How many Soviet republics were there?

Where were we heading? Rephrase the question: where could we possibly have been heading? Two possible scenarios come to mind:
1) towards communism. I doubt there are people on this forum who believe that communism is a good thing.

So, why isn't communism "a good thing"? Communism is not feasible, it's utopian, but what's wrong with it? "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" – this is the concept of a communist economy (I didn't come up with it); socialism was considered a transitional stage from capitalism to communism – we can talk about its shortcomings, but not about the utopian communism that could not be built for the same reason that the ideas of Leo Tolstoy turned out to be untenable: too much reliance on spiritual purity and naivety.
Honestly, if there is a weak link in the idea of communism, it is us, people. Who would rush from Moscow now to build the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) purely out of youthful enthusiasm? No, thank you, we love our homeland, but we value our own wallets more.

Added 1 hour 17 minutes ago

This state killed more than a million of its most capable citizens during the period of collectivization, breaking the back of the Russian peasantry (and let's not blame only Stalin for this, but rather read Marx and understand that a collective farm, albeit in a more rigid form, is an integral part of this system), and you say that it cared about its people.

Have you been to Russian villages lately? Is the Russian peasantry doing well now? The people who used to have jobs in collective farms are now left without work, unwanted by anyone. Is replacing free farmers with collective farms a good thing? And is giving them nothing at all a good thing? At least it's cheap and effective. You can arrange things for yourselves... this is the FREEDOM we gave you.

And was there any care at all? It was care without any right to personal initiative.

Is the current lack of care better? The state exists precisely to "care" for its citizens. Let's take an example for clarity: which mother looks more dignified – the one who takes care of her child, strictly demanding that they be home by a certain time, checking all their school grades, filtering their friends, choosing which sections and clubs they should attend... or the mother who simply leaves the child to their own devices: let them run around somewhere... they'll gain some wisdom on their own?