Gulags more/less ended after January 13th, 1960.
I'm sure that any 'standard of living' data came from Glasnost, as prior to that, Stalinist USSR was nearly as closed off as North Korea is today.
And from that, I'd go ahead and say Gnartron's not so off base.
Example being a few things I've seen and read about the USSR and East Germany post-unification... Many people miss the stability of the old regime, because at least you felt somewhat protected and even though you were relatively poor, at least you weren't Africa-Poor.. You still had to wait in line for bread and supplies, but at least it was always attainable. They weren't bread lines like depression-era America as everyone wants to think.
Now, it's very big dog-eat-little dog in russia. The rich are richer and the poor are poorer... More billionaires live in Russia than anywhere else in the world... on the flipside, they have one of the poorest and largest lower classes in the industrialized world.
And here's an abridged history lesson to a catchy tune - for those who know fuck all about the USSR other than gulags, vodka, youtube car crashes, and vladamir putin looking like James Bond..
