I can attest that in the Eastern Block (not USSR) where I lived, this was indeed true.
Things could've been different in the USSR which was the conquering country while the Eastern Block their vassals. Many goods produced went straight to the benefit of Russian occupiers while lacking in the Eastern European countries.
So you can attest something different than life of middle class of SU. How is this relevant?
I lived in middle class family in SU and I see it differently.
Just look at the evidence: scientists fleed USSR as soon as they had the chance and not the reverse, scientists invading USSR begging to be in the science paradise the propapaganda sells. If you go to Cuba to learn medicine, you will realise everything is so outdated that cannot be treated seriously. Same happened in USSR, but the propaganda aparatus still works trying to sell the idea of the science paradise, all I've seen traveling to ex USSR, and some communist-socialist places is quite the opposite.
This is certainly not true. I do not know where you get it from, but real brain drain started after transition to a presumably better capitalist democratic system and it happened due to economic reasons. The funding simply went down by orders of magnitude, which made scientific work impossible.
Your personal tourist impressions are not making you closer to understanding of such a big country with such complicated history. Try reading some books if you are really interested.
I have read books, of course. But brain drainage for sure were prior the dissolution. You can read for example about the Operation Osoaviakhim, where 2500 scientists (and their families) were forced to go the soviet union as war reparations. Or the book The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov: The Story of the Persecution of One of the Great Scientists, were you can read how beautiful was science in the soviet union.
The real brain drain started when people were finally allowed to flee the paradise and what was left of it. It wasn't their fault your apparatchiks and yesterday's party members, the real owners of everything, started to carve up their posessions calling themselves capitalists this time. Before the fall only establishment members could flee (illegally) and jews (since the 1970s).
This was true for a very short time though. That’s like painting whole USSR in the spirit of NEP or the corn experiment or Holodomor.
On the other hand, all of that is a good example how experimental and far-reaching the totalitarian regime was. Which is a frequently overlooked feature of this „progressive“ mindset. Every societal change comes with a cost, frequently unexpected.
Forced labor in science? Probably you are referring to “sharashka” — research labs using work of prisoners, but they existed only in Stalin era. There was no forced labor in scientific work before 1928 or after 1953-55. So what exactly is completely true in that fiction?
2) After graduation, you'd get an assignment for your first workplace. Technically you could choose, but in reality the choice was limited and it was more like companies headhunting students. There was no option to refuse all assignments and go on your own.
A partial opt-outs was to get married while in university. If your partner already has a job, then you'll probably get an assignment in same city. Although sometimes they'd just get your partner to move too :)
3) Hiring even for unskilled jobs was highly political. E.g. political prisoners of Stalin era, after returning, would have very hard time to get even a cleaner's job. If somebody had a specific position for you in mind, they had all tools to make it happen.
4) Changing jobs was pretty difficult. You couldn't just leave, move to another city and then look for another job. You couldn't get registration in another city without employment. You'd have to find a company that will agree to hire you first. And if you were needed at your current job... They could easily talk to that company to not hire you (after all both managers were members of the party). Unless that other company really wanted you and the manager had enough political weight to make it happen.
All in all, was it forced labor at gunpoint? No. But free will to pick employment was very limited to say the least.
(1) Yes
(2) Yes, but that was only for university graduates, it was time-bound and came with additional job security guarantees and often with guaranteed accommodation. Not sure if it’s really different from some modern contracts.
(3) I suggest to stop referencing Stalin era as something that is characteristic for the entire history of SU. It was not the longest period and it was indeed special. In other periods being forced to do a particular job was a rare thing.
(4) There were restrictions on the process of changing the job, but compare that to modern world: large notice periods on contracts, non-compete agreements, visas - is it the world of forced labor or sometimes employers have stronger negotiation power than you?
> (2) Yes, but that was only for university graduates, it was time-bound
Time-bound forced work is still forced work.
> and came with additional job security guarantees and often with guaranteed accommodation
Serfdom and slavery also comes with job security and accommodation. It's still forced labor though.
> Not sure if it’s really different from some modern contracts.
You're free to not sign up a modern contract.
> (3) I suggest to stop referencing Stalin era as something that is characteristic for the entire history of SU. It was not the longest period and it was indeed special. In other periods being forced to do a particular job was a rare thing.
Specific example was about post-Stalin era. Many political prisoners and their kids were released from gulags after Stalin's death. Coming back home, even to full-of-anti-soviet-resistance Lithuania, was not easy. A distant relative had to live in Kazakhstan for decades since he couldn't get a registration closer to home. We're talking „lax“ Chruschiov era.
> (4) There were restrictions on the process of changing the job
And there was a lot of unwritten rules were special persons would just fall in a never ending quagmire.
> but compare that to modern world: large notice periods on contracts, non-compete agreements
Non-compete is illegal in many jurisdictions. Few weeks notice seems fair to both sides TBH. Dropping a job on the spot is not nice.
> visas
That doesn't apply to 99.9% of people. If you work in foreign country and don't have permanent residence there, it's up to you. But when you need visa equivalent to move to a city from a village in your native whereabouts...
Things could've been different in the USSR which was the conquering country while the Eastern Block their vassals. Many goods produced went straight to the benefit of Russian occupiers while lacking in the Eastern European countries.