According to benjamin, what is the one unalterable law? how does his idea compare to actual conditions in the soviet union today?

this is the passage this question is talking about:
"only old benjamin professed to remember every detail of his long life and to know that things never had been, nor ever could be much better or much hunger, hardship, and disappointment being, so he said, the unalterable law of life."
i get that hunger, hardship, and disappointment is the unalterable law of life, but does anyone know where i can find information on how the soviet union is today?