Nostalgia for the Soviet Union

Nostalgia for the Soviet Union or Soviet nostalgia is a moral-psychological phenomenon of nostalgia for the Soviet era, whether its politics, its society, its culture, or simply its aesthetics. Such nostalgia is most common among people in Russia and the post-Soviet states, as well as persons born in the Soviet Union but long since living abroad. It often results from the frustration Russia experienced after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. As the Soviet economy crumbled into various new post-Soviet economies, changing painfully from a planned economy to capitalism, the standard of living fell for many people and their social safety net disintegrated, but they watched so-called New Russians and Russian oligarchs prosper, often by unethical means. Simultaneously, the loss of superpower status and the economic pain drove various reactions, from increased Russian nationalism to disillusionment.

In a 2013 Gallup poll done in the Former Soviet Union (excluding the Baltic states and Uzbekistan), 51% of respondents said that more harm than good came to their countries as a result of the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

On April 25, 2005, the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, stated that the dissolution of the Soviet Union was a major geopolitical disaster of the 20th century.