I don't think it's significantly related with modern Russia/Soviets or any recent events. You can found description of same behaviour made by Turgenev (here for

I don't think it's significantly related with modern Russia/Soviets or any recent events. You can found description of same behaviour made by Turgenev (here for example, in russian, http://european-book-review.blogspot.com/2006/04/blog-post_19.html http://european-book-review.blogspot.com/2006/04/blog-post_1...) in XIX century.