Bereft of freedom? You get this land

Imagine the Oceania of GEORGE ORWELL'S "NINETEEN EIGHTY FOUR" combined with the endemic corruption and violence of MARIO PUZO'S "THE GODFATHER," and you have the land DAVID REMNICK describes in the book I'm reading -- "LENIN'S TOMB: THE LAST DAYS OF THE SOVIET EMPIRE."
The scenario Remnick describes demonstrates the conditions that arise in a society bereft of basic freedoms.
My grandmother, MARGE SMITH, once taught me a most valuable lesson:
"You don't have to agree with anything anybody says, you just need to keep fighting for their right to say it."
Thank God for that sentiment, or more of us would be living in the dystopia on Earth that Remnick describes.