History Main / WhyWereBummedCommunismFell

* PlayedForLaughs on ''SaturdayNightLive''. The TropeNamer sketch was a ''WaynesWorld'' TopTenList for "why we're were bummed communism fell". Their list is as follows:

** '''#4''': Soviets can no longer be the go-to bad guys in spy movies. ("Who's JamesBond gonna spy on now, the Guatemalans?")

* Used again in a more recent ''SaturdayNightLive'' where they are discussing a Russian spy and are nostalic and hopeful to fight a war they can understand again.

** Short of the RoaringRampageOfRevenge, this was a sad TruthInTelevision for many men (and women), who obtained degrees in the sciences with the focus on developing bigger and better weapons, because "Uncle Sam needed them." When the ColdWar ended, Uncle Sam abandoned them and left many of them out of a job for years while defense budgets were cut, the entire military was restructured, bases were closed, etc, while the world just generally said SoWhatDoWeDoNow... ''FallingDown'' is that generation's ''Film/EasyRider''. So it wasn't just Russians and [[CrazySurvivalist American Militia]] that were upset the ColdWar ended.

* On ZerPunctuation, Yahtzee has often accused developers of modern first person shooters of feeling this way, given the number of game involving the Russians as the bad guys.

* ''{{Sneakers}}'' has Greg, a Russian "[[SpyFromWeightsAndMeasures cultural attaché]]", who makes several comments along these lines.

-->'''Oswald Cox:'' "The ''Russians''? Why the fuck would she go to the Russians? Why the ''fuck''!?!"

--'''Oswald Cox:'' "The ''Russians''? Why the fuck would she go to the Russians? Why the ''fuck''!?!"

** Furthermore, [[PsychoForHire Hansel and Gretel]] are [[spoiler:products of Ceauşescu's rule of Romania. With the country unable to take care of them after his death at the end of the Cold War, they were sold to the Sicilian mafia, and... ItGotWorse.]]

** '''#6''': "The fall of Communism will deal a major blow to the trade union movement. Labor relations will revert to industrial revolutionary social darwinism." ''[beat]'' "Okay."

* Used again in a more recent ''SaturdayNightLive'' where they are discussing a russian spy and are nostalic and hopeful to fight a war they can understand again.

* In a sketch on ''The BenStiller Show'', Stiller pretends to be Russian comedian Yakov Smirnov trying to keep his career going after the fall of communism. It doesn't go well.
** The real Smirnov is actually doing pretty well, with a year-round show in Branson, Missouri and teaching gigs at various universities.

* ''TheGoldenGirls'' had an interesting case. In one episode Dorothy's ex-husband Stan had a cousin named Magda who was visiting form Czechoslovakia. She didn't really seem bummed as much as worried. While in a bookstore, she mentions how if her people read all those different books and different ideas, they'd get confused, and it would lead to anarchy. She felt that Communism was more fair, saying "When there's only one road, no one gets lost." Dorothy convinced her to read Thomas Paine's ''Common Sense,'' and she seemed to come around.

*** To add an insult to injury, the main ideology of the North is not so much a Communism, as it is a Korean version of [[ANaziByAnyOtherName National Socialism]].

** Short of the RoaringRampageOfRevenge, this was a sad TruthInTelevision for many men (and women), who obtained degrees in the sciences with the focus on developing bigger and better weapons, because "Uncle Sam needed them." When the ColdWar ended, Uncle Sam abandoned them and left many of them out of a job for years while defense budgets were cut, the entire military was restructured, bases were closed, etc, while the world just generally said SoWhatDoWeDoNow... ''FallingDown'' is that generation's ''EasyRider''. So it wasn't just Russians and [[CrazySurvivalist American Militia]] that were upset the ColdWar ended.

->''The first half of TheNineties largely reflected this realization that the world was no longer what we thought it'd be, from the decline of the military industrial complex, to who should be [[AcceptableTargets the default bad guys]] in fiction.''

** BillClinton's central role in the NorthernIreland peace talks was a part of this -- without communism to fight, America had to find something to do on the world stage.

* Ex-Japanese Red Army member Takenaka from ''BlackLagoon'' is sad that he didn't get his revolution, and now allies with Muslim extremists he first met when collaborating with PFLP in Lebanon because he's become [[TerroristsWithoutACause A Terrorist Without A Cause]].

* ''{{Anime/Monster}}'' includes a number of ex-GDR officers and scientists who have tried to create new lives and identities for themselves, with varying degrees of success.

** ''Film/{{GoldenEye}}'' wondered if JamesBond was even relevant now. This is one of the reasons some consider it the best of the Brosnan films. M in particular bluntly told Bond he was "a relic of the Cold War".

* Averted in ''{{Lord of War}}''. Yuri kisses the screen and is completely oblivious to his son's first steps when Gorbachev announces the official fall of the USSR. This means tons of unwanted and unused Soviet arms lying around ripe for the taking and selling.

** '''#8''': Now they'll never find out what the thing on {{Mikhail Gorbachev}}'s head was.

** '''#3''': ''{{Magazine/Playboy}}'' will no longer have "Girls of the Soviet Union" issues.

* In ''BurnNotice'', Sam mentions that one of the reasons he got out of the spy game was because "Now it's all about religion and oil; it's no fun anymore."

* This was a major plot point in the background of ''MetalGearSolid''. The titular Metal Gear was designed primarily as a mobile launch platform for nuclear missiles. When the Cold War ended, there was no longer any need to develop this kind of weapon, budgets were cut, so the corporations and scientists behind it went to the black market.

* Mike Toreno from ''GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' is a government agent who fondly regards the ColdWar days as "good times". Nevermind that the things he gets up to ''these'' days are much the same as back then, only set in other countries.
* The BigBad of ''{{Phantom of Inferno}}'' used to brainwash people for the Stasi and KGB. When the Cold War ended, he picked up the protagonists and brainwashed them to be hired guns.

** Also, the Soviet Union was big on subsidies of oil, cash and machinery to its client states (Cuba being a notorious example). The end of the system also meant yawning gaps in the economy that the countries had no means of addressing, particularly in the recessions that followed.

*** On the other hand, from the perspective of politics and freedom, the ex-Communist states of Europe (save UsefulNotes/{{Belarus}}) are way nicer to live than the Central Asian ex-republics and even Russia itself (any objective observer will tell you that Russia is a half-dictatorship with an unsustainable sham of an economy). Not for nothing were the Baltics, Bulgaria, and Romania (and soon, Croatia) admitted to the EU. The Caucasus is more of a mixed bag, with Armenia and Georgia being not unlike their neighbor (and age-old enemy) Turkey in many senses (including politics, albeit without the [[TurksWithTroops military]]'s political role), while Azerbaijan is an economically-successful political clusterfuck (that's what happens when you're a main battleground between Turkey and Iran[[hottip:*:For those not in the know, Azerbaijan is a weird mix of Iran and Turkey. The Azeris are basically Turks who happened not to live in the Ottoman Empire, so there are ethnic and linguistic affinities between Azerbaijan and Turkey; on the other hand, Azeris are virtually by definition Shiite Muslims, as opposed to the Sunni Turks, and a majority of ethnic Azeris are actually Iranian--indeed, current Iranian Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamene'i is an ethnic Azeri. As a result, while the current, secular regime of Azerbaijan emphasizes links to Turkish culture and cultivates relations with Turkey, the Islamist movements in the country emphasize connections to the ethnic Azeris of Iran and to Shiite allegiance more generally, which leads to a preference for Iran.]] for influence.)
*** OTOH, the Baltics prosperity proved to be short-living. Once a Soviet Union's industrial powerhouses, much of these industry was dismantled and sold off in TheNineties, on pretext of being obsolete and non-competitive, leaving the economy to rely on service sector and trade — the Baltic ports were the important transit link in Europe-Russia trade. Once the Great Recession struck, the service sector collapsed almost immediately, with the massive unemployment and financial black holes. Even in the more well-off Estonia there were the street riots.

* Lee Child's books, especially ''The Enemy'', deal with the rapid reduction of US armed forces after the end of the Cold War, and how it affected the soldiers, including JackReacher, the main character.

** '''#5''': Will TheBeatles song be changed? ("Back in the Commonwealth of Independent, Back in the Commonwealth of Independent, Back in the Commonwealth of Independent Staaates.")

## New maps.
## Is [[InSovietRussiaTropeMocksYou Yakov Smirnoff]] out of a job?
## They'll never find out what the thing on {{Mikhail Gorbachev}}'s head was.
## [[OlympicGames Katarina Witt]] no longer has ForbiddenFruit appeal.
## "The fall of Communism will deal a major blow to the trade union movement. Labor relations will revert to industrial revolutionary social darwinism." ''[beat]'' "Okay."
## Will TheBeatles song be changed? ("Back in the Commonwealth of Independent, Back in the Commonwealth of Independent, Back in the Commonwealth of Independent Staaates.")
## Soviets can no longer be the go-to bad guys in spy movies. ("Who's JamesBond gonna spy on now, the Guatemalans?")
## ''{{Magazine/Playboy}}'' will no longer have "Girls of the Soviet Union" issues.
## No more bogus Soviet rock bands to make fun of.
## They won't be the first ones to say on Russian television, [[CatchPhrase "Live! From New York! It's Saturday Night!"]]

** 10. New maps.
** 9. Is [[InSovietRussiaTropeMocksYou Yakov Smirnoff]] out of a job?
** 8. They'll never find out what the thing on {{Mikhail Gorbachev}}'s head was.
** 7. [[OlympicGames Katarina Witt]] no longer has ForbiddenFruit appeal.
** 6. "The fall of Communism will deal a major blow to the trade union movement. Labor relations will revert to industrial revolutionary social darwinism." ''[beat]'' "Okay."
** 5. Will TheBeatles song be changed? ("Back in the Commonwealth of Independent, Back in the Commonwealth of Independent, Back in the Commonwealth of Independent Staaates.")
** 4. Soviets can no longer be the go-to bad guys in spy movies. ("Who's JamesBond gonna spy on now, the Guatemalans?")
** 3. ''Magazine/Playboy'' will no longer have "Girls of the Soviet Union" issues.
** 2. No more bogus Soviet rock bands to make fun of.
** 1. They won't be the first ones to say on Russian television, [[CatchPhrase "Live! From New York! It's Saturday Night!"]]

* PlayedForLaughs on ''SaturdayNightLive''. The TropeNamer sketch was a ''WaynesWorld'' TopTenList for "why we're were bummed communism fell". A TitleDrop was worked into #10 on the list: "We won't be the first people in the Soviet Union to say 'Live! From New York! It's Saturday Night!'"
** One item on the list specifically bemoaned the fact that Soviets could no longer be the go-to bad guys in movies. "Who's James Bond gonna fight now, the Guatemalans?"

* ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'' did a metaphorical version of this by having the Klingon Empire sue for peace, ending the SpaceColdWar which had been raging since the [[StarTrekTheOriginalSeries original TV show]]. The bad guys are conspirators on both sides trying to sabotage the peace process because they don't want the familiar world of Federation vs. Klingons to end. Kirk himself feels somewhat this way at first ("No more [[TheNeutralZone Neutral Zone]]. I was used to hating Klingons."), but he [[CharacterDevelopment comes around]]. The film went into production when the IronCurtain was falling and it ended up being released just nineteen days before the Soviet Union was officially dissolved. In fact, ''Star Trek VI'' actually predicted the August Coup. The film's plot is set in motion when MikhailGorbachev's {{expy}} character is assassinated by hard-liners in his own government. The real coup occurred while the movie was being edited and, with Gorbachev's survival unclear, the filmmakers were left to wonder how much life would be imitating art.

** The series also features a criminal organization known as Hotel Moscow, which is composed of veterans of the Afghan War. It's leader, [[MagnificentBastard Balalaika]], is a disillusioned former Soviet Special Forces commander who turned to a life of crime after being screwed over by the government in the wake of the war. The end of Fujiyama Gangsta's Paradise arc could be explained only by her being, you know,.. deep in the loop. Just undercover.

* The few places Communism didn't fall was more because they didn't practice it to begin with, or at least not to the letter. Post Mao Mainland China and 1990s Vietnam are the more successful examples of ideology bending to reality - Deng Xiaoping, leader of the CCP was proud to proclaim words to the effect that "It doesn't matter whether 'the cat' is black or white; if it catches rats, it's a good cat". North Korea is an example of spectacular failure. North Korea actually had a ''higher'' standard of living than South Korea for a time, until Park Jung-Hee took over South Korea and set into motion a bunch of five-year plans that worked. His successors carried it on, and by the time Seoul hosted the OlympicGames in 1988, South Korea blew past their northern brethren.

*** It did not help that in many areas with rich natural resources, the Soviets actually disassembled the industrial infrastructure when withdrawing. Even today the oil industries of some fromer Bloc-countries are only just starting to resume production.
** This is in part due to the fact that most communist countries, particularly those that broke off from the Soviet Union suffered a major depression after the overthrow of their communist governments. While many (Poland, Hungary, the Baltics) saw some modest improvements following the turn of the century, others (Ukraine, Moldova Central Asia) have not recovered the per capita GDP from the Soviet era.... 20 years later.

* Many engineers from the Soviet Union have faced difficulties adapting to the post-Soviet economy. Due to constant crackdowns on the education system, degrees became over-specialized to the point that they could be mistaken for joke degrees. For example, "Engineer for Ball Bearings in a Paper Mill" was an actual degree. Adapting to the more general nature of engineering outside of the Soviet Union was difficult.

* In Germany, there is the term: Ostalgie, a neologism combining Ost (east) and Nostalgie (nostalgia).
** In Berlin, many people make a living by selling relics of the Soviet past such as Social Realist art, Soviet war medals, hats, and there is even a restaurant that specializes in selling East German food.