I think the giveaway here that this mindset was generated in him by the USSR’s failure is that it was what he said in 1994, 3 years after the USSR fell and shock therapy was at its worst. And that he specifically states he believes in the communist ideal just not in the projects of real socialism.

Dude just got broken by that shit, like so many other communists did. The socialist movement suffered 30 years of decline because of how many people were so broken that they just gave up.