This semipermanent bureaucracy earned higher incomes, got better health care, ate better food and had greater job security than average Russians, the much-despised proletarians. Today, our bloated federal government seems, in significant ways, to be creating this same dynamic.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2482637/posts
You can say that for any 3rd world country, not just the former USSR.