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Yes, but some might argue that numbers on a graph are not what makes life worth living.
I think using the example of a formerly-communist country is misleading, and that there is a minimum level of prosperity in absolute terms, not relative, wherein people can be satisfied. Did Latvians suffer in the post-Soviet scenario you described, or were they still happy despite a lack of industrial capacity?
GDP by definition is an abstract measure of the country and not of an individual. It makes no sense to go back and say “hey, this one person is poor despite rising GDP”. Maybe some people are not able to see the big picture and will get stuck on individual examples?
Latvians suffered tremendously in the first years of the post-Soviet period. We never experienced famine, all the services were still working and everybody got basic healthcare and social needs covered. But income, or rather inflation made everyone very poor and limited of what we could buy. And the fact that goods finally were freely available in shops but no money to buy them probably was like psychological torture. Depression, alcoholism, suicides increased, life expectancy decreased.
Eventually the economy grew, people started earning more money, Latvia joined the EU which accelerated growth even more, some industries were restarted, yet many people emigrated to western countries for work because they wanted even higher income now instead of waiting 20-30 years until Latvia catches up with the west.
Okay, then, that's something else, and that seems to explain a lot if you actually are from Latvia. As an American, I am way more amenable to arguments that we are suffering from success, and to some extent, our nation likely barely suffered the kind of privation experienced by Eastern Europe.
The US had the Great Depression. I think post-Soviet dip was even deeper than that but clearly Americans have experienced something similar. It is just that people who experienced it are no longer alive, so you don't think that it was a big deal.
I really hope that Trump doesn't cause something similar to great depression. But you should listen to those who warn about that possibility and work hard to prevent it. It is a serious matter.
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