Were the poverty, unemployment, and disillusionment worse than dying in a nuclear holocaust? Gorbachev spared both hemispheres that fear.
He also made it possible for Russians to read what they wanted, travel where they wanted, emigrate.
So, from the outside looking in, it looks like a mixed bag.
Anyways, Russians were miserable under the czars, miserable under communism, miserable with perestroika, and are miserable under Putin. Has Russia ever been a happy place?