I lived for 4 years in the Czech Republic and Russia (post-Communist) and saw what horror that system wreaked on those people. The Russians alone are the most resilient people I’ve ever known, as a result, but it took me a long time to get those images of government imposed oppression out of my head. I guess I’m going to have to dredge that up again and rethink how I can emulate them, and how they “beat the Soviet system” and lived to tell about it.
My parents fled communist Czechoslovakia with the shirts on their backs. My grandparents and most other relatives stayed behind. All of them lost everything materially, and lost their freedom for over 40 years. I visited them during those dark years. I had to register with the police when I visited, and they knew where I was staying and with whom. People ratted on neighbors, sometimes telling lies, other times the truth.
My loved ones coped by trusting only the closest of family and friends, developing a lot of self-sufficiency skills, bartering, and keeping their mouths shut. My family never joined the Communist Party and had a harder time of it. They were considered enemies of the state, since grandfather had been a successful entrepreneur and civic leader. Their business, home, land and bank accounts were confiscated. They were set to menial work, and lived in tiny apartments. Food was of poor quality, meat was scarce, and fresh produce of very limited quality and quantity. Nobody in my family was permitted to have a phone, and cars were completely out of the question. They may as well have asked for a spaceship. Travel outside the country was prohibited for most people, and carefully monitored within the country. University level education was free, I believe, but it was limited to "trusted" and qualified students. Needless to say, the grandchildren of an enemy of the state were untrustworthy or unqualified. My cousins were denied education beyond the age of 19, with one exception late in the regime when things loosened a bit.
It was the love of family that kept them sane. The 50's were the hardest because it was right after the war, and Europe was in desperate shape. Politically there were many crackdowns as the regime established its power (terror) over the citizens. By making examples of people and having some of them simply disappear, others were "encouraged" to toe the line. My uncle was sent to mine uranium, and my grandfather to dig ditches. My other uncle lost his long-time family business. It was nationalized, and he was sent to work there in a menial position among his former employees.
One thing people did to keep their spirits up was to employ political humor. The anti-police, anti-bureaucrat and anti-commie jokes were very witty and sly. Some of the literature and later films were also wickedly satirical.
As a group, Czechs are big readers and enjoy the arts. Books were relatively affordable even in the dark days, and my family developed a nice library over time. Even without a university education, people learned a lot through literature and photographic travel books. Theater, music and sport provided relatively inexpensive entertainment. Beyond that, of course, they drowned their sorrows in beer. The Czechs are historically good at drowning their sorrows while waiting out the latest political occupation. It's a small land in the middle of Europe, and occupation and domination are nothing new. They tend to fight back by quietly surviving rather than openly fighting. It's not the American temperament. Americans are more assertive as a culture.
As to beating the system, mostly they just outlasted it. There was a degree of "going Galt" if you remember the expression "we pretend to work; you pretend to pay us". Everything slowed down. Worksite pilferage was common, and long breaks and inefficiency were typical. People had small cement mixers in their yards and lots of things were painted with blue paint. That's because construction workers would bring home a few bricks at a time and mix up mortar and build a shed or garage piecemeal with the "acquired" goods. Blue paint was the standard for farm equipment and lots of trucks. Workers took some home to paint bicycles or small machinery at home. You get the picture.
Eventually these systems break down from the sheer inefficiency, and with leaders like Reagan, they are helped along into their demise. By ramping up the arms race with the Russians, he hastened the economic decline. This made it easier for the Czechs to "beat the system". Once it was pushed closer to economic collapse, it was easier to topple politically. We have a tough line to walk as a nation. We can learn from these cultures, but our national temperament and our resources are different. Our path forward will also be different.