The Balkans were mostly never part of the Warsaw Pact, much less the USSR. IDK how life under Tito was, but it’s not what I’m talking about.
Communist is still a swear word in most of Eastern Europe. The US never really had anything to do with my area’s development, the Soviets took whatever and whoever they could, though. In the generation above mine, a ton of people have family stories about relatives going for malenkiy robot never to be seen again. Doorbell scare was a thing as well. People were absolutely tortured to death, genocided, taken away, robbed, and so on.
Nobody sane wishes for going back to the Warsaw Pact. And not because we had less money. Ironically, the few who are nostalgic liked the economy being more stable. The part everyone hated was the repression, the killings, the disappearances, the fear.