Nostalgia for the Soviet past, which is spreading like "an epidemic" through Russian society, reflects the dissatisfaction of most Russians with the current situation and could lead to a civil war if the government does not show visible progress soon in areas of greatest concern to the population, according to a Russian psychologist.
In comments to the
Novy Region news agency on 11 January 2010, Marina Patova, a psychotherapist in Chelyabinsk, says that it is entirely "normal" when members of the older generation experience nostalgia for the past. And it is also understandable when younger groups do so out of an interest in "a retro style."
Yet it is "much more a matter of concern when an entire society falls into a state of nostalgia" because "this means that people are uncomfortable and unhappy with the times in which they are now living," a psychological state than when widespread often leads to convulsions if the problems that have given birth to the nostalgia are not rectified.
http://windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2010/01/window-on-eurasia-epidemic-of-nostalgia.html
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There are signs that Russian society is entering a new stage -- not because leaders have re-evaluated our Soviet past, but because they have realized that there is little more that can be gained by exploiting it. Up until now, the authorities tried to tap into the cultural and mythological inheritance of the Soviet era, but most of this inheritance has been sapped dry.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mobile/article/397760.html