My parents grew up in the Former Soviet Area so I will share this anecdote: Both of my parents studied Chemistry. Math is really important in our family. You are shamed if you don't understand something logical. My dad still had to do military service even if he studied. There was no strong incentive to study other than the fact that it was free and something to do for people who had no jobs, only 1 hour of TV per day, etc.

My hot take is that lack of entertainment and the fact that education was one of the only free things available to them was a large contributing factor.