Why Do So Many Republicans Love Russia’s Dictator?

I ended my own brief but not very passionate romance with Soviet-styled Communism when I was in college, after realizing that the Young Socialist Alliance leaders were rich-kid ideologues who couldn’t agree on whether Leninists or Maoists were better suited to liberate the proletariat.

But I never understood if ordinary Russians living under communism experienced the same kind of disillusionment or continued to believe in the ideals espoused by their leaders. Years later I read a short story by the great Russian satirist Mikhail Zoshchenko, and…