I've been born in USSR, never been to Artek and visited a foreign country many years after USSR collapsed, and I was happy in my country. 'Democratic' Russia of 90's and half of 00'' was much, much worse in every possible way.
There tends to be a lot of negativity when discussing the USSR - there is an implicit selection bias here; in a US-centric forum, you are much more likely to encounter expats, and their stories will not generally be happy ones: in the end, something caused them to leave.
So it's good to see some contrasting views. Tell us about your life!
