You are absolutely correct. The bolshevik takeover of the country resulted in a fierce civil war where they basically wiped out the previous intelligentsia and

You are absolutely correct. The bolshevik takeover of the country resulted in a fierce civil war where they basically wiped out the previous intelligentsia and large parts of the church. And then there were external threats (causing paranoia) and massive mismanagement because they ran their economy according to utopian phantasies, similar to what the Chinese did. (which also resulted in tens of millions starving to death) Only after the second world war the continent was sufficiently stabilized for a few decades and that's when the masses lived a decent life compared to what they had before.