" Soviets' extensive gulag system"
The Soviets "Gulag System" was set up by the Tsarist Regime they overthrew and was in existence for at least a century before the Revolution - Tolstoy wrote an excellent novel (Resurrection) on it.
Many of the leading Revolutionaries were inmates - Trotsky escaped from them twice.
Stalinism had nothing to do with either Socialism or Communism, many of Stalin#'s victims were both and his leading socialist opponent, the former Minister of War, was murdered on the order of Stalin in Mexico.
As with Keith, you have available a fairly articulate analysis of what happened in East Germany, including an explanation of The Wall.
Don't you think it would be far more satisfactory to dismantle that rather than stump up time-worn Cold War clichés?
Fra more conclusive from your point of view and far more likely to avoid errors like "trying to maintain the social order"
REad and enjoy - or not!
Jim Carroll