I try to engage people whenever I get the chance. I find the best approach is to just talk about things in general, then broach the subject in a neutral or negative (for you) way. E.g. “So what do you think about communism in your country?”, “How did your parents experience communism? Is it as bad as they say?”. Make it a natural part of the dialogue, and they’ll be a lot less defensive, and a lot more willing to engage with you.

Depending on the country, feelings vary from being very sensitive to being supportive.

I’ve visited Moscow in the late 90s, and 8 out of 10 people we got to talking to in the metro, they’d pine for the old days. Perhaps it was how bad shock therapy was for them. But if I meet Russians and talk with them, even to this day they are at worst neutral about communism.

I’ve attended some conferences due to my work where I’ve met some people from former Warsaw pact countries. Where I live there’s also a lot of first and second generation immigrants from Eastern Europe. It is encouraging to see that second generation Russian immigrants are almost all fond of communism, but they have a similar sentiment as you, in that they are really shy to discuss it with other people, and mostly keep it to themselves.

I’ve met a Khazakh who was not a communist but who though communism did a lot of right things compared to capitalism in Khazakhstan.

I’ve met an Uzbek who wasn’t as based as the Khazakh, but who thought that propaganda against communism was exaggerated.

However, if you go west (where I have had a lot more contact to be honest), you start finding the people who get triggered just by mentioning you are a leftist. We have a football team in my country whose fans sport hammer and sickles in the stands. When that team started playing in Europe, and got matched up against Polish teams, the Polish hooligans became enraged and started causing trouble every time they’d come here. And every time there’s a match with Poles, Polish sports press will talk endlessly about how insensitive the other team’s fans are to the horrors inflicted by the Soviets on the Poles. Almost every Pole I’ve talked to is like talking to a brick wall. I’ve talked with about 20-30 Poles. Maybe 5 were neutral or sympathetic to communism.

Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians are a mixed bag. You get the kind of reactions that the Poles have, but you also get the kind of reactions the Russians have. I’ve noticed that people who grew up in rural areas are a lot more open to communism. And people whose ancestors fought in the Red Army during WW2 might not be communists, but they are extremely reminiscent of communism usually. I’ve met about 8 Estonians, and another 10 Latvians and Lithuanians added together (can’t really remember the right numbers now)

With Ukrainians, I don’t really know. I’ve only met one and they were already a communist, and it was before the war. But they told me the political division between East and West Ukraine is very real. He advised that one should first figure out which side the person is from before engaging in further questions.

I’ve met a lot of Romanians (around 10-15), Moldovans (around 15-20) and Bulgarians (around 30-40).

Moldovans seem really bitter. Most I’ve met are really angry about the Transnistria situation. They blame the fall of communism on it, as well as Russia. And from what I understood, this sentiment was used by ultranationalists to stoke support or them. But if you get them talking about the communist days, most will admit that the country was better ran under communism than now.

With Romanians and Bulgarians you see a similar sentiment. Most seem to prefer communism had stuck around, but only at least because there was less corruption and incompetence. In general, expect pessimism.

With former Yugoslavs I have had very few dealings, except for Serbs (due to work) and Croats (due to holidays). Serbs in particular, are reminiscent of the old days. Perhaps their tribulations at the hands of NATO plays a role here. Croats seem to be mostly Nazis or willing to spout extreme right rhetoric at every chance. With the other Yugoslavs, I don’t know, except for 1 Slovene who told me communism is a horrible ideology and just stopped discussing it further.

I’ve met a lot of East Germans due to holidays, as well as learning the language at an institute stuffed by mostly teachers who grew up in former East Germany. East Germans seem to be the most extreme. Either they really hate communism, or they really wish it was back. Every single one of them though had admitted that the Stasi were never really the boogeymen that Western propaganda portrays them us. As far as they knew the Stasi never bothered or surveilled anyone they personally knew.

Overall, out of all these people, I’d say there’s a 40% that supports or is neutral/warm towards communism. However, I’ve found only a tenth of those who are against communism would voice legitimate concerns or grievances. The rest were just parroting very basic propaganda.

If you want to challenge the propaganda, don’t try to get into heated arguments. Most people engage in that kind of thing emotionally, not logically. A good tactic to keep the conversation toned down is to keep asking them clarifying questions. That way, maybe they’ll reconsider in the future.