[krzyk]

Because in those times USSR was a "power" - investing in military, ripping of dependent states for food. Life in USSR was good (especially Russia) in comparison to other states that were occupied by them (meaning USSR stationed army there).

[monocasa]

That doesn't really have with the data. A 2009 Pew research poll put the majority of satellite states as having a greater view of communism than even Russia does. Basically it's just the Czech Republic and Poland where the people who don't want a return to communism outnumber those who do.

http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/leg...

[TangoTrotFox]

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and go for Hanlon's razor here. Your image doesn't say what you think it does. Here [1] is the pew page where your image came from. You, for whatever reason, decided to not offer the data that actually answers the question of what percent of people approve the change to a capitalist democracy. This [2] is the answer for democracy, this [3] for capitalism.

Literally every nation polled except Hungary and Ukraine have a majority in support of both changes. A critical point is that this poll was also done in 2009 when economic times were quite hard around the world. Also I expect that answer was on the approve - neutral - disapprove spectrum, so (100 - approve%) is not the same as disapprove.

Finally, there's also the general issue that overtime for whatever reason we, as humans, tend to view the past as much more pleasant than it was. If you polled Americans over some minimum age on whether the country was better off 'x' years ago (e.g. - the 50s) or better off today, I expect you'd see an enormous chunk, and likely a majority, stating that we were better off in the 50s. Even well below that age, I would be mighty tempted to agree as well. It was a time of 'friendlier' economics and people able to graduate debt free working a part time job, and also an era where employees were not just "human resources" -- think about how dystopic that phrase really is! There was a very different employer-employee model than we have today.

And finally there is the issue of a shared enemy. Countries united when they have a common enemy. Even George Bush approached near 90% approval engaging in some pretty bad actions following 9/11 simply because we had a shared enemy. It's called the 'rally around the flag effect'. The Soviet Union had the greatest of enemies, which is something that would have galvanized and unified the people. All we need to do to create world peace and harmony is get invaded by a space fairing civilization! I meant that as a joke, but it's probably quite true...

[1] - http://www.pewglobal.org/2009/11/02/end-of-communism-cheered...

[2] - http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/leg...

[3] - http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/leg...