Elements of the former blocs people do not want to return?

[RadioRaheem84]

From the famous saying, "those that wish for the return for the soviet union are fools, as much as those that praised it's demise", paraphrasing of course.

So what was it that the people of the former blocs were looking for? They wanted democratic change but got nothing but third world reforms and austerity. Were they looking for the cornucopia of Western consumerism on top of keeping their social safety net?

Just what is it that people from former ML States want? It would be helpful to understand what they wanted at the time of the fall of the former USSR and the blocs, and what they want now that they've tasted free market fundamentalism.

Did they want social democracy? To be like Sweden? What?

Putin and his cronies seem to be nationalists that praise the USSR but rule the country like the Turkish Republic of Ataturk. I applaud him for taking on the oligarchs and keeping Russia from totally sinking into chaos, but it seems like a display of populist nationalism with no real merit to the people.

[Toppler]

Freedom. Free travel. No queues. An end to economic stagnation and secret police spying on citizens.

[L.A.P.]

Russian patriotism. People like Putin like the Soviet Union because that's when Russia was at its peak of greatness but also enjoys the bourgeois decadence that don't come with the Soviet Union or at least not to the extent of the Russian Federation. That's in regards to the leaders and the elite, but I'm sure there are many factors on the people's opinion on this.

[Thirsty Crow]

Freedom. Free travel. No queues. An end to economic stagnation and secret police spying on citizens.
In other words, they wanted the effects of a world revolution.

[Tommy4ever]

We also have to take into account that in the Eastern Bloc there was a bit of an idealised view of what Western capitalism was like. Few would have expected the hardships that followed would be so bad.