> but I kept seeing people watch it and feel somehow superior to those backwards soviets

Wow, that is not the message that I got at all and I didn't hear anybody else say that either.

It seems to be quite the opposite, we see lots of extremely skilled, brave people in the face of disaster and an oppressive social structure. If anything, it seemed to make explicit parallels between the current US people and our current political battles.

For example. the scene with the Ukrainian babushka milking the cow. Holy crap that was touching and felt so human. Made me feel so connected to a people on the other side of the world.