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After some initial mistakes, the Soviet system did provide basic needs. It was inefficient, badly led, conservative, repressive, ultimately undemocratic, and often produced very mediocre output (crappy houses, etc), but it ensured that everyone had food, shelter, work, healthcare, and education.

Neither full-collectivism nor full-capitalism are the final answer.



The Soviet system only was able to provide basic needs when it decided to overlook the black market. It also allowed farmers to farm owned plots of land and sell their produce as they saw fit. This was the only way to stop the mass starvation.


"some initial mistakes" is quite something to describe 9+ million people dying from hunger in Ukraine during the great famine.


More careful historians, such as Snyder, put the figure at around 3.5 million.

Doesn't detract from your overall point though, which is quite valid.


And how many famines were there under the Tsars?




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