1. https://www.newsweek.com/men-uncovering-stalin-era-atrocitie...
2. https://themoscowtimes.com/news/gulag-historian-detained-ped....
It's hilarious that you literally link to radio free europe. "Statistics are meaningless" lolz
It’s also interesting to see just what is driving it, countries like Estonia and Lithuania are EU countries which greatly benefited from integration with western society while the rest of the Russian vassal states were left to fend for themselves and essentially lost what little power they had even if it was only power by proxy.
An easy answer would be too look at the numbers for the former USSR states which are now EU members.
Furthermore it's important to note that this is an aggregated statistical butchery from multiple surveys in none of which was a question asked along the lines of "would you rather live under the USSR or being free".
All of these were peripheral questions about various nationalistic identities and historical figures, all of which were heavily retconned in the past few decades by Russia.
Stalin used to be one of the most despised figures in Russian history even during the USSR today he is celebrated as a hero that is simply sickening.
Russian propaganda has been working on “restoring” the image of Stalin and the USSR diligently for over two decades heck just a few days ago they’ve arrested a Russian historian who authored a book on Stalin for being unpatriotic.
https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/170146
https://www.rferl.org/a/second-historian-of-stalin-s-crimes-...