Soviet nostalgia is huge in Russia even amidst the glittery externals. It doesn’t require living there to figure that out. Just a few conversations.
You live there long enough. You realize the core of the system never truly died and in terms of the State there was never any real break after 1991.
And for those born after 1991: they are taught to derive their sense of statehood and pride from Stalin’s victory over Hitler in WWII and are “Stalinized” in other ways. But that is the starting point.
The Soviet nomenklatura simply transferred their allegiance to the new state. Unlike Eastern Europe, there was no true decommunization in the sense of completely repudiating the Soviet past.
The victory in the Great Patriotic War is where there’s a national consensus and feeling of genuine national pride but after that the consensus breaks down.
There’s regret over the loss of the big country and the promise to restore it attracts chauvinists to the likes of Zhironovsky, who promise to restore the Russian Empire.
Nostalgia, while a strong feeling has limits.