Posted on 12/24/2018 11:48:29 AM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
MOSCOW - The number of Russians who regret the break-up of the Soviet Union has risen to its highest since 2005, amid rising economic concerns and nostalgia for the Soviet welfare system, the Levada pollster said on Wednesday.
President Vladimir Putin famously dubbed the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century and he and many Russians have long lamented the blow its demise dealt to Moscow’s great power status.
In the survey, 66 percent of Russians said they regretted the Soviet break-up, a level not seen since 2005 when Levada recorded 65 percent and Putin was on his second term in the Kremlin.
The number of nostalgic Russians fell gradually from 2004, reaching a low of 49 percent in 2012, before rising to its current level, the pollster found, on a par with the 1990s after the Soviet collapse.
Karina Pipiya, a sociologist at Levada, said that in the past such feelings were often triggered by loss of international prestige and questions of national identity.
“Now the nostalgia is more determined by economic factors and regret that there used to be more social justice and that the government worked for the people and that it was better in terms of care for citizens and paternalistic expectations,” she said.
Ordinary Russians have faced stagnating incomes, a weaker ruble and inflation since 2014, when the Russian economy entered recession amid falling oil prices and Western sanctions.
The Kremlin this year raised the retirement age for both men and women in a highly unpopular measure that dented Putin’s popularity rating.
(Excerpt) Read more at japantimes.co.jp ...
Agreed. I don't know about the beginnings of Russia as a nation, but through my life I've observed that nation/culture to have a superiority complex. The interesting thing is when they experienced democracy after the fall of communism, they couldn't handle it.
They had the opportunity to become an economic power-house that could have rivaled America. They kept their narcissistic obsession with MotherLand and let the Mafia, Politicos, and corrupt businessmen revert them back, as we're now seeing. Some people/cultures can't handle true liberty and capitalism.
“Holy fook, how stupid do you have to be?”
Liberal progressive Democrat stupid, it appears.
Simple rule of thumb to understanding Russians is this: No Russian will believe what he reads or hears or even sees. He’ll only believe what another Russian tells him. Merry Christmas to you and yours.
And they were nostalgic in the 90s because the system had collapsed.
They had lost their empire and weren't a superpower any more.
Are they nostalgic now for the same reasons, or is it that they think Russia is making a comeback?
“The number of Russians who regret the break-up of the Soviet Union has risen to its highest since 2005”
Same for the number of Democrats here, too.
adorno, if you go to Russia in person and stay awhile, you will understand the personality cults and idealization of the USSR returned after the 90s. The collapse of the USSR and breed of freedom and capitalism which defined Russia in the 90s was shocking and traumatic.
Even Russians don’t want that misery back, but that doesn’t mean say don’t say stupid shit like “it was our golden age stolen”. Those who know what it was like also know that a wizard won’t actually magic them back to this shithole, so it is just whining without consuquences.
Then there is also the popularity of stabbed in the back myths. Last notable example was Germans getting Hitler, because they ended up believing the lie that they had really won the WW1 until at the last minute a shadowy organization made German surrender for no reason.
Dangerous myth!
Standing in line for hours and hours, waiting for toilet paper or bread. Good times.
This missing is not reality based. It is a common myth formula. 1) golden age of old 2) stolen from our good people by treacherous enemies 3) great hero will awaken and will bring back the golden age.
It doesn’t cost anything to any Russian to have an imaginary history.
No wonder young people are leaving Russia.
No way we are allies...no way.
I don’t know who’s weirder - the Ruskies or the Krauts.
“Simple rule of thumb to understanding Russians is this: No Russian will believe what he reads or hears or even sees. “
Are things any better with our media?
Actually, one can be MORE nostalgic for a time and place they didn’t really know. The history provided by Kremlin-approved textbooks read by Russian schoolkids paints a rosy picture of the past.
75 years of brain-washing doesn’t die easily. The USSR collapsed because it’s economic system just didn’t work.
If you’re going to live in a second-rate country run by thugs, you might as well live in a big one that everyone is afraid of. I think that’s about the only reason to prefer the USSR to modern Russia.
Their best choice to find old fashioned communism would move to one of several states in the U.S.
Thanks, CondoleezzaProtege! News that is not Russian/Iranian/Chinese/Syrian/Libertarian propaganda for a change!
Maybe our cunning, new liberaltarian government will save us by unleashing Iran and giving Syria and Ukraine to Russia to appease it.
[Little odiferous, tangy pile of irony and sarcasm for the masses.]
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