Memes

The standard of living cratered in many of the former soviet countries. It turns out, while communism as implemented by the USSR had it's downsides, in general, the populace as a whole were better off.

Every time I see something like OP's post, I'm reminded that oil companies can't stop destroying the earth because stonks must go up. But yeah, communism is the boogie man.

Ask Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Hungarians, everyone in former Yogoslavia and Baltics...

A ten year old poll, that happened before some important recent events, and is mostly from Russian client states in central Asia and the Caucasus because it only encompasses countries that were part of the Soviet Union is disingenuous, at best, in response to this post about eastern Europe.

Try that poll again today in Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, former East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Balkans. See how that goes.

Edit: I don't know how I overlooked the Baltics, I was just in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia for a few weeks this spring. If the museums are anything to go by, their responses to this question would definitely contradict your narrative and they were part of the USSR.

The question was not asked in the Baltic states or Uzbekistan. The question was also not asked in Soviet puppet states like Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, etc.

Most of those are also authoritarian. Tossing out one dictator for another is not going to leave people very satisfied.