What you stated is your view of Russians as "the Other."
Huh? Where did you get that from?
People are everywhere the same
Yes and no. Biologically they are very similar on average. Culturally they end up very different. Hopefully you are not arguing with this empirical fact.
while the way people react to a complete totalitarian takeover of society is a very interest subject
Quite so. I suspect that having grown up in a society grown from an absolute monarchy would make another takeover easier, but I do not have any research handy to back it up, so it's just a suspicion. Certainly Chile recovered nicely after Pinochet. And Ho Chi Minh is still venerated in Vietnam, 55 years after his death.
your view of what happens in such a society is very shallow and a little sad
You don't know what my views are, you are lamenting your strawmanning of them.
I pray you will have never have to live in such a society yourself to experience what happens first hand.
And now you are also making rather unwarranted assumptions about my life experiences.
You can try to read between Bulgakov's lines to understand what people who can put two and two together might have thought at the time.
Of course, there were people who saw through the propaganda and brainwashing. Unfortunately, they were a tiny minority. Most were scared, blamed some low-level bureaucrat for certain failures, but adored the guy at the top.
And he was just the one who had the courage to write, most wrote nothing.
Indeed, most of those who saw through the con were too scared to put anything on paper, and for a good reason. And many of those who did probably got disappeared without a trace, so we don't know about them. Which does not invalidate my original point that an average person loved and worshipped Stalin.
I guess I have nothing to add, other than suggest you read about Russian history from about 1812 to about 1939. Or maybe talk to some folks who lived through Stalin years, if you can find any still alive.
Very disappointing.
This month's media thread includes a short article on some people's idea to have Ayn Rand frozen, which ultimately didn't happen. My first reaction was a shudder. I thought, I definitely wouldn't want Ayn Rand preserved forever. My second thought was, What right do I have to say who can and who can't get frozen?
Whatever your thoughts on Ayn Rand, I think this can spark an interesting conversation: What, if anything, should humankind do about people who are widely seen as harmful for the whole? For example, if the Castro dynasty in Cuba or the Kim dynasty in North Korea decide to freeze themselves to ensure they will continue oppressing their countries forever, should that be prevented? (And yes, my opinion of Ayn Rand is such that these examples came to mind.)