But if something like the fall of the Soviet Union is just a "meet the news boss, same as the old boss" scenario on your book, I sincerely do not know what would constitute actual change.  And entire empire collapsed.  And entire economic system was destroyed.  And ideological war was lost.  The government was actually disolved at one point.  (maybe more.)  All the laws on the books became nullified, either literally or through lack of enforcement.  Yes, the people in power were from the same elite group as those in Communism, because that was the ONLY system before.  It's not as though democrats were waiting in the wings.  Communists became democrats.  Anyone with any qualifications to run any government entity got those qualifications from going through the Soviet system.  People use this fact to suggest that nothing really changed between Stalin and Putin.  It's like looking at a family and complaining all the children had the same parents.  Where else were they supposed to come from?  Outerspace?  There were lots of Westerners coming into the country to advise the newly democratic government. And as a result, the bloody country crashed.  People starved to death.  So you can understand why they don't really trust us to tell them how to run their country.

Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.