[frandroid]

You mention Russia, and I'll add China. Both countries were massively feudal and got brought forcefully into the 20th century for one, and into the 21st century for the other, over the course of a few decades. The GDP increases of both countries were astronomical once they settled into state capitalism (early for the Soviet Union, after a few decades for China).

Cuba is a more mixed bag because they don't have the benefit of the massive geographic and population sizes that the previous two countries have, but for the ordinary Cuban, for a few decades, the gains were astronomical.

The seeds of the Iranian revolution were that of a popular, anti-colonial revolt, before it got high-jacked by the clerics and turned into a theocratic shitshow.