"You mean the Communist regime that the Russians discarded because it wasn't working? Yes, I recall it. Why?"

It was rather unrealistic of us to adopt Communism in the first place, wasn't it?

Over the next 80 years that terrible mistake resulted in:

- the deaths of tens of millions of Russians at the hand of their government,
- the establishment of a KGB police state which set the stage for the current autocratic government,
- the imprisonment or exile of countless dissidents,
- a Cold War which cost the planet far too much,
- a brain drain which saw many of Russia's best minds leave,
- an economic stunting which still affects Russia to this day
- and more.

No, there's little that's "realistic" (that's just a myth), but there's a whole lot that's "romantic"...if one had to describe a national psychology.