> One need not be an uncritical Maslow apologist to appreciate starving
> people (of whom I believe there are now millions in CIS), beset by nasty
> local wars, ignored by salary clerks [snip] are very likely to get
> wistful for days of
> relative plenty and absolute certainty.
Rob, the western mainstream left has ingested more anti-communism than it understands and is more ready to scapegoat ex-Soviets for their misfortunes than it admits. As you imply, we need not to make folk-devils out of ex-Soviet people or portray them as backward reservation-dwellers.
There is displaced guilt at work; a lot of people who were holier-than-thou for a long time may have to concede that they were colluding in a crime. As for the Soviet reality which you are 'anti', it was more nuanced than you suggest, and most ex-Soviet people's attitudes to it are inflected by a hierarchy of needs which includes more than their stomachs or even a pay cheque.
Mark