Russian Hero or Western Stooge?

This

Daily reminder he starred in a pizza hut comercial.
youtu.be/C9lvzzH0STw

Yeah, it really sucked living under healthcare, education, food, etc. A real nightmare.

Yeah man, that's why the life expectancy in literally every eastern European country is up by 5-10 years now, infant mortality half of what it was and food is not only more plentiful but more varied as opposed to being 80% potato and grain.

But then again commies never did like empirical evidence.

youtube.com/watch?v=iyqEFUQKczw

This. If anything, USSR needed liberalising economic reforms earlier to avoid collapse. Full command economy is just unsustainable

He's a stooge for pizza hut

Hero.

>Implying any of those were close to being better than the west.

Russia's influence on Veeky Forums only matter is you're stupid enough to use Veeky Forums for anything else but entertainment.

Could you post the sources so that I can BTFO commies?

Eastern Euro here. A good amount of people in the ex-Soviet bloc favor communism and Russia and see life before 1989 as preferable to how life is now as American cuck states. This isn't universal though, don't get me wrong. Poland and the Baltics absolutely hate anything to do with communism and Russia itself because they have bad history with the nation, Soviet occupation and being turned into a puppet just added more onto that.

Soviet Union didn't have to fall, or didn't have to fall the way it did.
Gorbachev's heart was in the right place, and sure, collapse could've been even more catastrophic, but he miscalculated terribly.
Speaking from Yugoslav perspective, people who replaced commies (who were in large part lower-ranking commies who switched to nationalism) were simply worse.
What people miss most (ignoring the fact that they were younger) is equality. Sure, you had "more equal" people even then, but sons and daughters of communist officials didn't for the most part live like progeny of rich lives today (in Yugoslav case, until the very late stage). People really resent that.
IIRC Tito's son got his first car in early 80's, and it was a Fiat 500.
Don't take this as "it was great", there were many issues, but positives too.
And as user above said, outside of Baltic States and Poland, you'll hear this story everywhere.

And another thing, that Westerners get the wrong impression of, is that communists were highly socially conservative. That appeals to many people in Eastern Europe.
Basically, as time goes by, people remember positive things and forget negatives. Usually because situation in 90's (and early 2000's in some regions) was far worse.
Fuck, countries like Moldavia and Ukraine are literally worse today than they were under communist rule.

Pretty sure Poland and Baltics got most of the initial western gibs too, their Russophobia makes them a perfect bulwark against a potentially resurgent Russia that UK-US-France has always feared. Then they were propped up as an example on how we could be just like them if we accepted the West.

In my experience most of the ex-communist parties that try to remain true to their old ways even if going social democratic (like Romania's one) still stay socially conservative. The West doesn't get that the whole right-left wing is VERY different around here.

In Russia, Yugoslavia, etc, the bourgeois middle class and royalty were the ones pushing liberal values even if they remained autocratic in terms of governing.

>IIRC Tito's son got his first car in early 80's, and it was a Fiat 500.
Is this actually true? I guess it could be but it still seems like bs

Regular schlubs in no name towns started buying cars in the late 60s in the part of the Dalmatia that I'm from, so I kind of find it hard to believe

He wasn't a glamorous-type of dictator, many in the Eastern Bloc were far from vain. And why would he need to buy a car? He can just take a state-owned car when needed.

Yep. In Yugoslavia you even had a tax on "kitsch". We should implement that stuff again.
Could be, take it with a grain of salt. But it's obvious his family didn't get anything of his wealth. Almost everything he owned belonged to state.
And another thing, I come from unaffiliated family, mothers side of family was mostly anti-communist. Grandpa fought in partisans due to circumstance but never became a party member.

Compared to Tito most of communists elsewhere lived a spartan lifestyle. When Khrushchev visited him, allegedly he said "this man isn't a communist, he's a king".
But still, that shit is FAR from how political class lives today.
So all in all, there were positives and clear negatives.

If you're from Serbia, why did Vucic go full fag and appoint a fag Prime Minister? Is it some sort of ploy or was he always homosexual?

Montenegrin.
Two reasons, first, she's gay and bland (though apparently competent), so she will never be popular among population and become a future competition, and second, to appeal to his Western ''friends'' and show how progressive he is.

But surely conservative Serbia wouldn't take well to a gay Prime Minister?

''Conservative Serbia'' is mostly full of apathetic people, just like everywhere here, so yes, they would.
Our politicians properly see us as cattle. We indeed are.

Nobody cares, she's a figurehead and it's obvious to everyone.

That's disappointing, not because I hate gays per se, but because I've always thought of Serbia as being passionate and lively, and not the uncaring consumerist flock that forms the populations of Western Europe.

Why not Western Hero and Russian Stooge?

Graaab them by the pusssssy

Russian here.

Let me tell you an anecdote.

Imagine you go into an elevator and there you meet a guy with a lot of bags of garbage. He stinks up the entire elevator. You hate him for it. You think he ruined your day. You ask him: "What are you doing", he replies: "I bring the trash out." You ask why the fuck he didn't bring it out earlier, he replies: "This isn't my trash. The people who were before me left it."

Do you really hate that guy who had the thankless job to bring the trash out?

What was he supposed to do? 1 man can't reform a system. The entire people can reform a system. It is pathetic that Russians blame 1 man for their own failures.

*Western Hero or Russian Stooge?

FTFY

DRRRRRRRUMPF XD

It seemed though that any time attempts were taken to reform or modernise the Soviet economy, the CPSU would undermine or block reforms because it meant reducing the power of the CPSU.

Given the situation, it truly was an impossible. Not to mention that not long after he became General Secretary, the Chernobyl accident occurred, which bankrupted the USSR.

>trading freedom and prosperity for safety nets

lmao

Russia's influence on Veeky Forums only matters if you're Russophobic.

>implying moderates weren't right
Gorbachev failed. CPSU opposition was vindicated by history. It wasn't an impossible task. I agree you can't shit on him and blame him, but he failed.

How I can tell you're a Navalny voter.

This.

I'd respect Gorbachev if he at least had dignity and didn't do bullshit like this