@thor @feld

Exactly - but you also need to remember that USSR was a bit like Great Britain. Moscow and other large cities were leeching resources from all other regions, and especially from satellite states such as most of Eastern Europe. Those who tried reforms were invaded by Red Army such as Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.

So the actual crisis - like food rationing - only hit Moscow in 90's and this is why they attribute it to fall of communism.