In the 1990s, Zinoviev shifted research accents and changed assessments regarding Soviet communism, which, commentators noted, was not a radical change of opinion: he had previously written about the merits of the Soviet system and never rejected communism, considering it a working system. Zinoviev softened his attitude towards Soviet society and adjusted the estimates of the future. Communism was a young and viable social system, effective in a social sense, and not economically. It arranged for most ordinary people who earned little, but also worked a little. Communism allowed to meet basic needs, eliminated unemployment and, at least in the early period, was directed to the future.