Yep, more truth there than most people want to face, but the whole thing can be dealt with largely by using a lot of the blueprint from the last decade or so of the Soviet empire, especially an observation of the outlying areas in their "sphere of influence".

I would not exactly call the labor movement down and out at this moment either. They are chomping at the bit to follow another Jimmy Hoffa if one arises.

If there is one injustice I want to avoid is what they ended up with those KGB aligned mafia Oligarchies controlling everything in their post-constitutional state. If the government aligned cronys end up controlling everything here in the post revolutionary environment, then we have truly lost everything.

The Soviets in general had this one thing which is still a thorn in the sides of the former satellite states - that dependence on the Moscow controlled infrastructure and their natural gas pipelines which are required for people to survive every winter. The Russians figured out early on, they could freeze out anyone they want to and they always use that to their fullest advantage. Here, we are not quite that dependent on chokepoints like that in the infrastructure, and can adjust our lifestyles to be even less dependent.