1993, more than 50,000 Muscovites gathered in Moscow's "October" square. Russians waved Soviet flags and shouted, "Restore the Soviet system." They shouted the names of Lenin and Stalin, and they never missed the Soviet era so much.
Until today, Russian car production in 2013 has caught up with the levels of the Soviet Union in the seventies. The Soviet people were not short of bread and vodka in that era, and the working class had a seaside sanatorium to vacation every year. But now? Hunger, alcoholism, and corruption pervade the dissolution of Russian society, and it's no wonder that demonstrations erupt in Moscow.
The collapse of the Soviet Union was a "completely unexpected thing" for the whole world, and it was a melancholy and strange time. Was the life of the soviet people after the collapse really as "rich and beautiful" as the Western media claimed? It's also clear which is good and which is bad.