Death Toll

This essay disproves both these contentions by introducing new demographic evidence proving that Stalin killed at least 5.2 million Soviet citizens 1927-1938, with a best estimate in the vicinity of 10 million.

http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/soviet/rosefielde.pdf

Modern Effects

89-Year-Old’s Toilet Paper Hunt Shows Venezuela Shortages Deepen 

The government raised price caps this week on beef, chicken, milk and cheese by 20 percent to encourage domestic output after producers said they can’t turn a profit following a 32 percent devaluation of the bolivar in February.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-17/89-year-old-hunts-for-toilet-paper-as-shortages-crimp-venezuela.html

Psychiatry

In the Soviet Union, systematic political abuse of psychiatry took place. Psychiatry of the Brezhnev period was used as a tool to eliminate political opponents ("dissidents"), people who openly expressed their views that contradict officially declared dogmas. In case the person did not agree with the specific actions of people in leading positions and criticized them by using philosophic dogmas according to the writings by Karl Marx,Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, the term "philosophical intoxication" was widely used to diagnose mental disorders.In such cases, religious faith was determined to be a form of mental illness that needed to be cured.

"...there was no other logical rationale why one would oppose the best sociopolitical system in the world"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_abuse_of_psychiatry_in_the_Soviet_Union

Censorship in the Soviet Union

• Soviet law prohibited the creation and distribution of pornography
• Censorship of historical photographs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_images_in_the_Soviet_Union