Are you trying to hold up the autocratic client state that failed to stop 50,000 people from escaping in it's 45 year duration as an example? The one that was

Are you trying to hold up the autocratic client state that failed to stop 50,000 people from escaping in it's 45 year duration as an example? The one that was facing the prospect of economic ruin when it's controlling state had to withdraw economic and military support due to it's own policies of perestroika that sought to address the impending economic collapse of Soviet Russia? The fascist client state that collapsed due to an increasingly hostile domestic population who were angered by the growing economic challenges, and were tired of the continued state violence? The same German Democratic Republic that has been consigned to the historical scrap heap of failed totalitarian regimes? One might even consider holding North Korea up as a current example, since they have outlasted the GDR by 31 years so far, but they are also a client state, and their economy has been in relatively steady decline. The only thing keeping North Korea a functioning country is military and economic support from China, with even Russia's central bank continuing to push back against further economic development with North Korea.