>>512078871
My mom was born there (Azerbaijan SSR) and she says it was pretty okay. Everyone had free healthcare, education, and welfare. A moderately happy life was basically guaranteed for you and people were very educated comparing to how they are now.

The downside was that it was very corrupt and not much products were available in government stores. You had to get a lot of stuff from the black market. Also you had to bribe everybody to get ahead in life. You even had to bribe the doctor to perform a surgery for you that he was supposed to do for free, because he would refuse otherwise.

In general it was okay if you weren't alive during Stalin's reign of terror. Life was hell on earth in Stalin's USSR, basically IRL hard mode.