How many Soviet republics were there?

And if people lived in "one" country, but everything was different for them, is it still the same country? In my USSR, there was no shortage of goods before perestroika, there were no unjustified persecutions, and there were social programs. But in the USSR, in which some other forum members lived, there was nothing, queues were 10 km long, and people were imprisoned for a word spoken under the covers to themselves. And how can you say that it was the same country after that? And for some, the USSR is neither one nor the other. So, it turns out to be yet another country. We are not considering just one aspect, such as the outline of the country on the map, but also the mental perception.

And regarding the socio-economic and political structure, could you be more specific?