Are the Russians better off under Putin then they were under the Soviet Union?

[Siege]

I don't know if the russians are better off, but the rest of the world certainly is.

[The Brain]

I don't know if the russians are better off, but the rest of the world certainly is.

Including Israel?

[Berkut]

It would have been interesting seeing how the Soviet Union & Eastern Bloc would have dealt with the internet.

Do you really have to wonder?

See: North Korea.

[The Brain]

It would have been interesting seeing how the Soviet Union & Eastern Bloc would have dealt with the internet.

Do you really have to wonder?

See: North Korea.

Elaborate.

[Berkut]

See: North Korea, the country just to the north of South Korea.

[The Brain]

See: North Korea, the country just to the north of South Korea.

Whoa. Don't let the rage consume you.

[Zanza]

It would have been interesting seeing how the Soviet Union & Eastern Bloc would have dealt with the internet.

Do you really have to wonder?

See: North Korea.

Why do you think that North Korea is a better model for what could have happened in the Eastern bloc than say China or Vietnam?

[Tonitrus]

I really think in the case of the eastern block still being around they would go for attempting a parallel internet.

What was Soviet porn like anyway?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbc1O4XTGcQ

[mongers]

I'm not sure. They're undoubtedly better off than in the 90s. They're more free than they were under the Soviets and materially better off. On the other hand life expectancy in Russia has plummeted since the 80s, though again I think it's creeping back up from Yeltsin era lows. Also from friends who've lived in Russia they say bits of it are just unstable and quite dangerous, there's a lot of crime and a lot of violence.

Some to a lot of that just wasn't being reported.  Thousands of Soviets were dying for nothing in an extremely violent war in Afghanistan, and by the 80s the rot of Brezhnev could no longer support itself.

I think it's kind of a silly question because the USSR as it entered the 80s was just not going to survive in any recognizable fashion in to the current period. Even if it limped on in to the 90s, the productivity boom associated with the internet would just fucking destroy what remained of the economy.

Just 20/20 hindsight?

What percentage of the Kremlinologist and international relations experts at the time predicted the end of the Eastern Bloc ?

So I think plenty of people at the time thought the Soviet Union wasn't doomed to collapse, And there are probably plausible scenarios that would see it continuing for another couple of decades, perhaps.  It wasn't inevitable and the sudden emergence of a iron first from Gorbachev's velvet glow might have retarded or changed the course of events. 

[CountDeMoney]

What was Soviet porn like anyway?

It mainly consisted of pin-ups of Brezhnev's wife.

Fun fact: they actually shared the same eyebrows.

[The Brain]

It wasn't inevitable and the sudden emergence of a iron first from Gorbachev's velvet glow might have retarded or changed the course of events.

Speaking of retarded...

[Syt]

I really think in the case of the eastern block still being around they would go for attempting a parallel internet.

What was Soviet porn like anyway?

It mainly consisted of pin-ups of Brezhnev's wife.

. . . and Brezhnev himself.

[garbon]

Rough.

[Ed Anger]

I got a Marxism boner.

[Siege]

My eyes!!1