Think about whatever country you live in. Think about everyone you know IRL (not online, that’s a bad sample). How knowledgeable and engaged are they about the socio-economic and political conditions they live in? I’m guessing the answer is probably “not very”.
While I think the average Soviet citizen was more politically engaged than the average American is now, most people back then weren’t like, expert socialism understanders. Most people, in most places and times, more or less just go with the flow and live their lives and don’t give much thought to the broader society in which they live.
So then as others in this post have said, once communism was murdered in those places, you needed to have counterrevolutionary forces promoted. Most people aren’t going to push back, really.
Think about whatever country you live in. Think about everyone you know IRL (not online, that’s a bad sample). How knowledgeable and engaged are they about the socio-economic and political conditions they live in? I’m guessing the answer is probably “not very”.
While I think the average Soviet citizen was more politically engaged than the average American is now, most people back then weren’t like, expert socialism understanders. Most people, in most places and times, more or less just go with the flow and live their lives and don’t give much thought to the broader society in which they live.
So then as others in this post have said, once communism was murdered in those places, you needed to have counterrevolutionary forces promoted. Most people aren’t going to push back, really.