Do I remember correctly that many Soviet communist party officials -- and not a few leaders of Eastern European satellite states -- played up real or alleged "peasant" or "proletarian" backgrounds, being anything other than cosmopolitan city dwellers with a taste for things like literature and art? I know that "class background" could make or break a career in the once-upon-a-Soviet Union, and that those who came from the wrong backgrounds -- you know, wealthy, educated, city-dwellers -- often found themselves on the wrong side of the Soviet justice [sic] system.

Just wondering if I remember this correctly or not. Because GOP populism rings oddly like this to me.