In recent years, Russian citizens have expressed appreciation for their Soviet past, associating it with feelings of security, justice and simplicity.
Russians commemorating the USSR at Red Square in Moscow. Errasti. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Although the Soviet Union is often depicted as a state rife with spartan regulations and severe censorship, many of its old citizens look back on it fondly. Perhaps due to the current state of the job market and the impenetrable pandemic, Russians, more than ever, seek refuge in their Soviet past. In recent years, surveys held by the Levada Center polling group have shown a persistent growth in positive sentiments toward the USSR among Russians. Approximately three out of four Russians miss the Soviet Union and prefer its socialist system to the constantly fluctuating free market economy of Russia today. In various interviews, elders who were born in the USSR express that it ensured financial stability, universal pricing of goods and accessible health care.
Post-Soviet Russian Economy
After the dissolution of the USSR in 1989, Russia’s new free market economy was plagued by economic disparity and poverty. Due to the communist state’s previous restrictions on its economy, Russia struggled to incorporate its industries into the global market economy. The economic collapse in 1998 threw post-USSR Russia into a period of hyperinflation and unemployment, which reached unprecedented heights that were 10 times greater than the rate of unemployment during the Soviet era. In a 1999 presentation on the future of Russia’s economy, Clifford G. Gaddy describes how the remnants of collectivization clashed with the hasty modernization of the previously communist nation, afflicting the state with a “virtual economy.” This meant that Russian enterprises could not survive in a global competitive market due to their resistance to cash flow. Old Soviet enterprises remained noncompetitive producers of goods without the integration of revenue.
During the ‘90s, millions of Russians were in poverty, by the U.N.’s standard of earning less than $1.90 a day. In an attempt to combat the deteriorating economy, the newly-elected President Vladimir Putin launched a rigorous campaign to modernize Russia. As a result, Russia’s overall gross domestic product and general social well-being improved dramatically by the year 2000. His “Programme for the Socio-Economic Development of the Russian Federation for the Period 2000-2010,” also known as the Gref plan, helped restore the general well-being of Russia’s population: poverty rates lowered and Russia’s share of the world’s economy rose by twofold. The debilitating market crash in 2008 halted this growth period, which stifled the economy into a stagnation that has continued ever since. However, there is no denial that Russia’s overall standard of living has improved since the ‘90s, and the poverty rate of 14.3% is comparable to that of most Western nations.
While Putin’s economic policies have managed to cushion the staggering blow of liberalism, Russia’s citizens still feel the weight of capitalism's unpredictability. Grants and services previously offered by the state, such as universal health care and free schooling, were retracted, and along with it, the financial security of the average Russian individual. Life expectancy increased, but Russia’s population has plummeted throughout the last 20 years. “The Soviet era may not be seen as a time of high living standards, but as a time of justice,” said Andrey Kolesnikov, senior associate at Carnegie Center Moscow. “Today's state capitalism is viewed as unfair: the injustice is in distribution, access to goods and infrastructure. And this feeling is growing stronger.”
Seeking Refuge in Cultural Artifacts
The COVID-19 pandemic poses a new threat for Russia’s economy, which had already been experiencing a period of stagnation. Putin’s response to the coronavirus, much like many government policies around the world, has done little to protect the citizens of Russia. Unemployment is rising and spending is decreasing. Russians today are generally anxious about the state of their economy and their individual well-being. A large spike in new COVID-19 cases in October prompted Putin to reinstate restrictions on public spaces and private businesses. Jack Cordell of The Moscow Times notes that Russia had been “reluctant to dip into its reserves for a stimulus package the first time round, and will need to decide what to do about measures such as cheap business loans, extra payments for families with young children, higher unemployment benefits, extra pay for medical workers and a bankruptcy moratorium that are expiring soon.”
Soviet nostalgia isn’t only a result of the economic uncertainty that plagues Russians under capitalism. Nostalgia for a country’s past is a transnational phenomenon that depends on aesthetic factors as well as sociopolitical changes. Ekaterina Kalinina, a scholar in post-Soviet nostalgia from Copenhagen University, told Document Journal that the revival and preservation of Soviet era forms of entertainment and fashion propagated positive feelings toward the USSR. The Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines, with locations in St. Petersburg and Moscow, has seen up to 60,000 visitors per day in recent years. Both the youth and elderly indulge in Soviet memorabilia, finding comfort in the stability of simpler times. Through personal recollections of their lives under communism, and through intergenerational stories inherited by younger people, Russians view the Soviet Union through rose-colored glasses. The era of the USSR represents a “golden age” where current financial troubles under capitalism were nonexistent. Another notable promoter of Soviet-themed entertainment is Nostalgia TV. Nostalgia TV includes a wide range of media, from music to shows and movies from the Soviet era. Expanding its outlets to radio and YouTube, Nostalgia TV provides a platform for Russians to recall their fond memories of the USSR and to explore the relics of Soviet media. Often ignoring the totalitarian nature of the USSR, Russians feel comforted by these virtual artifacts of their communist past.
However, these increasingly positive views toward the Soviet Union cannot be dismissed as the inflated fantasies of Russians. It is undeniable that the economic stability ensured under socialism is now absent under the current laissez-faire system. As Russians face the COVID-19 crisis with the rest of the world, they continue to grapple with the supposed freedom which also bars them from accessible health care. The Russian people do not wish to revert to the Soviet system in its totality, but the precarious state of society causes them to yearn for pieces of the safety net found in the past. They desire a new, united way forward that guarantees the overall security of the populace while remaining incorporated with the global capitalist economy.
Heather Lim
recently earned her B.A. in Literatures in English from University of California, San Diego. She was editor of the Arts and Culture section of The Triton, a student-run newspaper. She plans on working in art criticism, which combines her love of visual art with her passion for journalism.