Human Rights Council head Fadeev: the 'right to 100 kinds of sausage' must not destroy the state

In an interview with RT, Valery Fadeev, head of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for Human Rights, assessed residents of the USSR's ideas about life in the West in the 1980s and the consequences of the dismantling of the Soviet system. He stated that consumer benefits do not compensate for the loss of institutions.

Otabek YusupovFirst published on tafs uz 5 November 2026 at 13:042 min read

The key facts

Valery Fadeev linked the myth of '100 kinds of sausage' to the destruction of Soviet power and, in his assessment, to tragedies for tens of millions of people
According to Fadeev, after the system was dismantled, rights, education, jobs, and the sausage itself temporarily disappeared
He emphasized: 'Bringing in sausage is the easiest thing. Building an education system is hard'

Statement by the head of the Presidential Human Rights Council

Head of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for Human Rights Valery Fadeev, in an interview with RT, said that in the 1980s, residents of the USSR formed, in his words, an enthusiastic and false idea of life in Europe and America. It was at that time, he noted, that the image of '100 kinds of sausage' spread. Fadeev linked this myth to the subsequent destruction of Soviet power, which, in his assessment, turned into colossal tragedies for tens of millions of people.

The essence of his position

'A person's right to 100 kinds of sausage must not lead to the destruction of the state,' the TV channel quotes its interviewee as saying. According to his recollection, after the system was dismantled, for some time there were no rights, no education, no jobs, and no sausage itself. The product appeared later, but that, in Fadeev's view, did not solve the more complex tasks. 'Bringing in sausage is the easiest thing. Building an education system is hard,' he added.

Context

Thus, the head of the Human Rights Council described the trade-off that, in his opinion, took place: quick access to consumer goods did not compensate for the loss of institutions, while restoring education and other systems takes time and effort. The Life.ru piece ends with a reference to another publication by the outlet, which says that Western zoomers have become fascinated with Soviet aesthetics and the culture of the USSR; moreover, as reported citing the British magazine The Spectator, interest in the bygone era is not always connected with communist convictions.