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The Soviets were really good at military and space innovations but:

1. They weren't much better than the West. Consider that the capitalist world surpassed them at pretty much anything they started with an advantage in.

2. They were also really bad at managing the scarcity of very basic things their people needed. Like, food and medicine. The joke was that Russia had "bad weather" for 70 years under communism.




Soviets where good at military and space innovation because there was competition with the West.

There was no competition on their domestic market, hence it sucked.




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