I found this to be really a good read, and enjoyed it.  It's long, so I'll comment on a couple of the sections in different posts.

The idea of somehow looking back fondly, romanticizing, upon a period of history that resulted in so much death and destruction seems somewhat strange to me.  Perhaps it's just a process of acceptance, as after all, it's done and can't be changed.  Your post summarizes some of the tragedy fairly well, though, IMHO perhaps skipping a little too lightly over the death of millions and the poverty the system created.
*    First was the abandonment of the ideals of communism and the revolution.

What came after could be termed state capitalism - with the Party members, being the effective owners, acting as capitalists. What came after could be termed state capitalism - with the Party members, being the effective owners, acting as capitalists.

It seems a tragedy in and of itself to abondon the ideals of the Manifesto, and morph quickly into a brutal dictatorship.
*    Second, don't you treat the gulags and mass murderers, the terrorizing KGB, a little too lightly?

the first gulags (in which the inmates' deaths were planned in) were created along the White Sea Canal under Lenin,,,,,

Aren't the death of millions, the gulags, the repression of free speech, the torture worth a few comments?
*    Third, and what of the lack of personal freedoms?  The inability of people of the lower and middle classes to better themselves economically?
*    And all of this led to the current situation of being a very poor, less developed country, as you point out.

The decrepit wooden houses in those villages reached by no paved road have electricity and flowing water. Pension is not much, public transport crappy, but neither existed 100 years ago.

*    Compared to Western Europe, wasn't this just a total disaster.  Obviously it wasn't smooth sailing in Western Europe, but they made different choices that have led to more freedoms for individuals and higher standards of living.  "What were the alternatives?"--well it seems there were perhaps better ones not taken.

Overall it just doesn't seem to properly treat an incredibly dark period of history, that I think in your view (if I interpret you correctly) and others, was just an incredible human tragedy.