How many Soviet republics were there?

This state, during the time of collectivization, killed more than a million of its most hardworking citizens, breaking the back of the Russian peasantry (and let's not blame only Stalin for this, but rather read Marx and understand that the kolkhoz, just in a harsher form, is an inherent part of this system).

And I don't blame Stalin for everything (where did you even get that idea?). It is foolish to blame Stalin alone for the deaths of millions. And who killed those millions? Other people, just like them.
I do not justify the methods of the USSR from the 20s to the 50s, but in 30 years the country rose from the ruins (and don't tell me that the cause of the civil war was the emergence of the communists led by Lenin. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time, just as Yeltsin was in 1991). Moreover, don't forget that it did this twice.

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... and let's rather read Marx and understand that the kolkhoz, just in a harsher form, is an inherent part of this system...

To understand that the kolkhoz is an inherent part of that system, there is no need to read Marx; it is obvious, just as a free market is under a democracy.

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... and you say that it cared for its people. What kind of care was it? It was care without any right to personal initiative.

It cared in the 60s - 80s. As for personal initiative... In some fields of activity, you were hit over the head for it, and in some, it was encouraged. However, it is the same now under democracy.

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For me, whether in the USSR (and we often judge it by Soviet films) or in today's Russia, the main idea is money, or its non-material expression — perks, for the sake of which people, despite their views, join various organizations. Another favorite Russian concept, characteristic of the USSR, is "khalyava" (freebies). That is the idea. For the sake of a stable salary, the people are ready to gaze faithfully into the bright communist distances, sometimes forgetting to look around and ask where we are heading.

Money has been the main idea in any human community from the moment it was invented. "Khalyava" is a concept characteristic of Russia as well. Where to steal something for free, where to get a job so as to do nothing and earn a lot — admit it, you've heard similar statements more than once from the people you communicate with.
And for the sake of a stable salary and confidence in tomorrow, people will gaze into any distances, whether communist, democratic, or whatever else.
If you want a comparison between the USSR and Russia (or if you want communism and democracy): Under communism, you decide nothing in the country and you know that you decide nothing. Under democracy, you are convinced by all means that you have the opportunity to decide the fate of the country, but you still decide nothing in the country.
If you want more: Communism is accused of not accepting other forms of government. And what do we see now? Talk that this country is undemocratic and that one over there is too, and that democracy must be urgently imposed upon them, even by force. It turns out to be the same rejection of other forms of government as in communism.

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2) to some semblance of communism. In this case, the USSR is one big fiction, since the main goal of this state — the construction of a communist system — was not realized, and all communists are great deceivers.

Just like the construction of absolute democracy. And democrats are just as much deceivers.

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Absolutely correct. A bloody power combining the incompatible. It's like the Matrix, and Alexei and the others are like the traitor from the movie who betrayed the team just to return to the sweet times rather than the harsh reality. (only here they don't betray, they sigh :) )

Bloody? — yes. Do you know of any countries without bloody pages in their history? I sigh not because it would be nice to return there, but because now our rulers want to do almost nothing for the well-being and prosperity of their country.

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Prices, music, movies — all this can be organized under a normal state system. You simply like it, but it doesn't relate strictly to the USSR. It's the people and their mindset, mentality.

It can be.....