USSR had never put humanities on the pedestal. It would be highly against ideological questions answered by the government. If you would like a similar example

USSR had never put humanities on the pedestal. It would be highly against ideological questions answered by the government. If you would like a similar example I would extrapolate for it to be China. Not necessarily because China is controlled by the communist party, but you could see how a highly-controlling government would not be interested at all in people asking questions about the meaning of life. Thus goes the question of religion, and therefore science being the pinnacle of the world. Besides, even if you'd really like to teach philosophy in the USSR - you'd still end up teaching whatever the government tells you to; and thus you'd never give the required framework for the person to actually be good at it, since it's one-sided anyway. I could also see why it's incredibly hard to find brilliant managers coming from the "Eastern Bloc", as opposed to pure sciences; for the same reasons: party always makes the choice. I do come from Lithuania myself and I have a few friends who have later found good jobs in medicine later on in the UK. Me, though - I was between my IT hobby since the age of 11 and getting a degree in medicine; and decided to become a software developer since I believed it would give me more power over the choices I make later in life. I think I made the right choice.