[mschuster91]

> And you think there was no corruption in the ruling communist class?

Real-socialism/communism failed for good reasons and deservedly. I shed no tears for that period.

My point is that what came after tended to be even worse - the post-downfall period, the breakdown of intra- and inter-block trade, the looting by criminals and corrupt (former) elites and other destruction and the resulting brain drain had consequences that have held or taken the affected countries back in development for decades.

Of course the elites were corrupt. But there was a marked difference in corruption when there still was some sort of government that held them a bit accountable, or when the government essentially vanished and the criminals became the government. Russia is the easiest example (because it's best documented, information on the Balkans is pretty scarce): Your average Russian "elite" back in the USSR era, he maybe had a couple villas and Western cars, that's it. Your average Russian "oligarch" (or to put it better, kleptocrat) today? Buys a soccer club for billions of euros, has multiple luxury yachts and stashed away many billions of dollars more. Hell, the billionaire Russian oligarchs alone have a net worth of over 500 billion dollars [1] despite the war, and that doesn't include the millionaire mini-oligarchs. Imagine where Russia would be, had that wealth remained in the hands of the nation, and its leaders invested it into education, social cohesion and modern industry?!

[1] https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/russian-billionaires-...