As bad as soviet communism was, most people who grew up in the USSR say that life was better back then.
They are angry at Gorbachev, they blame him for destroying the USSR and for their current economic problems.
Russia is a land of adventures where anything could happen. I remember some ten years ago when dashcams were not even a thing in the world, there were a lot of driving videos documenting road accidents and road rages from Russia. I guess dashcams were employed there for an obvious reason.
As bad as soviet communism was, most people who grew up in the USSR say that life was better back then.
They are angry at Gorbachev, they blame him for destroying the USSR and for their current economic problems.
...
Same here in Germany, the memories of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR, now the "New Federal States of the unified Germany) are like heroin, the ones that live in those former "sub-soviet" states, and did not find the way for them to embrace the future make up a sizable portion of those citizens, and the vote for the party that formerly was the single governing party "SED", now "Die Linke" ("The Left"), or they vote for the far right "Alternative for Germany ("Alternative für Deutschland, AfD), the one that is, at this point pretty much only made up out of people like those that are taking over your Republicans.