While i agree that much of the technological progress happened under soviet times, USA also abolished slavery in the 1860s, so this is not a very good data poin

While i agree that much of the technological progress happened under soviet times, USA also abolished slavery in the 1860s, so this is not a very good data point for comparison.. one could make the argument that most 'western' (in a loose sense) technological progress beyond initial industrialization happened from WW1+ ... which would imply different things for different places