*Between 1922 and 1962, USSR's economy grew at an average of about 9% real per a...

D_Alex · on Jan 17, 2023

>Growing from a bad start and where you can copy a more developed nation makes this easier.

True. But you know what really makes economic growth easier? Foreign aid. Also trade.

The USSR otoh had to deal with sanctions.

https://www.americanforeignrelations.com/E-N/Embargoes-and-S...

slothtrop · on Jan 17, 2023

Yet they weren't alone in the world. They were next to China and other friendlies.

D_Alex · on Jan 17, 2023

China was friendly with the USSR only briefly, like in the 1950s. It was desperately poor at the time, and received a lot of aid from the USSR.

I don't know what other friendlies you mean. USSR installed communist/socialist governments in the countries it liberated from German occupation after WW2, but those relationships were... complicated.