[beckett]

Why does that stop you in your tracks? The colonel is simply saying that, while the Soviets paid lip service to (avowed) democratic values, the Soviet Union did not "function" as a democracy.

[gcruse]

Okay.  What we seem to have here, correct me if I am wrong,
is a word that has two opposite and contradictory meanings.

                               Main Entry: avow.ed.ly
                               Pronunciation: &-'vau-&d-lE
                               Function: adverb
                               Date: 1656
                               1 : with open acknowledgment : FRANKLY
                               2 : by unsupported assertion or profession alone : ALLEGEDLY

Frankly and openly acknowledged means the USSR was a democracy.
Allegedly means it was only by assertion.