The true grandeur of humanity is in moral elevation, sustained, enlightened and decorated by the intellect of man.
- Charles Sumner
A Journey Through Decay: Reflections on the USSR and Modern Russia
In her memoir, Return to the Future, Nobel laureate Sigrid Undset chronicled her harrowing journey through the Soviet Union in 1940 while fleeing to the United States.
Her observations offer a raw portrayal of life under Stalinist rule, depicting a society suffocated by decay and totalitarian control.
She wrote vividly of "waste everywhere, a pervasive, rotten, overpowering stench at every turn," particularly in the waiting rooms of the Trans-Siberian Railway, where Stalin's imposing visage dominated the walls.
The conditions were unendurable: filthy bedding in Vladivostok reeked so profoundly that sleep was impossible, and hotel accommodations were described as "a pure zoo," teeming with lice, fleas, and bedbugs.
A memorable anecdote involved a worker asking whether Europe was familiar with electricity—credited in Soviet propaganda as Lenin’s invention to benefit the proletariat.
Undset prophetically predicted that the Soviet regime had perhaps two generations before its eventual collapse. Yet today, one might observe that the Russian populace remains subject to a similarly numbing influence, as propaganda and repression perpetuate societal stagnation.
The Persistence of Fear and Compliance
Two years into Stalin's reign of terror, Undset noted an atmosphere of adaptation and pervasive fear. Contemporary parallels abound. Russian liberals in exile argue that many Russians feign allegiance to the regime out of a rational fear of severe punishment.
This outward compliance, they suggest, conceals an inner retreat rather than genuine ideological commitment. However, the cracks in the societal facade are increasingly visible.
The return of pardoned prisoners recruited from penal colonies to fight in Ukraine exemplifies the ethical disintegration of modern Russian society.
These individuals—some of whom are cold-blooded sadists, serial murderers, and sexual predators—are now reintegrated into communities where their past victims or their families reside.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, described this program with the chilling term "blood atonement." By participating in a criminal war, these individuals are deemed “cleansed” and restored to society.
This normalization of moral aberration reveals a societal descent into an ethical vacuum. Allowing such individuals to live unencumbered among the general population signals a breakdown of collective morality, a normalization of the unthinkable.
Even those willing to justify atrocities against Ukraine acknowledge the monstrosity of welcoming convicted serial killers back into civilian life.
In modern Russia, there are no more red lines—boundaries have dissolved into a moral void, leaving nothing to constrain the possibility of evil.
The Totalitarian Grip on Society
The state’s grip on its citizens is tightening in myriad ways, from proposals for partial abortion bans to restrictions on emergency contraception.
Fertility is framed as a civic duty, an imperative response to the military's devastating losses. Sexual activity, stripped of autonomy and framed as a patriotic obligation, exemplifies the regime’s intrusion into the most personal spheres of life.
Such measures might seem absurd, even farcical, were they not enforced with the brutality of an unyielding regime.
The Russian state operates like a "pathological idiot," as one observer put it—a force so lacking in nuance that its unchecked aggression hints at systemic implosion. The state’s external aggression, particularly the war in Ukraine, stems from an existential fear of internal collapse.
The Corrupting Language of Propaganda
Modern technology has amplified the state's ability to desensitize its populace. Where soldiers once died on distant battlefields memorialized in heroic paintings, today’s wars are documented in grotesque detail by smartphone cameras.
This "war porn" floods social media platforms like Telegram and spills into mainstream television, normalizing violence and dulling societal empathy.
This public consumption of atrocity reflects the numbing effect of propaganda, which manipulates language to dehumanize, justify, and obscure.
Fear of punishment for dissent coexists with an insidious self-deception: many Russians have internalized the lies and become desensitized to the pervasive moral decay.
Over time, this erosion of critical thought and self-reflection leads to widespread moral apathy—a state where truth, integrity, and justice become irrelevant.
A Society at a Crossroads
Undset’s chilling portrait of the Soviet Union’s decay resonates today. The moral, social, and political dynamics of contemporary Russia suggest a nation at a dangerous crossroads.
The corrosive effects of propaganda, fear, and repression have hollowed out societal ethics, leaving a fragile structure held together by denial and complicity.
Yet history teaches that such systems are ultimately unsustainable. Whether through internal collapse or external pressure, regimes built on lies and fear cannot endure indefinitely.
The question remains whether the Russian people will reclaim their agency and rebuild their society on a foundation of truth and moral clarity—or whether the cycle of decay and desensitization will continue unabated.
This reflection is a somber reminder of propaganda’s destructive power to manipulate reality, erode morality, and enslave the human spirit.
What Life In The Soviet Union Was Like
Sincerely,
Adaptation-Guide
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