"Thats just because they miss being an empire!!! English people miss the British Empire too!"
While I don't think we need to question their motives anyway, simply looking at the material realities of Russia and other former SSRs really does explain why people would feel that way.
Look at any of the data regarding economic output, development, quality of life, etc in the former USSR in the 1980s and then the years after. Without fail, you will see a steadily-increasing number throughout the 80s. Then, shortly before or right after the fall of the USSR, you can see things starting to trend down. This downward trend continues through the 90s to the point where things are significantly worse than they were in the 80s under communism - not just "low growth", but actual declines. Then things do eventually start to turn around, and most former SSRs (notably, not Ukraine even pre-war) eventually just get back to their communism numbers in aggregate. Though it needs to be pointed out that these aggregate measures don't reflect economic distribution within the population, so for the average Russian worker for example, it's highly likely they are no better off now than they were in 1989 materially. And it all came at the cost of incredible misery, destruction of society, and 2-3 million excess deaths in the period. Hell, even by just the aggregate economic measures, had the USSR just continued on and delivered fairly mediocre growth, Russia and most other SSRs would probably be better off today anyway.
Even if I wasn't a communist, I cannot fathom how anyone (at least who isn't some petite boug scum) who remembers the USSR wouldn't rather be living under it versus what they have now.
The people hated the fall of the USSR and what happened in the aftermath, to the point that various socialist, communist, and socdem parties were set to take over the goverment in the mid-90s. But then Boris Yeltsin - with help from Bill Clinton and the US - orchestrated things so that could not happen and consolidated power within the presidency. A move that certainly did not create any unintended consequences down the line.
While I don't think we need to question their motives anyway, simply looking at the material realities of Russia and other former SSRs really does explain why people would feel that way.
Look at any of the data regarding economic output, development, quality of life, etc in the former USSR in the 1980s and then the years after. Without fail, you will see a steadily-increasing number throughout the 80s. Then, shortly before or right after the fall of the USSR, you can see things starting to trend down. This downward trend continues through the 90s to the point where things are significantly worse than they were in the 80s under communism - not just "low growth", but actual declines. Then things do eventually start to turn around, and most former SSRs (notably, not Ukraine even pre-war) eventually just get back to their communism numbers in aggregate. Though it needs to be pointed out that these aggregate measures don't reflect economic distribution within the population, so for the average Russian worker for example, it's highly likely they are no better off now than they were in 1989 materially. And it all came at the cost of incredible misery, destruction of society, and 2-3 million excess deaths in the period. Hell, even by just the aggregate economic measures, had the USSR just continued on and delivered fairly mediocre growth, Russia and most other SSRs would probably be better off today anyway.
Even if I wasn't a communist, I cannot fathom how anyone (at least who isn't some petite boug scum) who remembers the USSR wouldn't rather be living under it versus what they have now.
The people hated the fall of the USSR and what happened in the aftermath, to the point that various socialist, communist, and socdem parties were set to take over the goverment in the mid-90s. But then Boris Yeltsin - with help from Bill Clinton and the US - orchestrated things so that could not happen and consolidated power within the presidency. A move that certainly did not create any unintended consequences down the line.