Yes, a lot of the talk on such occasions is simply rhetoric and lip service; but a lot of it is not. There is a pride that the ordinary Soviet citizen feels in being part of a society that has made tremendous gains—industrially, economically, educationally, scientifically, socially, and perhaps culturally—in the past generation, a nation that has risen from the ashes and the rubble of war to become one of the two recognized world superpowers.
For as against communism as I am, it's important to recognize the other side
