Communist nostalgia

East Germany
''Der Spiegel in 2009 asked former GDR-inhabitants whether the GDR "was the better state" Today, 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, 57 percent, or an absolute majority, of eastern Germans defend the former East Germany. "The GDR had more good sides than bad sides. There were some problems, but life was good there," say 49 percent of those polled. Eight percent of eastern Germans flatly oppose all criticism of their former home and agree with the statement: "The GDR had, for the most part, good sides. Life there was happier and better than in reunified Germany today."''

https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/homesick-for-a-dictatorship-majority-of-eastern-germans-feel-life-better-under-communism-a-634122.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AOstalgie

Hungary
In 2010, A remarkable 72% of Hungarians say that most people in their country are actually worse off today economically than they were under communism. Only 8% say most people in Hungary are better off, and 16% say things are about the same.

42% disapprove of the move away from communism. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2010/04/28/hungary-better-off-under-communism/

Russia
According to polls, what is missed most about the former Soviet Union was its shared economic system, which provided a modicum of financial stability. Neoliberal economic reforms after the fall of the USSR and the Eastern Bloc resulted in harsh living standards for the general population. Policies associated with privatization allowed of the country's economy to fall in the hands of a newly established business oligarchy. The sense of belonging to a great superpower was a secondary reason for the nostalgia; many felt humiliated and betrayed by their experiences throughout the 1990s and blamed the upheaval on advisors from Western powers, especially as NATO moved closer into Russia's sphere of influence.

According to Dr. Kristen Ghodsee, a researcher on post-communist Eastern Europe:

{{bquote|"Only by examining how the quotidian aspects of daily life were affected by great social, political and economic changes can we make sense of the desire for this collectively imagined, more egalitarian past. Nobody wants to revive 20th century totalitarianism. But nostalgia for communism has become a common language through which ordinary men and women express disappointment with the shortcomings of parliamentary democracy and neoliberal capitalism today." http://wamc.org/post/dr-kristen-ghodsee-bowdoin-college-nostalgia-communism

According to the Levada Center poll (November 2016), the people mainly miss the Soviet Union because of the destruction of the joint economic system of its 15 republics (53%); people lost the feeling of belonging to a great power (43%); mutual distrust and cruelty have increased (31%); the feeling that you are at home in any part of the USSR was lost (30%); and connection with friends, relatives lost (28%). https://www.levada.ru/en/2017/01/09/the-fall-of-the-soviet-union/ Levada Center sociologist Karina Pipiya says that economic factors played the most significant part in rising nostalgia for the USSR in the 2018 poll, as opposed to loss of prestige or national identity, noting that a strong majority of Russians "regret that there used to be more social justice and that the government worked for the people and that it was better in terms of care for citizens and paternalistic expectations." https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-politics-sovietunion/russian-nostalgia-for-soviet-union-reaches-13-year-high-idUSKBN1OI20Q

A June 2019 Levada Center poll found that 59% of Russians felt that the Soviet government "took care of ordinary people". Joseph Stalin's favorability also hit record highs the spring of that year. https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/06/24/most-russians-say-soviet-union-took-care-of-ordinary-people-poll-a66125

Slovakia
A 2018 Poll in Slovakia said that '' Most of the respondents, 81 percent, agreed that people helped each other more during communism, were more sympathetic and closer to each other. 79 percent asserted that people lived in a safer environment during socialism and that violent crimes were less frequent. Another 77 percent claimed that thanks to the planned economy, there was enough useful work for all and therefore no unemployment.

The survey found the most agreement in connection with state intervention in health, education, labour law relations, social care and living standards. As many as 87 percent of people agreed with the opinion that health is not a commodity, so the state must guarantee, finance, and provide cost-free health care for all.

https://spectator.sme.sk/c/20858226/poll-people-are-nostalgic-about-communism.html https://www.etnostra.com/slovakia_liberal_government_unleashes_wave_of_oppression_against_nationalist_opposition_party?fbclid=IwAR1F4xBqeC5JB4PVEY2Mkk416HbmkLEjwYnFu7ffQh58kDk2ltvRr9g4rpE