this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2025
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There's this famous quote from putin that goes something like, "Whoever doesn't miss the soviet union has no heart, whoever wants it back has no brain."

I'll often see statistics of how many people in, for instance, Russia say that the USSR was their greatest/best time in history, or how people in former yugoslavia do miss Tito, or how older people in East Germany have nostalgia for the former DDR, or even how a majority of Romanians think that Nicolae Ceaușescu was one of the best leaders of Romania in the past few decades [which, considering he was probably the worst leader in all of the eastern bloc, discounting Gorbachev, is a stunning indictment of capitalism in the country].

But the thing is, this is all asking about the past. I dont expect results and massive change everywhere, all at once, immediately (although who would complain). But it's been three decades now, and not one former Soviet country (except maybe Belarus, if you are extremely loose with the definition or extremely optimistic) has returned to some form of socialism.

Obviously the organizational capacity of socialist movements were kneecapped at the end of the Warsaw pact and soviet union. If they weren't themselves dismissing socialism the parties were usually banned completely or forced to change to comply with anti-socialist laws.

This isn't me saying there's literally no leninist parties in these countries, or even one's with some popular support. Obviously there's CPRF in Russia (although of course there are...doubts about their authenticity), the recently emperilled Communist Party of Bohemia-Moravia, etc. But if, say, a majority of people think communism was the best time in history for the country, presumably that would mean more than a few would be members of communist parties of some sort, no?

This isn't some "ah ha, gotcha tankie," thing. I think it's just that I wish there was more than these nostalgia polls to indicate the possibility of future socialism, rather than simply nostalgia.

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[–] rainpizza@lemmygrad.ml 20 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I can answer this with some information that I have collected and shared in c/Russia and other subs:

With these, we know that Soviet Nostalgia is translating to lots of movements, events and organizations. People no longer shy away from the hammer and sickle as it was in the period of 1991 during the collapse.

All I can say is that Socialism is inevitable for Russia.

[–] Maeve@lemmygrad.ml 13 points 2 months ago

All I can say is that Socialism is inevitable for Russia.

I hope it's inevitable for the world, as the other predominant model seems hellbent on death and destruction of the entire planet.

[–] VaqueroRed@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 2 months ago

I don’t think another Soviet Union is possible without another world war. But a socialist Russian Federation I think is plausible.

[–] Ciderman@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

As a Czech person, many people here are receptive to the ideas of socialism and Marxism because the failure of capitalism and the right wing parties that basically only represent organised crime are really becoming impossible to ignore, but it's exactly the image of USSR keeping people on fence. In the case of Czech republic, it's hammered into most of us from a very young age that USSR is the epitome of all evil because it invaded and occupied us and that all the communist party did was lock up and torture people for listening to smuggled rock music and wearing jeans. Old people (my grandparents' age - 70-80) are generally very apathetic and younger people who were turning adults when the "velvet revolution" (I hate that term so much) happened are too confused/drank the cool aid of glorious free market. I'm not super hopeful, but being hopeless is anti-revolutionary so I try to keep my spirits. Currently I'm looking for other people my age to organise with, as my friends would rather cut me off than listen to me talk about socialism...

[–] Stalins_Spoon@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

How is KSCM? Are its members mainly pensioners?

[–] Ciderman@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 month ago

I don't have enough information about current members but the leader of the party is 44, although yeah, the few meetings I've been to have been mainly made up of pensioners... But KSČM is leading the current national left front and that is getting a lot of attention and support from younger people. Even socdems (yeah, I know, I know...) joined.