You could write multiple volumes on that subject.
An interesting aspect of the USSR was the behavior of it's citizens in the aftermath of it's collapse. Crime, drug abuse, and STD transmission all skyrocketed. The repressive force of an entire population for 70 years suddenly vanished. Of course even before the communists the russian people had been repressed by 300 years of Romanov rule, Mongol conquests before that, and psychotic Muscovite princes before that. In the resulting vacuumn chaos erupted. They finally got freedom, and quite naturally they went crazy.
Communism had a stifling effect on freedom of expression, be it political, religious, artistic, philosophical, economic, and in some cases even scientific. People were encouraged not to think too much. Missing work was a crime against the state, and justice was arbitrary. The supposed equality communism was to produce in practice created a ruling clique of old men who reaped all the benefits of an enormous empire.
Many in the global community frown on what appears to be Putin's consolidation of power, but to be quite honest, I believe they need it.