GETTY The flag of the Soviet Union was the official national flag of the Soviet state from 1923 to 1991

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A stunning 64 per cent of Russians who were aged ten or over in the totalitarian one party state rated the quality of life higher than under the current rule of Vladimir Putin. A quarter of a century after the fall of the Red flag from the Kremlin in 1991, the same pattern is shown in nine out of 11 ex-Soviet states, according to a new poll. The findings appear to offer an indictment of post-Communist regimes which have seen a mixture of chaos, rampant crime, revolution, wild capitalism, economic mayhem and dictatorship in the years since Mikhail Gorbachev quit as the last Soviet leader. Respondents in oil-rich Azerbaijan - run by authoritarian president Ilham Aliyev who succeeded his father Heydar Aliyev - gave a crushing verdict with 69 per cent saying life was better in the USSR.

GETTY Russian president Vladimir Putin

In Armenia, the figure was even higher, 71 per cent. In Ukraine, which has seen some of the greatest economic hardship and political turmoil since 1991, around 60 per cent of the over 35s saw life as better back in the USSR. In Belarus, the most Soviet-like of the European states of the former USSR, where even the secret police retain the KGB acronym, some 53 per cent still preferred life under Moscow's rule. And in Kazakhstan, where dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev employed Tony Blair as a consultant, three in five of the older 35s preferred life under Soviet rule.

GETTY Mikhail Gorbachev, last leader of the Soviet Union, in 1980s (left) and in 2014 (right)

Only older residents of two ex-Soviet republics believed life is better now - those in Tajikistan and rigidly totalitarian Uzbekistan, two of the poorest states, where 39 per cent and four per cent respectively saw their existence under the Kremlin politburo as superior. However, there was a major difference among people born after the communist collapse, those aged under 25, according to the revealing survey conducted by various polling organisations for Russian news agency Sputnik. In Russia, for example, 63 per cent against 25 per cent believe life to be better now.

GETTY 1965: Russian Intercontinental Missile crossing Red Square during a military parade in Moscow

Vladimir Putin's funniest pictures Wed, May 11, 2016 Russian President Vladimir Putin in pictures. Play slideshow Getty Images 1 of 46 Russian President Vladimir Putin attends an ice hockey match