20 Years

As many of you know, it is 20 years since the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, and I think its time to evaluate whether Capitalism is flourishing in these nations as were are all led to believe, or whether there is an underlying truth that is filtered by the western media.
First of all, we need to look at East Germany, which was the most spied-upon nation in the world. Although this seemed despotic and the over-ambitious nature of the Stasi and the police did ruin any chance they had of having a free and fair society, a lot of people who had no run-ins with these do in fact believe that they were better-of in the east, with better social security, job security and homes. Now a lot of the people who lived in the high-rises with no fear of being victims of crime are living on horrific council estates with massive unemployment, no future prospects and massive racism problems, since the number of immigrants to Germany has exploded over recent years.
Furthermore, in East Germany the populace had to find ways to be free, so the art world was in the best state it has been in the last 100 years, anywhere in the world arguably. This art was state sponsored, but cleverly veiled messages could go unnoticed. People in East Germany also lost any sight of gender differences, with men and women seen simply as 'people', no discrimination in the workplace and the most liberal views on sex seen in any recent society. This even spread to everyday family life and holidays, where many families decided to go about their business naked.
Now, I am not saying that I believe it's right to torture and spy upon your populace, but I am saying that if these Communist governments had a way to stay in power without the use of force, it could have been a much fairer society, where people would not live in fear and would have much happier lives, and perhaps the idea of socialism could have evolved into something more palatable for everyone, where there is more emphasis on democracy, as we saw in USSR and Czechoslovakia, who started to introduce glasnost and perestroika, albeit too late and not far enough.
It can be argued that Russia, especially, is worse off, as several ex-Communist nations are doing well in the EU, but a lot of the population are disillusioned, due to their being at the bottom of the social ladder all of a sudden, and ex-Communists still being in politics, but have shifted their views to being conservative Capitalists.
It seems that if there were some sort of middle ground between the ruthless despots of Eastern Europe and the money-mad, dog-eat-dog attitude of the west, incorporating the social securities of the East but the freedom of the west, this would be a truly fair society.