In V. L. Musatov's memoirs dramatic events of 1985-1991, when, under the influence of the failure of Perestroika, the process of destruction of the Soviet statehood, weakening of its economy and military power developed, are considered. These destructive phenomena could not but affect the allies of the USSR, the socialist countries of Eastern Europe, which after 1945 were closely connected with Moscow. The surrender of its foreign policy positions by the Soviet Union, along with internal transformations in the countries of Eastern Europe, eventually led to a change in the socio-political system in the former socialist states. Modern political science unequivocally recognizes the axiomatical nature of the conclusion of the unreformability of the Soviet model and, therefore, a dead-end for its development. However, this conclusion needs to be strictly verified. Today we can only say, that the transition from a right-wing (fascist) regime to a democracy has been easier than from a left-wing regime based on a socialized, centralized economy with its lack of market relations. At the stage of post-Communist development of Eastern Europe, which, unlike the early "de-Stalinization", was characterized by a radical modernizing transformation in the form of "building the foundations of capitalism", a democratic political system was established in the region. But in member-countries of the former Soviet Union authoritarian regimes of varying degrees of rigidity, "imitating" democracy, prevailed. In relation to Russia, political scientists use the definition of "soft authoritarianism". But taking the "Chinese miracle" into account, the answer to the question of whether a model close to the Soviet one has any social prospects, it seems, can not be unambiguously negative.