30: USSR

30 years ago this year (December 25, 1991) The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics collapsed. While it was the best Christmas present that the Communist Atheist Country could give to the world – an end to the Cold War  - it left millions upon millions of now former Soviet citizens (there were 287 million Soviet citizens in 1989) destitute and stranded.

 Not only did all now former Soviets have no country, no rule-of-law, worthless money, an Educational System that had only fed them lies for decades, failing infrastructure (housing, public transportation, etc.) and no hope for the future, but millions upon millions of former Soviets now found themselves foreigners overnight.

 For decades, Soviets moved between the 16 Soviet Republics (sometimes voluntary, but more often they were forced to by the Government because of Deportations or their work - Soviets were told where to work once they graduated the University to repay their “free” education.)

Overnight in 1991, an ethnic Russian (once considered the best ethnicity to be in the USSR with the most advantages given to them despite the USSR being a “classless and equal society” – ethnicity was even on every Soviet Internal Passport) was stranded in a non-ethnic Russian country unwilling to speak the local language – again due to the belief that everything Russian was better.

On top of that many post-Soviet countries had civil wars and ethnic violence. Many people say the USSR collapsed peacefully, but what they mean is that another country didn’t come and destroy it – the USSR destroyed itself internally. In the 1980s-1991 the Soviet Government and Military went around the country (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Moldova, different parts of Russia including Moscow during the August 1991 Coup there) killing and wounding anyone who protested their rule. Only Belarus and Ukraine didn’t have the Soviet violence the rest of the country did.

After the USSR collapsed there were many wars and ethnic violence throughout the former USSR. Every former Soviet Republic - now independent country - saw death and violence. The ethnic minorities were in many cases Stateless refugees trying to make it back, on their own, to their own country: ie. ethnic Ukrainians living in Uzbekistan trying to go back to Ukraine, ethnic Russians in Azerbaijan trying to go back to Russia, etc.

Even 30 years later the wars and ethnic violence continues across a lot of the former Soviet Union. Russia continues to occupy: Transnistria (Moldova), Abkhazia (Georgia), South Ossetia (Georgia), Crimea (Ukraine) and  has been fighting in the Donbas of eastern Ukraine since 2014 (4,494 killed Ukrainian Soldiers have been killed and 9,500 wounded. 5,670 Russian Soldiers have been killed and 13,500 wounded. 13,000 Ukrainian Civilians have been killed and 31,000 wounded.  1,414,798 Ukrainian Civilians have had to flee Crimea and Donbas for other parts of the Ukraine.)  Armenia, Russian and Azerbaijan were involved in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War of 2020.

With all the continued instability and violence it is no surprise that former Soviet citizens continue to think the USSR was the best country (despite all the political repressions, mass murder, poor living conditions, no personal freedoms, etc.) The fact that the Soviet Government tightly censored what their citizens found out also helps make those horrible times seem good.

In 2020 75% of Russians polled said the Soviet Era was the greatest time in the country’s history. 61% of Kyrgyz agreed. 66% of Armenians agreed. Of course the grass is always greener somewhere else (and the vast majority of people who continue to love the USSR are 70 years old or older.)