[FRex]

The first nuclear power plant connected to the grid to actually power stuff was one in the SU. The first artificial satellite, first animal in orbit and first human in space are all from SU. The first properly continuously inhabited space station Mir was also theirs. Then they (Russian which is de facto descendant of and was most important part of SU before it dissolved) also contributed to the ISS along the US. They also made the Tsar Bomba, FOBS, AK, Katyusha, RPG, Su, MiG, T tanks, etc. and had other weapon, space and medicine related achievements.

In the interwar period in 1919-1921 war SU was also badly beat up by 'weaker' Poland (that only gained independence in 1918 after 123 years since it was partitioned completely in the last of 3 partitions) and it and its satellite states in Warsaw Pact/Eastern Bloc grew to be strong enough to engage in a stand off with USA and the West.

If that's not much then I don't know what is.

[pimmen]

And yet they didn't produce that much stuff that people actually wanted. If you went to a grocery store in Moscow in the 80s the shelves were empty unless you knew when the store would buy the allotted inventory.

Not saying the USSR didn't produce a lot of good research and science but they weren't the best at transferring that research into technology the people really wanted. Because of the free market the US and Europe could try all different kinds of hardware and software ideas that lead to the ecosystem we have today, for example. Same thing with finance.

[watwut]

> Not saying the USSR didn't produce a lot of good research and science but they weren't the best at transferring that research into technology the people really wanted

They did not cared, in the first place through. They were not capitalist. They actual failure is that they did not achieved world domination and that they did not managed to build that new superior human they wanted. Those were the ideological goals.

They also did monernized Russia after they came to power, monarchy they replaced was very behind the technology of the time.

[digikata]

Ironically though, many rockets built by companies specializing in the US defense are dependent on Russian rocket engines to send their vehicles into space.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RD-180#Replacement_for_the_RD-...

[gandhium]

Yes, those engines (and ISS parts) were specifically ordered by US to keep Soviet rocket production busy and to avoid their migration to North Korea or Iran.

[Bendingo]

I've not heard this idea before. Why wouldn't US simply allow the Soviet rocket production to just die?

Please do you have a reference for it?

[gandhium]

As I said they were afraid that North Korea or Iran will snatch their scientists.

So they paid Russians to develop an ISS module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/element...

And they paid them to develop RD-180 engine: https://spaceflightnow.com/atlas/ac201/index.html