Justin

The USSR blurred the line. There was decentralized industry and multiculturalism, but also Russian supremacy, genocide, and military conquest.

There was very much the threat of violence in 1990 and 1991, even if the original USSR framework was very liberal. Not to mention the USSR-led coups in Czechoslovakia and Hungary.

It’s also important to note that the Russian SFSR itself was an empire ruled from Moscow before the revolution. That did not change much after the revolution.

https://youtu.be/tVRUBs3T4ic

Yeah most Americans think that democracy/liberalism is just the natural state of the world and doesn’t need any effort to maintain. That is very much not the case in Russia.