A chilling hypothesis suggests Russia's 2017 decriminalization of domestic violence was a form of social control. In an authoritarian system with a stagnant economy that emasculates men, allowing them to exert power at home serves as a "steam valve," redirecting aggression away from the state and onto their families.

Jane Fonda points out that historically, authoritarian regimes always attack artists and educators first. These groups are the "storytellers" who control the cultural narrative and shape how people think and feel. By silencing them, a regime can more easily impose its own version of reality.

The Iranian revolution created a society of contradictions. While imposing strict religious social codes on women, the state also fostered an environment that produced more female university-educated engineers per capita than anywhere else, defying simple Western characterizations.

Imprisoned by the communist regime after WWII, Elżbieta "Zo" Zawacka transformed her prison into an educational institution. She taught illiterate inmates using potato prints and window steam, organized formal classes, and restored a sense of purpose, dramatically reducing suicides among prisoners.

The Soviet state created a bogus medical diagnosis, "sluggish schizophrenia," to pathologize political dissent. This tactic allowed the regime to label human rights advocates as mentally ill and confine them to psychiatric prisons, effectively turning medicine into a tool of political repression.

The typical Soviet woman was expected to perform three demanding roles simultaneously: her professional job, all household labor without modern appliances, and child-rearing. One historian noted they had to perform these "as if each of them were her only job," creating a cultural ideal of effortless competence born from necessity.

The East German secret police (Stasi) employed a psychological warfare tactic called 'Zersetzung,' meaning 'dissolution.' This went beyond surveillance to actively sabotage and destroy a dissident's personal life, including their social structures, relationships, and professional reputation, making their life 'absolute hell.'

The Soviet Union legalized abortion in 1920, three years before other forms of birth control were available. This policy set a precedent that lasted for decades, resulting in abortion becoming the primary family planning method. The average Soviet woman had 3 to 12 abortions during her childbearing years.

History shows a recurring cycle in revolutions where the activists and idealists who help destabilize a country—so-called 'useful idiots'—are often the first to be killed by the new autocratic regime they usher in. This pattern was seen in Russia, Iran, and with the French Revolution.