@genmaicha @adiz @freepatriot my general impression of the USSR is that the authoritarians got in their own way most of the time. they did not genuinely understand what they were asking for, and then resorted to ultraviolence when it was impossible.
the wikipedia page on the five year plans kind of hints at this. top brass thought they could simply dictate western level production and gulag everyone until they got it.
this is impossible, because the west relies on permanent underclasses. their socialist framework could never product iphones in the same way because apple relies on terrible working conditions to make the phones cheap, then turn around and pocket the difference.
i think they could have gotten there but it would have been slower and more like switzerland (everything being blobdamn expensive)