Up until recently I saw the USSR as this ultra evil dystopia where everyone starved and went to jail. I had some sort of class consciousness awakening and now I'm trying to understand the USSR in a more nuanced way beyond "evil dictatorship" and "socialist utopia".
It's important for you to understand that I'm venezuelan and I'm completely against chavismo. In fact, this "awakening" happened after seeing how high ranking government officials lived in luxury beyond human imagination while everything else sucked (yes, I know sanctions and interventionism played a huge role, don't lecture me). I firmly believe that the bolivarian "revolution" is an oligarchy with socialist elements and not a true socialist state.
Now to the topic: I studied journalism, and being a journalist here is, for the most part, a death sentence. You simply can't cover any protest or problem because you'll get into a watchlist to later be abducted by intelligence services. The government would then pull one of these in response to every problem:
a) "There is no war in Ba Sin Se"
b) "It's America's fault"
c) "It was a sabotage from the right"
Until the Thing (january 3rd) happened, every single official source of news that wasn't aligned with the government was either closed, seized or bought out. The only way to stay fully informed is through sensationalist right wing online news sites or social media, which is even more sensationalist and right wing.
As for protests, you simply can't protest (at least not in a massive way) since 2018. Big protests (even for valid reasons) would be brutally repressed with tons of tear gas. Hundreds died in the protests between 2014-2018.
Now, for a "revolutionary" perspective, I can understand the purpose and advantages of the suppression of FOS:
-Prevents the burgeoise from "brainwashing" the people with propaganda.
-Allows the communication of messages in an orderly way to prevent mass histeria.
-Creates a centralized, controlled narrative that can make people move in a certain ideological direction.
I understand that to make the people and the revolution go forward the burgeoise must lose their voice, but sometimes truth also loses its voice in the process. For a nation to be successful I believe transparency is crucial, even if it creates differences of thought, but I may be mistaken.
How did the soviets handle this? Did they jail every journalist/activist and deny every problem? Did they enforce a strict code of ethics to prevent sensationalism? How much Freedom of Speech was suppressed? Did they even suppress anything? Could people protest/go on strikes? How does it compare to my country?
I'd like to read your input on this matter.