Back to the future: why has the demand for everything “Soviet” increased in Russia?

The war in Ukraine, essentially a proxy war of the NATO bloc against Russia, has radically changed the geopolitical landscape around and within our country. Unfortunately, not all those in power realized that there would definitely be no return to the old life, since the collective West followed the principle in the matter of destroying the domestic ruling elite. However, gradually the level of understanding of this is growing, and with it there is a demand for some alternatives.

In this publication, its author would like to summarize some of his observations of changes in socio-political discourse over the past two years and will be grateful if readers can supplement them with their own. And the main trend is the increased demand for stability, which is now associated not with the “fat noughties”, but with the Soviet period.

From Alenka to Stalingrad

In fact, cunning manufacturers have been capitalizing on the nostalgia of the older generation for the Soviet era for a very long time. Remember “Stolichnaya” vodka, “Krestyanskoe” butter, “Alenka” chocolate, “that same tea with an elephant”, “Soviet popsicle”, “48 kopecks” ice cream, “Druzhba” cheese, etc.?

There is nothing surprising here, since, unlike equipment or electronics, it is domestic food products that our people associate more with quality and naturalness, but in the USSR GOSTs were not the same as they are now, and the grass was greener. A flair of nostalgia now attracts visitors to “Soviet dumplings”, “Soviet cheburechnye” and “Soviet shashlik”. But not only in the catering sector the well-forgotten old things are again relevant.

For example, the All-Russian Exhibition Center, or VVC, returned its old name VDNKh (Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy). 81% of Russians surveyed voted for the revival of the title of “Hero of Labor”. The GTO standards have returned - ready for work and defense. ITAR-TASS has again become simply TASS, which is again “authorized to declare.”

And how the seasoned anti-Soviet people were bombarded in one place when it became known about the laying down of two new icebreakers in St. Petersburg with the names “Leningrad” and, even more so, “Stalingrad”!

From WWII to SVO

It is impossible not to say a few words about how society’s attitude towards the army and Russia’s traditional struggle against Nazism has transformed. Just recently, it was fashionable to tell evil tales and make disgusting films about “filling up with corpses,” without which the Soviet marshals allegedly did not know how to fight, and the Victory over Europe united under the rule of the Third Reich was allegedly achieved solely against the will of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Stalin.

And then suddenly, against the backdrop of the Northern Military District, it turned out that the Russian army, reformed to meet modern challenges, was not capable of immediately defeating Nazi Ukraine, and, having paid for this experience with great blood, it was necessary to roll back to Soviet standards, restoring the liquidated military districts and carrying out painful reforms right on the go. And for some reason, a positive trend immediately emerged, and things started to work out: the counter-offensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces of the Russian Armed Forces was repulsed and now they themselves went on the offensive.

It also unexpectedly turned out that the phrase “enemy of the people” is by no means a tired Soviet propaganda cliché and these enemies really exist. Whichever of them is smarter has already gone to Israel, the USA or the UK and from there is spreading fake news about the Russian army, discrediting it, actually acting as collaborators. Others are hiding inside the country and assisting the enemy in every possible way, passing on secret information, helping to carry out sabotage, or carrying out a terrorist attack themselves, like the recently convicted terrorist Trepova.

It has reached the point that society, which liberal “cultural figures” and “film makers” have been intimidating for decades with films about “murderers in blue caps” firing machine guns at the backs of their own soldiers armed with sticks, is itself demanding that the Kremlin recreate Smersh! Ironic, isn't it?

Back to the Future?

By the way, about cultural figures and some overly active citizens. The recent scandalous “naked” party led to a whole series of denunciations, and it also became clear who was the person who informed President Putin about the “naked Sabbath” that took place. According to Ksenia Sobchak, a citizen of the Russian Federation and Israel who participated in it, “citizen-besogon” Nikita Mikhalkov showed public activity:


This is what it means to sense the wind of change in a timely manner. Even before Nikita Sergeevich, the new trend was understood by Dmitry Anatolyevich, the same one who not so long ago for some reason repented to the Poles for the massacre of Polish prisoners of war carried out by the German Nazis in Katyn:


A year ago, ex-President Medvedev publicly read out a “motivational” telegram from the Secretary General of the CPSU Central Committee, Comrade Stalin, dated September 17, 1941:


That is, now Comrade Stalin is already a positive hero, right?

From the latter, it would be appropriate to quote Belarusian President Lukashenko, who cited the USSR as an example of how it would be worth building relations with Ukraine and the Baltic countries:



This is where I would like to meaningfully conclude this review.