r/ussr

Comrades, good evening!

I’m writing from Western Europe. The USSR collapsed the year I was born, but I was raised by a father who had a photo of Stalin and a statuette of Dzeržinskij on his bookshelf at home.
So, let’s just say I grew up with the myth of the USSR, especially when it comes to the Great Patriotic War.

I’ve been reflecting on my view of Russia today and wanted to share my questions with you.

In my mind, I see Russia as one of the main enemies of the United States and Western “culture.”
In this context, for me, “enemy” is a positive word.

For this reason, for example, I’ve always justified Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
When I think of Ukraine, the first thing coming to my mind are the nazi banderites.

In a sense, I view today’s Russia with the USSR still in the background.

I wanted to understand if this is a common sentiment, or if I have a distorted view of reality.

So, what's Russia today?

I promise I’m coming at this in good faith, so apologies if I come off rude or uninformed in any of these questions. Just trying to learn.

In western liberalism, at least in theory, freedoms of press and speech are held among the highest freedoms in their political societies. How do you justify the limiting or restricting of those freedoms? This is most notable to me in the Soviet people’s inability to participate in any meaningful elections to the federal level, since the Soviet constitution enforced one party rule.

Whether west or east, all governments have to address the problem of corruption regardless of ideology. How can a people expect its government to police itself in terms of limiting corruption?

What’s the general consensus on the ideas of Market Socialism or Social Democracy? At least to me, these governments seem to provide for the well being of their populations fairly well, while often still preserving the freedoms found in an idealized western liberal system.