soviet union was actually very good at providing basic needs (food, housing, education, medical care) to its population. in fact much better than even the US does right now. that is not the reason ussr collapsed
Source? As the person who spent good part of my life there, I would like to know more details. I do remember my parents waiting for an government provided apartment for 15 years though.
The cost part Quora gets really well, I have no problem with that. Since Soviet Roubles were worthless money anyway, it did not matter how much you paid for that.
What it does not say though, is that housing supply was extremely poor. There was extreme lack of decent housing, and people could be easily on a 10+ year wait list (as my parents were). There was practically only government provided houses (e.g. apartments), you could not buy land to build your house yourself (all land was nationalized and belonged to "people", i.e. government). So your option was to wait until you were given one. There was also virtually no secondary housing market, you could not buy an apartment since the supply was so low.
So while you waited for the gift from government, you either lived with your parents (if they had place), lived in "kommunalka" (shared apartment where each family got one room but shared kitchen, bathroom etc with other families), or rented a room from whomever you could find (which was not legal actually because it was deemed private entrepreneurship which was not allowed). Was not fun, believe me.
at no point did i say it was fun, or something to be emulated. my point was that post war ussr was good at providing bare basics. i still think my assessment is correct and i think population growth in eastern europe during those times vs now suggest im right. also the fact remains that the soviets built A LOT especially considering that imperial russia was very much an agrarian country. pretty much all the concrete jungles accross eastern europe is the work of socialist housing policies
High population growth is associated with poverty, not prosperity. Economic growth of Eastern Europe pre-1991 and post-1991 tells everything you need to know. Countries that stagnated for 50 years went through a 10x growth in 30 years after the Soviet grip disappeared.
> my point was that post war ussr was good at providing bare basics
My point is that USSR was providing bare basics for some and not for all. If you were member of CPSU or an informer, or of privileged nationality then your chances were much higher.
At the time of Soviet Union's collapse, 70-80%+ of all housing stock belonged to the government. New independent countries privatized it all as fast as they could for peanuts (could get an apartment for the price of a Sony VCR), because their condition was horrible and there was no money for repairs in state budget.
> soviet union was actually very good at providing basic needs (food, housing, education, medical care) to its population. in fact much better than even the US does right now. that is not the reason ussr collapsed
You just have to look the refuges after the wall fell which were buying all the basic necessities in bulk, you know it's BS.
i probably should have made it clear that i was talking about post ww2 ussr. you know, the one that took away crimea from russia and gave it to ukraine. also the same ussr that gave national autonomy rights to almost every ethnic group within its borders (something unheard of in the west); actually this is the "atomic bomb" that putin said lenin placed under russia :)
Constitution of the USSR had freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press and many other rights unknown to its population, and severely punished when attempted to exercise those rights. North Korea is a pretty chill place too if you judge it only by its constitution.
Sick that you as a russian troll claims russia gave ukrainians indepence. They are fighting for their lives to be free of the evil russians raping and killing them. Do you deny that?
lol i actually have no connection to russia. but whatever helps you deal. i rather enjoy broadening peoples perspectives. dont worry though, if you were a putin fanboy i would have quite a bit to say too
and yes ... nato is bad. every imperialist organisation is bad. be it russian, american, chinese, or whatever