Speculative history: If the USSR hadn't been a socialist/communist state from 1917, would they now be ahead of (or behind) the US as a world power?

Both west and east stole technology from Central Europe, WHICH IS AND ALWAYS WAS THE BEST EUROPE!

Since it would be Russia, and not the Soviet Union, there are still some geography issues that Russia faces that the US does not have to deal with. And looking back to the period 1917 to 1990, the US does have an advantage in having more resources to exploit, including Farm Production.

And of course there is the huge unknown of how WWII would have been different if Russia had not been under Communist Rule.

@zenvelo It would be the Anarcho-Capitalist Union of Individuals. Or something.

They more than likely would have – at some point – gone to war with China since both countries would be classed as “powers” or “superpowers” and the area could only handle one country with such a designation. Had they not been Communist, they would have probably been a NATO member and the US would have stuck its nose in another war and all hell would have broken loose as we had World War III. Those of us who survived the ensuing nuclear winter and subsequent return to anarchy and nation states on this continent would still be struggling to survive. No internet. No TV. No mobile phones (always something to be thankful for even in the bleakest of scenarios). No creature comforts. Be glad things worked out the way they did.

The “Russians” , the entity that is left after the collapse of their attempt at empire, the Soviet Union, are a mystically based, suspicious and paranoid civilization that, due to their geographic and cultural isolation, missed out on the Renaissance and the Enlightenment.
This medieval limitation guarantees their backward-ness.
Answer-no

Had the Russians been a free society, they might have had a harder time with WWII. Remember what a major hit they took against Hitler. Their resistance might not have been as strong had they not been in a dictatorship.

@filmfann
Had Hitler been Elie Wiesel, 6 million Jews would not have been murdered. So what is your point?

The Russian Revolution happened during the Industrial Revolution, so it’s difficult to say. They were already behind. The first Communists hoped that people would be motivated by being able to share profits and having a sense communal property. Instead, people realized they would get the same whether thy worked hard or very little.

Stalin was determined to push the country into the Industrial Age. That he did though with unethical means. It’s because of the fact that Stalin did push Russia into the Industrial Age that I can’t really say where Russia would have been if he hadn’t done so. The Russian people paid a great price to be pushed into the Industrial Age. They paid with their freedom and many paid with their lives.

Stalin’s fear was that if he didn’t get Russia into the Industrial Age they would be taken over by a country that was already there. Was he correct? I don’t know. That has been true since ancient history, but I’m not sure it is now.

Even with Stalin’s push, Russia was slow getting into the Industrial Age. In later years of Communism, the economy was harmed by killing motivation. There’s a saying in economics, “Control an economy and watch it wither.”

Russia in 1917 was an agrarian quasi-feudal society with meagre industrial development. A generation later it was launching men and satellites into orbit and had some of the most advanced rockets and aircraft in the world.

I can’t be completely sure if a less brutal and authoritarian system would have achieved this.

I am sure that a free-market system would not have. The USA itself didn’t become an economic powerhouse through the free market, but through protectionism and massive levels of state intervention.

@TheRealOldHippie There wouldn’t have been a need for NATO without the Soviet Union. And there’s no reason to think China would have been a superpower at all during the 20th Century.

Indeed, without the dialectic of US vs USSR, much of the driving forces of the 20th century would have been vastly different. There may not have been any venture into totalitarian communism, but rather more of a socialist communism that stressed individual freedom. Cuba, Vietnam, China, all might have developed differently.