It also sounds like your family must have had significant ownership under the Czar's feudal system.
That’s probably how it goes when an oppressive empire falls. The core will suffer while the oppressed periphery gets a chance to flourish.
NATO bombed the shit out Yugoslavia shortly after, one part of the world that remained communist.
Virtually every remaining communist country was bombed into oblivion or subject to suffocating sanctions.
https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2009/11/02/end-of-communi...
I have no idea what you’re talking about with bombing or sanctions. What formerly occupied Eastern European country suffered this? For that matter, what formerly occupied Eastern European country isn’t wildly better off today than they were in 1989?
Laos is the most bombed place on Earth..
If you had any sense you would be on your hands and knees thanking providence for the luck you had being born in a time and place where you are able to pick and choose your own destiny instead of being shoehorned into a blue collar 8 to 6 factory job refining crude oil for the soviet state or being sent to a front line like those poor North Korean soldiers.
Perhaps worth noting, shortly after the fall around 1991, Yeltsin hijacked the Russian government and prevented Communists from retaking power. The pattern of events immediately after the fall (and their strong support from the West) raises an eyebrow about how exactly the "collapse" was precipitated.
Yeltsin used self-anointed emergency powers to abolish the Constitutional Court and dissolve parliament. When the people protested, he ordered a military attack on parliament, killing hundreds and jailing hundreds of protesters.
Yeltsin seized control of all broadcast media, banned opposition publications, and permanently outlawed 15 political parties. He ordered assassinations of his political opponents, parliamentary deputies, and journalists.
Yeltsin illegally dissolved the Russian constitution and replaced it with one that gave himself nearly absolute power over policy.
By 1996, he was losing badly in his bid for re-election. A communist candidate was far in the lead.
During re-election, his administration was bankrolled to the tune of $10B by the IMF and World Bank. Even so, he was still trailing the communist candidate by a long shot. So, he threatened civil war, making it clear he would not relinquish power. About half of the country thought there would be a civil war if the communists won. Ultimately, he rigged the vote count, as reported by ABC news in the US.
When he won re-election, Bill Clinton famously lauded the event, saying Russia has "turned its back on tyranny".