What about comparable countries then? Russia looks pretty similar to other country trends here: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cross-country-literacy-rates

What about comparable countries then? Russia looks pretty similar to other country trends here: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cross-country-literacy-rates https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cross-country-literacy-ra... In particular try Italy and Spain, countries with many peasants circa 1900. Virtually identical trajectories. The USSR, if around today, would have a population of 300 million. They were a superpower. Only large powers made it to space. It was certainly impressive, but also a natural result if you have a large portion of your economy devoted to military spending and missile research. The space program in both USA and USSR allowed for ICBM delivery of nuclear warheads, a crucial strategic goal.