Some countries like Rumania had rulers that were the typical tyrants, enriching themselves in the process. But that was not so in all Eastern countries. YES, the party members and governing people did have it better - but the gap between them and the rest was waayyyyy lower than that in Western countries.

Here are two pictures of Erich Honeckers house, the leader of the GDR, in the protected area where several of the leaders lived, front and back:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/86/Ha...

https://www.staedte-fotos.de/1200/das-ehemalige-wohnhaus-eri...

Here is the statement of a famous GDR reporter who was the first to report from "Wandlitz", name of the special territory:

https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/honeckers-elitesiedlung-a-...

He explicitly states in that text that every well working and connected GDR craftsman, movie actor or pub owner would have laughed about the size and everything in there, and that after being the first journalist to tour the place his sense of justice was not triggered at all while seeing it all from the PoV of a regular GDR citizen. Which is exactly the same impression I myself had too when I saw the pictures on TV.

The had a pool! I'm sure every American is very impressed knowing that. They had a better food selection, like the famous bananas that GDR people were always longing for, but it's not like the rest of the country was starving. I remember 40% bad food at school and later in the factory (especially pasta, it was really bad), but at home it was always really good. Only more exotic imports were hard to get, like said bananas, or oranges (other than the terrible Cuban ones).

Honecker did have some privileges, like a hunting ground, but that really is not much, hunters in Germany all have theirs too.

I heard that in Russia it was somewhat similar: While the nomenklatura were better off, e.g. they had Volga cars, but in the end all their advantages pale to anything some middle class person in the west has, never mind the truly rich. The "Getting rich and become a billionaire" thing only started with the economic chaos of the 1990s.

I was one of those in the rallies leading to the fall of the wall (I was 17), and I had always known the fortified GDR borders were keeping us in, and not the Westerners out. But I have to admit the leadership was NOT doing it for their economic benefit. It was truly political and ideological. And it was truly meant to be for the benefit of the "working class". They did care a lot about everyone especially worker and farmer children to get the same good education (well, always plus "political education", but they really believed what they taught, unlike Putin and his cronies today who I think know they are lying to their people and behave more like Mexican cartel bosses) - see my other comment.