How many Soviet republics were there?

But people had faith in the future. So what if it couldn't be achieved? You can't get to paradise either; it doesn't exist on Earth. But they still believe. That's how they believed in communism and strived for it. It just took a long time and was ultimately unsuccessful. Tolkien was definitely published in 1988. Maybe even earlier. My father read The Hobbit and The Silmarillion back in college. Leaving the socialist system would have been good if we had moved towards a better system. But instead, they threw people out of the barracks and onto the street. A barracks is better than the street. If they had moved people from the barracks into an apartment, that would have been a positive change, but as it is...