And there's no need to refer to the Academy of Sciences; they recommend many things, including Sakharov (read him; his writing contains errors at the level of a 5th-grade student).

Statistical information is readily available; I base my main conclusions on it, not on monographs, each of which has its own biases.

I haven't honestly read Kara-Murza; I confess.

And besides, you shouldn't attribute things to me that I haven't said. I never claimed that everything was good in the USSR.

There are plenty of people who criticize things without me; I only present alternative perspectives. If everyone here was just praising things, I would present data on the shortcomings; I have that too.

By the way, I don't consider the USSR a paradise on earth, for example. But the fact that the situation has changed for the worse now is undeniable. In Soviet times, many talented people emigrated from the country (although many, no less talented, did not emigrate), and now? Now, almost all those who have truly achieved fame and wealth deservedly (that is, not thieves-politicians and not talentless pop stars) are rushing to live permanently in more civilized and stable countries. While some forum members praise our democratic state, everyone who can be in demand in the West is fleeing it.
By the way, the current story with the monument in Tallinn eloquently shows how much weight Russia has on the political arena. We are nobody. And it pains me to understand this.