Who'd you vote for?

because the bad ones didn't go anywhere

idk, noone have sent me to gulag for opposing government yet

Free education is a thing that every country should have, not just few especially bright ones.

I agree, but in pratice it all depends on individual country situation and how big is government focus on education. E.g. if country has free education, but schools and universities are massively underpaid, then just free education is not enough. Another thing (not really on topic) is I think that e.g. in my country higher education should be less accessible (of course I don't mean "paid", but candidates should be more scrutinized) , 'cause right now everyone goes to uni just because they can.

And is there really a difference if a research is banned because of ideology or because no one cares, no one sees any ways to get rich thanks to it, thus no one will pay for it?

Yes, there is. If something is banned because ideology you cannot discuss with it, in other example you have possibility to convince people that it's worth to invest in your research. There are many places where you can try to acquire necessary funds, wheras if something is banned because of ideology that's basically end of the road unless you finance it yourself and conduct research in secret.

Why is that a country with ideological censorship still made iconic movies, literature and music while a "free" country didn't do anything worthwhile in more than 20 years?

Ouch, you actually hit soft spot here, because that's how I feel about my country's culture (many of my favorite literary works come from the period when censorship was common). I guess artists were more creative to bypass censorship. And generally censorship caused the opposite effect of its purpose, 'cause naturally people were more interested in banned stuff. I always loved to hear my mom's stories about getting banned books (or generally books, 'cause it was not always easy to get even accepted books) xD It made reading books sound metal xDD But I'm offtoping bit here
But then again, I'm not sure that we haven't done anything worthwhile during "free" period. I think it's rather that we've done so much stuff (and it's gaussian curve here - most of it is mediocre), that the worthwhile books/movies/music often don't get enough visibility.

Corruption is common everywhere, dear friend, always was, Union's system encouraged it less, but wasn't safe from it either, and strong ideology - always was one of the best tools to fight it, but it fails too in the end, always.

Of course corruption is common everywhere, but I disagree that Union's system encouraged it less. With system that have arbitrary distributed goods, there is huge temptation for people who want more of something to resort to bribes. And with the rise of beaurocracy in later period corruption was getting bigger and bigger.

Only wise tyrants can shift that stagnant balance and unite nations to build a future that can be worth looking forward to.

Sadly tyrants are rarely wise, and even if they are the next person in line usually manages to fuck everything up, so it's still "chaotic whirpool" in the end.
I'm very pessimistic about all possible political systems, 'cause for them to work efficiently for better future it would require people to be wise and put nations good over their own personal interest (or to nation's good be in their personal interest), and people like that are too rare to form working government.
Gee, thinking of politics makes me sad.