An economist who defected from the Soviet Union, Yuri Maltsev, has been quite vocal about his experiences in the Soviet Union. There are plenty of videos of his

An economist who defected from the Soviet Union, Yuri Maltsev, has been quite vocal about his experiences in the Soviet Union. There are plenty of videos of his presentations: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=yuri+maltsev https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=yuri+maltsev But, he doesn't hang around HN. He saw his well-educated colleagues reduced to stealing paper-clips. When he visited the US, friends asked him mainly for mascara and condoms: https://youtu.be/1KzaJwEaOwU?t=96 https://youtu.be/1KzaJwEaOwU?t=96 In 47:50 of this video (https://youtu.be/s88pMN3qDRQ?t=2870 https://youtu.be/s88pMN3qDRQ?t=2870), he states something extraordinary: the Soviet economy was between 6% and 7% of the US economy when he defected to the US. The US and UK intel. agencies had higher estimates of between 45%-90%.