There were a few diffrerent soviet unions according to the epoch of every governer. Every next governer critisized the previous one. Stalin ctiticised Lenin and slaughtered all Lenin's comrades including Trotsky. Khruschev revealied Stalin's policy and executed Stalin's comrad Beria, he also imprisoned Stalin's son Vasily Stalin (under a fictitious name though -- Vasiliev). Khruschev was removed from power and replaced by Brezhnev who prohibited all criticism about Stalin. Then Gorbatschev came to power and described the Brezhnev times as the stagnation period.
So people when talking about USSR mean totally different countries. No one for example wants to get back the USSR of the late 80x when there was no sugar, no soap, no tobacco and all the shops were empty.
Best substitute for deficit alcohol during in the USSR.
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