I was recently speaking to an older person who emigrated to the US from Russia about 10 years ago. (She is in her 70s.) She was convinced that the Soviet Union's economic impact on the average Russian citizen was slight but positive (breadlines are better than no bread, there was a revolution in medical care, etc) and contrasted that to the impact of capitalism on the average Russian citizen, which (in her opinion) made them significantly poorer and sicker.

Is there any truth to this? If I was an apolitical Russian today, concerned solely with the economic well-being of the average citizen, would I look back on the Soviet Union at all positively?