"Now the USSR is already a memory. I was at Gorbachev's funeral in Moscow, and with him the era of the USSR was gone, which, relative to the entire more than a thousand-year history of Russia, lasted only 70 years," Massie said in Russian. "I do not think it is necessary to overestimate the importance of the USSR, but the importance of Russia for the world today cannot and should not be underestimated."
Speaking of lessons Russia could draw from the Soviet period, Massie expressed her belief that Russia needs to combat its age-old bureaucracy.
"America does not know the new Russia at all, its new young faces, its spirit," she added. "I believe that Russia needs to be studied and studied from within, as I once did myself. And I just fell in love with it."
On December 30, 1922, five years after the October Revolution, the First All-Union Congress of Soviets in Moscow declared the creation of the Soviet Union, an entity intended to be built on Marxist principles and dedicated to ushering in a new era of Communism onto the world.
On December 26, 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist, soon after the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed the Belovezh Accords, declaring the country dissolved.