I watched a documentary about Able Archer, the 1983 NATO exercise that was misunderstood by the Soviets, who almost launched a full scale nuclear strike.
One of the most interesting parts was an interview with an older Soviet women. She could not understand why all the world wanted to destroy her beloved Russia which was only trying to bring a better way of life to the oppressed.
Here was a women living in the "Evil Empire", an empire that invaded countries without provocation, routinely used torture, had a vast surveillance state, had secret courts with secret trials, overthrew democratically elected governments, and was run by an elite for the elite.
Yet since she had grown up with the state education, watched the national news and was surrounded by her culture, she thought Russia was the "Good Empire".
