Communism created a strangely detached and cold society, where people relied on the government rather than on their families or social network. I remember meeting Russians who came here when the USSR first began to allow emigration, and they really seemed unsure how to survive without government help; at the same time, however, they had learned ways of defrauding and getting around the bureaucracy, a survival technique they continued to use in the US. (It's one of the reasons Russian gangs are so effective in things like tax and ID fraud.) But they all complained about the US, because they had to find jobs, find housing, etc. without receiving these things automatically. This was true even though most of them were being assisted by various social service organizations.
I think that when the all-knowing, all-encompassing government collapsed, Russians didn't know how to function. Animals that are in a high stress situation will cease reproduction, and it seems to me that Russians suddenly felt themselves in a high-stress situation. Because they had been trained for generations to look to the State as the source of all good, they had no idea of how to rely on each other, build or maintain sustained marriage relationships, or even rely on their own abilities to survive (other than those who got into crime, which was the only independent activity that seemed to exist in the old USSR).
Excellent post, Livius. The not-quite-so-encompassing socialism in Europe (and to a lesser extent still, here in the US) has had a similar effect. Family ties are weakened (because the welfare state renders the family redundant) and simply the ability to think and plan ahead for oneself.