The banality of Soviet Russia, the communist era, the suppression of books, art, culture, humanities, and human freedom and religious expression, comes from the ubiquitous eye of surveillance.
Look into their history, their records of urban life and culture.
It is empty, straight faced, shallow, nearly thinned to nullification. It is grey. It is the sucking out of life, it is the consuming of the marrow from the bones, it is the extracting of good, the emasculation of biological life. It is the end of freedom, the end of spirituality. It is extinction.
But we caught a burglar a couple times a week. It was worth it. The human race suffered, lost its essence, and died.