[llm_trw]

The USSR was a totalitarian hell hole which had nothing to do with what communism was supposed to be.

It was still better than what happened to the USSR between 1993 and 2000 when the West won the cold war and dictated surrender terms.

[kgeist]

Nitpick: USSR was never officially a communist state, it was a "socialist" state. I remember the Soviet government had slogans like "we will build communism by 1980" etc. No one thought they already had communism. IIRC their idea was that, to build communism, you must have some kind of transitional state/ideology first. But something went wrong :)