1/ In 1917, around 60% of Russians were illiterate. By the 1980s, the Soviet Union had reached 99.7% adult literacy, among the highest in the world. Today, India’s literacy rate is about 77%.

2/ While the U.S. economy shrank by 30% during the Great Depression (1929–33), the Soviet Union’s industrial output more than doubled. By 1938, it had become the world’s second-largest industrial power—after the U.S.

3/ Tsarist Russia life expectancy: ~30 years. Soviet life expectancy in 1965: — 64.2 years (men) — 73.4 years (women) That’s double in two generations.

4/ The USSR eliminated smallpox before the U.S. Soviet virologist Zhdanov proposed global eradication at the WHO in 1958. The campaign largely succeeded by 1980.

5/ Between 1928 and 1970, the USSR’s GDP per capita grew faster than almost every country on Earth, despite being cut off from the global financial system. Only Japan got close. Brazil, India, Turkey? Not even close.

6/ By 1970, the USSR was graduating far more engineers than the U.S.—and nearly 40% of them were women. Over 70% of women were doctors, up from 10% in 1913. In 2022, just ~15% of U.S. engineers and ~38% of U.S. doctors were women.

7/ Between 1956 and 1965, the USSR built 15 million apartments. Rent was capped at ~5% of income. Utilities were nearly free. In 1922, Russia had over 7 million homeless children. By the 1930s, homelessness had been eliminated.

8/ USSR space firsts: — 1957: First satellite (Sputnik) — 1961: First human in space (Gagarin) — 1963: First woman in space (Tereshkova) — 1965: First spacewalk (Leonov) All before the U.S. left Earth.

All of this happened in a country that: — Was invaded twice — Sanctioned for decades — Rebuilt from near-feudalism No Marshall Plan. No foreign capital. Just central planning, mass education, and public investment. Whatever you think of the USSR, these are facts: It took one