I wouldn't say i know enough about history to comment on the first prompt. I think Red keeps going back because it's the only hustle he knows, at least initially it's the best option for the level of financial security he'd like to have. Why do convicted drug dealers go back to the game after jail?
I think later on in the book, when he is taken care of financially, he returns out of a desire to understand the zone and diffuse his frustration about his current life situation, or maybe it's just had such a big impact on his life he feels attached to it. Despite not having much to say critically, I enjoyed the book. I've got a busy week ahead so I vote Fantastic Planet. I imagine ya'll are gonna have more eloquent responses. I'm excited to read them.
The Zone is what Red knows. It's the one true constant in his life. He grew up among stalkers, he knows stalkers, his existence is within a stalker economy, and once he's aged enough to want something else, he's banned from emigrating so he's pretty well stuck as a stalker. The allusions to skyscrapers going up to support a tourist economy were all about the diminished choices of locals in the face of top-down economics. In a command economy, "jobs" are things that happen to you. As the Khruschev-era joke goes, "So long as the bosses pretend to pay us, we will pretend to work."