I lived in Berlin in 1985, so I saw quite a bit of the Wall. I went into East Berlin a few times. It was like going from color to black and white. The camera store didn’t have any cameras, but they did have a zillion of these cheesy flash unit that you would put on your camera and then plug it into the wall. The appliance store has these little dorm sized refrigerators that cost 1000 marks, which was like a months pay for those guys. Hardly anyone on the streets except VoPos. On the other hand, West Berlin, Kudamm, that was a great place. There was never any better place than Berlin to compare the two systems. And this completely ignored by our allegedly most learned people.
You hit it on the nail head. Exactly how it was. I just wish all these stupid A-holes could really see communism for what it is, slavery, death, murder, living in shacks, living on very little money, nothing to eat (ask the North Koreans who are eating TREE BARK!!! for goodness sakes!!), five or six family members living in a three room apartment with only a small kitchenette, one bedroom, tiny bath. These Russians thought they had it good. They had nothing, absolutely nothing.