The modernisation of the Soviet Union under Stalin was also very impressive. They went from a feudal society with serfs, like Europe in the Middle Ages, to the

The modernisation of the Soviet Union under Stalin was also very impressive. They went from a feudal society with serfs, like Europe in the Middle Ages, to the first man in space rather quickly. Of course, in both cases, China and the Soviet Union, ideas were being imported from elsewhere, though in the case of the Soviet Union, a lot of the space technology came from Nazi Germany ... Probably best not to try to infer simple rules from history.