I think like any society, it had its supporters and its detractors. I'm most familiar with the example of East Germany, which I think is the most interesting example for several reasons; among the reasons, because it was the most economically successful of all the Eastern bloc states (which means it could draw upon a decent base of support), but also a contentious crossroads of east and west, which meant there were highly publicized moments of dissent.

In the case of East Germany, we find that despite the notorious mass exodus of East Germans to the west, it actually had some of the least amount of dissent of any country in the eastern bloc. The East Germans rose up only once before the fall of the Berlin Wall, in 1953: after that, not a peep out of the East German populace until mid-1989, months before the wall fell. Studies have shown that East Germans generally tended to believe in socialism, but they were more critical about their lack of democratic rights. Many studies have been conducted about a phenomenon in East German society known as the "niche society". The niche society represented people's overall behavior towards the GDR state: people would outwardly show support (or they just remained silent in public) but in private they would voice their dissent. The continued exposure East Germans had to West German television signals also gave them a unique vantage point into the west, which allowed private dissent to grow. But a lot of East Germans were very proud of the welfare state they had built. In the 1989-1990 period, in the midst of revolution, polls conducted of East Germans showed that they still wanted to retain their socialist state but move to a multi-party system and have free elections. When you have a society that you have lived under for close to two generations, it will breed loyalty. Furthermore, today we can point to phenomena like Ostalgie (a fascination with old East German consumer goods that can be purchased in fairs) and show that there are Germans who still pine for the old days. Given the continued economic inequality that has existed between East and West (East being on the lower end), it's no wonder some harken back.

Now, I am not suggesting life was rosy or wonderful under the GDR state. But what we see here in studying an example like East Germany, is that there were people, millions in fact, who believed in its cause, just as there were many others who questioned its foundations. But, I think the most interesting fact we can learn, is that most East Germans saw the flaws of their state, but they believed in its basic ideals. That is something that surprised me when I first began to read about it.