[WS:] I fully agree with her view. My experiences in Poland were very similar.
I would like to add a few things, though.
First, people lived without fear. I did not realize that until I came to the US, where most people live in a constant fear of crime, losing their job, losing their status etc. This was brand new to me.
Second, housing shortage was a big problem and many young people had to live with their parents. This was particularly bad in big cities due to a large scale country to city migration. And it was a main generator of anti-Communist sentiments. I once talked to someone from Poland with strong anti-Communist views and when I asked her for reasons - with the caveat not to bullshit me about "oppression" because I used to live there too and know better - her reply was "housing". She and her hubby - both college educated intelligentsia - lived in a single room in Warsaw and thought they deserved better and hated it.
Three - most ex-Soviet bloc countries were very provincial and ethnocentric despite high levels of literacy. I would not call them exactly "racist" but their view of the world was pretty much Euro-centered, with the white man on the top. The reason many of them hated Communism was that they saw their country on a par with Africa rather than Germany. The level of sexism was also very high, and still is.
Wojtek
-- Wojtek
"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."