First: why the use of the 'bread' tag? Nothing baked to find in the post...

I think 'collapse' is the right term. Once the leaders of the Warsaw pact countries decided not to use their military against their people (I think the last incident of that was in Poland during the Solidarnosc era), they had no real means to keep their hold on power. Take a look at the GDR politicians in fall 1989, how helpless they were, they really didn't understand what was happening, and how it could happen and what to do.

Remember, that wasn't only Russia. In a way the Russians got a different kind of tsar, so I don't see much chance for them to learn real democracy soon. They still have the "follow the leader" mentality, thirty years is not a long enough time to change that.

And incidences like you described happening, with people being unlawfully detained, pressured into doing things and killed, is happening in too many countries, lot of them being as far away from communism as you can be. Every military or other dictatorship uses that.

The rest of your horror story I won't comment on. Perhaps you should work on getting rid of these fears, that can't be healthy.