I’m not a communist but I do think the USSR was a very successful socialism state. Yes, it was poor - but the wealth of a nation isn’t solely tied to the economic system it uses. Russia already had a history of famines, corruption, drinking problems, and was super lacking in technology. And then it also over extended itself for imperialist reasons/spreading socialism (whichever sounds better to you).

And yes it was ruled by some nasty people. But Stalin and Lenin achieved a wonderful turnaround from a wartorn 3rd-world absolute monarchy into a modernised industrialised state that sent spacecraft to the moon and Venus.

If you look into how they expanded their railroads, I mean wow. No capitalist state has done it the way they did. Some precise micromanaging, the persuasion of foreign engineers to settle down in Russia. Stalin got to live like a strategy gamer playing city skylines his entire life.

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Instead of asking “was there a perfect implementation of x ideology,” which there has never been for any ideology, we should ask “are there successful implementations of X ideas?” And for socialism, the answer is a resounding yes. People will say that the Nordic states aren’t socialist (instead being “social democracies”) but they undoubtedly implement socialist ideas.

Universal health care - more successful than private health care

Trade unions

Maternity leave…