Back in the 1980s (perhaps even earlier than that; I was not at the age yet where I was looking at copyrights), a publisher whose name I could not remember had this wonderful series where they would put out two Russian sci-fi novels samizdated overseas in a single book. They were always such a treat, and I sometimes think I should figure out what publisher it was and collect those packaged novels to re-read and enjoy.
I say this because I feel like a guy like Chiang had to know of the authors whose books about how a Soviet sci-fi future might have played out .. had an armful of important literature for the history of science fiction. There's simply too many to pretend to have overlooked them. And I'm thinking that it wasn't a kind land of Soviet futurism, either.
The Soviets were decades ahead of the U.S. The existential dread that's reflected in late Soviet art directly mirrors what Americans are currently experiencing, at the end stages of its imperial reign.
FYI, there's a recent English translation of "The Doomed City" by the Strugatsky brothers, if you're into Soviet Sci-fi beyond Stanisław Lem, or if you want to see what dystopian fiction written by citizens of an actual dystopia looks like.
I say this because I feel like a guy like Chiang had to know of the authors whose books about how a Soviet sci-fi future might have played out .. had an armful of important literature for the history of science fiction. There's simply too many to pretend to have overlooked them. And I'm thinking that it wasn't a kind land of Soviet futurism, either.