Russian people were always fucked up by their rulers, form Tzars to Party Leaders to Tzars again (Putin),
How was Tzar before soviets bad ? From what i read basically russia at the time was one of the most prosperous nations in world. They still had selfdorm up until 1900s as one of the last remaining but overall population had it pretty good.
For people wondering why shit doesn't work.
First of all Russia isn't one nation. It is FEDERATION and that federation is way more loose than something like US. There are outright oblasts (regions) that have full autonomy. Moreover it is just too big to properly manage with much too varied population, central government isn't actually that strong as worldwide media tries to sell it.
So when people talk and think russia they mean European part of Russia. Not whole Russia. Which is where population falls down due to this from those 150mln to much more reasonable number.
The second big point is mentality. Like one of Polish politicians once said. Car is something you can always replace but you can't replace your brain. What soviets did on russian people was not just economic failure but also they trained and conditioned people into soviets (soviet literally means someone who is not member of nation but part of soviet people).
That mentiality is what keeps them down and will for few decades more. And it is not just old people but traditions that are carried over.
We had and still have similar problem in Poland. There are still people who live in communist times and operate like that. When they work somewhere and meet client they still treat them as enemies because that is how workers in that system operated. When they work they also don't care about company well being they care only about how to fuck over company they work for. If there are tools that company uses they will steal some of them, if there is paper in company they will steal that too. If there is something that is not required but it would be great for everyone in company if someone would do they won't move single finger.
That kind of mindset is poison to professional environment and what is worse it is contagious. And that kind of soviet mindset is still something my nation is fighting with.
Back to Russia. Now imagine above but multiplied to Russia. Poland was only sattelite nation to soviet union and never was part of soviet union. Poles never called themselves something other than poles and Poland was effectively occupied by Soviet union and people were actively fighting soviet ideology as much as they could.
Compare that to Russia which was at epicenter of that ideology.
To drive point further. Imagine how fucked up you have to be historically to pick Grusian man Stalin as hero of your people when this is the person who killed more Russians than Hitler or war. Today 60% of Russian believe Stalin is hero.
As for Putin. You have to understand context. The context is: "Compared to what ?". Before Putin Russia was basically in shambless, rampart corruption to such magnitude that you wouldn't believe, 30-40% unemployement rate, russian military basicaly desolving in rust and basically faiture of nation.
Compare it to now. Everything above is pretty much fixed. This is why Putin rules. Not because he is some dictator. He is genuinlenly one of the best leaders they had in past 200 years. Not only did he fix Russian internal problems but also basically shoved his dick to everyone ass when he actually annexed new land via military in one of best organized military operations.
The only opposition to his rule doesn't come from Euromaidan aka democratic forces that want more democracy. It comes actually from old communists. Remember that 60% bit about Stalin ? Yes, shitload of russians want soviet union back because they are still fucked up in head and the moment Putin will let loose his power this will be the moment where those forces will start to move.
And what happens then. You will have clash of communists and capitalists and if worst come to worst new civil war.
Russia before EU tarrifs and pandemic developed about 3-4% a year which is much more than 1% western EU. Even with all those corruption problems.
