On Freedom or Lack of in USSR

Some people like to praise Gorbachev for introducing freedom in the USSR. While he indeed passed some reforms aimed at reducing censorship and allowing private businesses, impact on wider population was limited. Overall, he is not remembered in former-USSR as a person who made life freer. That is how Americans like to see him. In former USSR Gorbachev is mostly remembered for making shelfs of grocery stores empty. 

If anything, more people would credit Yeltsin with liberalization than Gorbachev, even if Yeltsin legacy is also much more complicated than that. None of them were simple enough to define with one signature policy like Obama with his Obamacare.

However, how free or not free USSR really was?

USSR had three to four different periods with different levels of freedom.

First Period

First was the shortest, just between the end of Civil War and 1929. 

That was the freest period of USSR. Landlords were exterminated and lands were given to peasants to work them as they see fit. Industrial plants and factories were ceased by employees and were managed partly as government owned business, partly as co-op. It was the only period in USSR when it was possible to start own business. Censorship was low, it was possible to say whatever. Travel too was very open and free. Russian Empire restrictions were lifted, and new Soviet ones were not introduced yet. Government was one party system, but The Party's culture back then was that of open discussion and debate. Stalin was already a General Secretary, but back then it was just an administrative job about keeping track of various records and paperwork, it had no influence on policy.

It was an optimistic time where government felt like embracing modernity and trying out all sorts of new things. Innovative architecture, art, music, cinema and such were created. 20s were good times everywhere and USSR was no exception. In some ways it even managed to pioneer many new things during these times.

It was so different from what came after, it's almost impossible to believe it even happened. However, that period can explain why people would fight a civil war to make it happen.

Second Period

Second period was from 1933 to the death of Stalin in 1954. Years between 1929 and 1933 were somewhat of a transition between first and second. War years between 1941 and 1945 had some unique characteristics as well.

Second period was characterized by paranoia and constant fear of KGB (then NKVD). That was used as a tool of power and control that Stalin and the Party used to rule the population. 

Stalin administrative job in 20s included processing party membership applications. Overtime he filled the Party with people who were vastly different from those who founded it. Former Russian Empire bureaucrats all applied to join and eventually outnumbered the old-Bolsheviks in all Party structures. They brought their totalitarian culture with them. They used to serve Tzars, who maintained they are God chosen and their decisions cannot be questioned. People who used to work for Tzars therefore saw any criticism of superiors as capital crime. 

Such people were a very poor fit for The Party as they did not believe in discussion and debate and hardly had any ideas of their own. Overtime they somewhat adapted to this alien environment by fervently defending opinions and policies of party founder, Lenin and attacking everyone who they perceived as criticizing or disagreeing with any of that. Slowly the party of debate ideas and discussion evolved into a cult of Lenin where fervent zealots would compete in their display of loyalty towards their now dead leader. That loyalty also applied to Lenin's most loyal follower, Stalin, whom they perceived as the most rightful successor to Lenin's legacy, his most loyal follower and most authoritative interpreter of his vision.

Eventually former bureaucrats purged all old-Bolsheviks from all structures. Eventually NKVD purges allowed them to exterminate them as well. Then they began cracking down on broader population. Everyone who is perceived not following will of Lenin could be a target.

Land reform partly triggered and partly solidified this transformation. The idea was to take lands from peasants and turn them into collective farms. Such farms can later be provided with modern faming equipment such as tractors and harvesters. However, the idea was unpopular with peasants who did not want to lose their private land towards some collective entity, even co-op one.

Government response to that discontent was to jail those who disagree and push through with reform anyhow. That created public outrage and criticism both within the party and outside. Government decided to crack down on disloyal party members and broader public as well. Soon those in party who criticized the reform, were first expelled, then arrested and finally executed on the grounds of treason. 

After they purged the party, then went after general public. No one was safe from potential arrest and either death or lengthy prison sentence. Eventually filling Gulag with inmates became goal in itself and NKVD would simply invent crimes, forge evidence and then arrest people.

Closer to the end Stalin and government would keep targeting more and more groups of people for "investigation." The last such case was against medical practitioners, whom Stalin accused of deliberate malpractice to sabotage socialism. Some doctors were repressed but Stalin died soon after.

 

That period led towards people becoming more secretive and private. Most useful thing was to attract as little attention as possible to avoid being targeted by NKVD.

Some instead opted towards showing zealous devotion to Lenin to get ahead. However, that could lead towards groundless accusations of crimes from envies rivals. NKVD struggled to fulfil their quotas on convicted and would take any half-baked accusation, no matter how absurd. Anyone who hated their neighbors could easily get rid of them by telling NKVD that there are American spies. That also meant any random person could be send to Siberia on false accusations.

So, people became secretive, kept minimal public facade and only opened up to close friends who managed to somehow prove they are not the type to rat you out to NKVD.

There were also useful moral idiots who believed in what Party was saying. It was best to avoid such people as they could bring NKVD on you out of stupidity.

Third Period

After Stalin's death third period began. Khruschev era was somewhat transitional here. However, from Brezhnev to Gorbachev, there were a consistent period of half-baked oppression, that most people remember nowadays.

Rules somewhat remained the same as during the Stalin's era, but KGB was reluctant to enforce them.

After Stalin's death party bureaucracy united behind Khruschev against Beria. Beria was head of NKVD and was seen as architect and chief executive of purges. Party bureaucrats feared for their lives and did not want the paranoia of Stalin times to continue, so they opted to rally behind milder Khruschev and purge Beria.

That gave party the idea that they fundamentally can control who is in charge. After all various party bodies, such as central committee do get to vote on who is in charge. During Khruschev era they had several opportunities to decide fate of leaders with such vote.

After purging Beria and outmaneuvering Malenkov, Khruschev faced two coups. First was in 1957. Stalin Era top leaders, such as Molotov wanted to oust him. However, most saw Molotov as being more hardline than Khruschev so Khruschev won. Molotov and his allies were expelled from the party, but not executed like Beria.

Second was in 1964 and here Khruschev fell and was replaced with Brezhnev. Overtime party grew to see Khruschev as "voluntarist". By this term they meant that he just makes all decisions himself on gut feeling without consulting much and them makes everyone go along with him. That sometimes did lead towards problems such as introduction of corn, that was mismanaged. Some might call it leadership, but that became too radical by 1964.

Brezhnev was possibly the most moderate and Vice-Presidential person imaginative. Doing nothing became the new reality. Brezhnev would regularly annually report how things have improved since last year. Then get awarded another medal of Hero of USSR for all his hard work of reading from a paper and that was it. I doubt many American Vice Presidents could match his levels of inaction and managed to do less.

Brezhnev perfectly reflected the nature of his era. Rules stayed the same, but they became nothing but ceremonial formality. Gulag was phased out. KGB would no longer arrest people. 

People would profess some nominal loyalty to the system and agree with whatever Brezhnev says, but then just went on to do what they please.

There was censorship and many Western things or news were banned, but people would bypass restrictions and get access to that stuff anyway. Black market was thriving, you could buy Western Music, Hollywood movies or jeans from them. You could still tune to Voice of America or Duetsche Welle despite government running noise generators on their frequencies.

Kind of like internet piracy nowadays. Important people say it's wrong and RIAA works to enforce DMCA. However, people can pirate stuff anyway.

Occasionally some major enforcement would happen, but such events were rare. 

Open protests and criticism were still illegal and could lead to arrests, but most would not bother to go public. In private with friends, they just said what they wanted. Jokes about Brezhnev and communism were very popular.

Aftermath

Gorbachev's Perestroika was another such transitional period. That from Brezhnev's era hubris, that critics call stagnation and defenders stability, country moved towards uncertainty and transformation.

However, Perestroika coincided with economic difficulties and most people were concerned with finding groceries and other goods. Hence why Gorbachev is mostly remembered for empty shelves. Term "deficit" was used to describe it, people did pick it up and used it extensively in 90s to describe this phenomenon.

Yeltsin has managed to solve the empty-shelves problem, he inherited from Gorbachev. Stores were fuller than ever. Some Many did complain that they could not afford to buy anything thought. Eventually Presidential elections of 1996 showed that those who found stores full do outnumber those who cannot afford to buy anything.

Yeltsin fully restored international travel as well as private business. Censorship was abolished and TV and news could report variety of things.

On the other hand, economic uncertainty, job losses. Unlike USSR times one can actually lose one's job and become money-less and homeless.

Then came Putin and combined worst qualities of Brezhnev era with worst qualities of Yeltsin's one. Political freedoms like during Brezhnev and economy like during Yeltsin.