>Russia did better then literally every other empire. Yes it lagged behind Britain, France, Germany and the US but it industrial output growth was outpacing Aus

>Russia did better then literally every other empire. Yes it lagged behind Britain, France, Germany and the US but it industrial output growth was outpacing Austria-Hungary. Better in what sense exactly? It certainly wasn't doing well in terms of quality of life for general population, and neither were any of the major capitalist powers. It's also a fact that Soviets built most of the infrastructure with 10 year plans. >And saying 'its an agrarian society' is hardly a negative, in fact, by many measures Germany was too. What you are simply ignoring is my point about the largest land reform program in history. I'm not ignoring your point, I just think it's nonsensical. >Nonsense, the revolution was possible because of WW1 and the demilitarization of the autocracy The last large famine had been decades ago and Russia was the most success agricultural country in the world WW1 played a role, but claiming that living conditions did not is the hieght of absurdity. >Multiple million people starved to death in the early 20s and multiple million people starved to death in the late 30s. Millions of people were put into labor camps. Millions of people starve under capitalism today. Around 20 million people die each year under capitalism from starvation, lack of healthcare, and so forth. US currently has the highest prison population in the world, higher than USSR had under Stalin. Prisoners in US are routinely used as slave labor. >Again, you are repeating all the typical communist myths. "myths" >The idea that Imperial Russia was some backwards country from the middle ages while within 10 years after the revolution Soviet Union was some paradise. Have you actually lived in the Soviet union, because I have and I know what life there was actually like. It's also quite telling that the quality of life has dropped significantly after transition to capitalism in the 90s. It's quite telling that you're fixating on the turbulent period right after the revolution as opposed to years after WW2 where quality of life continued to improve rapidly with every decade. Go take a look at what happened under capitalist regimes during 19th century and start of the 20th century. The atrocities like the Irish Famine, British adventures in India, and slave trade are just some of the highlights of the horrors, and many of those horrors continue happening today.