Short answers, pulled from the story.
Nostalgia for the Soviet Union, known in Russian as Ностальгия по СССР, is a social phenomenon involving sentimental attitudes toward Soviet politics, society, culture, aesthetics, and superpower status. Modern expressions of this nostalgia often emphasize the Soviet Union's scientific and technological achievements, especially during the Space Age.
A 2019 poll found that 59% of Russians felt the Soviet government took care of ordinary people. The finding came from the Levada Center, which has tracked Soviet nostalgia through several separate surveys.
A 2022 study by Oxford professors Paul Chaisty and Stephen Whitefield found that people who identified most with the Soviet Union tended to be elderly and less affluent. Journalist Anatol Lieven argued in 1998 that Soviet nostalgia reflected a yearning for stability and order typical of an elderly population, and predicted it would fade as that generation died off.
During the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russian tanks were shown flying the old Soviet flag alongside the pro-war Z symbol. Russian occupying forces also renamed captured Ukrainian settlements back to their Soviet-era names, such as Artemivsk instead of Bakhmut.
The Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines was established in 2007 to recreate the experience of Soviet arcades and early gaming culture for visitors. It is cited as part of a broader revival of interest in Soviet aesthetics among younger Russians.
The woman nicknamed Grandmother Z is Anna Ivanovna, a Ukrainian who greeted Ukrainian soldiers near Dvorichna in April 2022 with a Soviet flag, believing them to be Russian. Her image was later used in Russian murals, postcards, and a statue in Russian-controlled Mariupol, though she said she met the soldiers only to protect her village.