Yeah, that’s the ironic part, it turns out that Soviets didn’t really have to make stuff up about the west while the west had to spin tall tales about evils of communism. I do think that it was a failure of Soviet education system that it failed to make people really understand the problem with capitalism.
One mistake made in the late USSR was that the public did not take the propaganda seriously.
There were economic problems, yet reports spoke of incredible achievements in socialist construction; in reality, everything was stagnating. The leaders could barely articulate their words... Brezhnev’s final speeches were completely unintelligible; people laughed at him back then just as they laughed at Biden when he rambled. The party leadership had become ossified; the country definitely needed a breath of fresh air at that time. That was precisely what Andropov envisioned when he tasked Ryzhkov and Gorbachev—who were the "young guard" of the party back then, full of fresh thoughts and ideas—with developing the project.
Unfortunately, however, Andropov didn't live long enough to see it through, and Gorbachev later ruined everything.
By the way, I’ve finally fully grasped the reason why Europe was, until recently, a Garden of Eden.
The EU project—conceived long before the USSR collapsed—was aimed at preventing the emergence of socialism in individual European states. To achieve this, capitalists were forced to spend vast sums out of their own pockets to ensure social well-being for all their citizens. After all, there were very strong socialist movements in France, Italy, and elsewhere at the time. If the people had been living in hardship, they would have elected socialists. Consequently, capitalists were compelled to share with the public—as should happen in a genuine democratic capitalist state.
After the USSR collapsed, there was no longer a need to maintain a high standard of living for the European populace. And so, almost without realizing it, Europe began to slide into the abyss! Capitalists now have a free hand; they can do whatever they please.
And now we come to the main point. It turns out that the collapse of the USSR turned Europe into a garbage dump.
Not just in schools too, it’s in TV shows, comic books, everything. And we see now just how effective this type of indoctrination is.
This is a caricature from a Soviet newspaper from 1955. Absolutely nothing has changed.
And yeah, that’s fair, I meant specifically in terms of media entertainment.
Yes, it was done intentionally to give the child more time for beneficial activities. It was the right approach for the upbringing of young people.
This is, incidentally, another thing you can’t do in the west.
I remember once being in the countryside with my parents, but I had a soccer match on Sunday morning, so I headed back to town in the evening to be ready for the game the next day. My parents stayed behind in the village. When I arrived in town, I realized I had left my apartment keys back in the village—but I had taken the last bus of the day. It was a 15-kilometer trip, and I was only 13 years old. I lived on the edge of town, so I walked out to the main road—it was 10 p.m.—and managed to catch a ride. Strangers drove me all the way back to the village; even though it wasn't on their way, they dropped me right at my house and wouldn't take a single penny. I had a few rubles in my pocket and tried to offer them the money, but they flatly refused.
It never even crossed my mind that someone might try to harm me. And my parents didn't scold me for coming back to the village in the middle of the night instead of staying over at a friend's place in town—to them, that sort of thing was perfectly normal.
Even now—before the war—I don’t recall any instances of anyone being abducted; children roam the streets freely. But that’s before the war; I don’t know what will happen afterwards—the world has changed.