Pro-USSR arguments - Fact Check

I argued against the same allegations of pro-USSR socialists countless times and it seems like some of them get their arguments from the same meme. I'm sure most of you heard some of those claims before which is why I want to correct them once and for all:

-2nd fastest growing economy of 20th century (grew during Great Depression)

Wrong. This argument often refers to this Source but this plot only cares about the time from 1928 to 1970. If you control for "start GDP PC", it didn't grew fast compared to the OECD states as you can see. The data that this graph is using was updated which is why we now know that Jamaica grew faster than Japan and the USSR at that time which is why the argument isn't even true for 1928 to 1970. The USSR was the second third fastest growing economy of 20th century from 1928 to 1970 (including all the countries with data). If you take the timespan from 1928 to 1989 South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Portugal, Finland, Singapore, Italy, Norway, and Thailand grew faster than the USSR. When extended to 1991, the USSR is also overtaken by Spain and Jamaica which makes the USSR the 12th fastest growing economy of the 20th century (including all the countries with data). You can't use Khanin data for that purpose because he didn't measure the GDP which is why you can't compare his data with the GDP of other countries and his studies are extremly controversial. Source Source Source

-0% Unemployment

Semi-Wrong. There was unemployment but what they did when the unemployment was to high was that "employers would rather cut salaries, reduce working hours and give staff unpaid holidays, reminiscient of Soviet-era tactics when unemployment was all but outlawed and masking the true state of the labour market." It isn't as easy as "We will give everyone a job and nobody will be unemployed after that!". Furthermore, it is misleading because being unemployed was a crime in the USSR that would lead to imprisonment (Criminal Code, Article 209). Source Source

-0% Homelessness

Wrong. Source

-saved the world from Nazi Germany

... after allying with Hitler and invading Poland, Finland, and the Baltics.

-invented space travel

True. I have to add that they did that because of military purposes.

-End the centuries-long cycle of famine in Eastern Europe

True. There were famines until 1947. Source

-higher daily caloric consumption than the USA

Wrong. They often refer to FAO data. Here is a thorough dissection of the study, which concludes that the FAO used coefficients which inflated the average caloric intake in the Soviet Union (they don't measure the caloric intake but the production etc). In addition, it states that the quality of food in the USSR was generally worse, and that, while the average Soviet wasn’t exactly starving in the late 80s, food wasn’t as accessible for Russians as it was for Americans. This can largely be attributed to inefficient distribution of resources. Overall, food consumption was lower than in the US, except for alcoholic beverages.

-End racial inequality

Wrong. Source

-End gender inequality

This depends on what they mean with gender inequality (equal right: Yes, equal incomes: No, equal social status: No, etc)

-free education at all levels

True. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean that the education was as good as the western education.

-99% literacy rate

True and the former USSR republics still have high literacy rates despite capitalism. Source

-Most doctors per capita in the world

True. "In 1985, during the Soviet era, there were 3.9 doctors for every 1,000 people. In the same year in the U.S., there were 1.7, while in Japan the figure was 1.5. " but the healthcare wasn't always free: "Also contrary to its design, Soviet health care is not free. Patients treated in the public system are often required to pay doctors and nurses under the table in order to assure that medications be administered or that an operation be performed. A Soviet newspaper recently published some sample “prices”: 500 rubles for an operation or delivery (the average monthly salary in the USSR is 200 rubles), 300 rubles for a 20-day hospital stay, 25 rubles or the donation of a unit of blood by a relative to assure admission to the hospital.  Most patients must purchase medications and appliances at prices that include “surcharges” demanded by sellers who manage to overcome bureaucratic obstacles and short supplies. " Source

-Eliminated poverty

Wrong. "The USSR managed to reduce inequality and poverty with respect to pre-revolutionary times, and it did deliver in bringing a level of equality comparable to that of Nordic countries. However, it wasn’t successful in eliminating poverty, inequalities between republics, differences between the urban and rural areas, and even the ‘distinctions between physical and mental work’. " Source

-Doubled life expectancy

True. That was part of a global trend. Source

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1991 Switch to Capitalism

In my opinion, the time after the USSR can be divided into two epochs: The transition from 1991-1999 and the time after that. Pro-USSR people only look at the transition phase in which capital was leaving the country en masse, with close to $150 billion worth flowing out between 1992 and 1999. Things really became worse at that time but after the world saw that the former USSR wouldn't become socialist again, capital was going into the former USSR states and everything became better than at the time of the USSR. Life expectancy grew by 10 years within 20 years while it nearly stagnated in the USSR since the late 1960s (Source). GDP PC grew exponentially (Source). etc etc

-GDP instantly halves

Wrong. GDP decreased from 14 billion to 8 billion (-42%) in 6 years. But the gdp-per-capita grew exponentially after that. Source Source

-40% of the population drops into poverty

I couldn't find any source for that. The best thing that I found was an article from theguardian. It highly depends on your definition of poverty. I won't deny that after the USSR collapsed more people dropped into poverty but as you can see on the article, things became better after investments went into the countries.

-7.7 million excess deaths in just the first year

Wrong. "An extra 2.5-3 million Russian adults died in middle age in the period 1992-2001 \[...\] On an individual level, alcohol consumption is strongly implicated in being at least partially responsible for many of these trends." Source

-One in ten children live on the street

Wrong. Again, I couldn't find any source for that (maybe you can help). I found that: "In Russia's two largest cities, the problem appears especially acute. The Russian Education Ministry estimates that in the year 2000, there were some 3,600 children in Moscow living outside of parental custody. In 2001, the number rose to 4,500. A similar increase was seen in St. Petersburg, where the number rose from 2,600 to 3,300.". These numbers are not even close to the 10% and there were also homeless people in the USSR as I said. Source

-Industrial production completely collapses

Semi-True partly because they stopped building so many tanks.

-Infant mortality and tuberculosis reaches third world levels

Wrong. "In terms of recent infant mortality trends, the East Europe/former USSR distinction appears better grounded, in that most East European countries have experienced sustained declines in infant mortality over the past decade, while a number of former Soviet countries exhibit stagnating tendencies. On the other hand, Lithuania, Azerbaijan, and the countries of former Soviet Central Asia are characterized by clear declines in their adjusted IMRs. " study form 2001, pdf: Source

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Feel free to correct me in the comments.

EDIT:

-LGBT in the USSR

Since 1934 LGBT was illegal in the USSR (Criminal Code, article 121).

-sacrificed the most out of any nation to beat the Nazis

Semi-True. The USSR lost the most humans as % of 1939 population except for Poland and it made had the most financial cost per capita as % of GDP PC in 1950 except for China, Germany and Japan but China didn't fight against the Nazis and Poland had the losses primarily during the invasion in which the USSR allied with Nazi Germany. I know it isn't as easy as calculating the financial cost per capita as % of GDP PC but some models are useful.

Country	Financial cost of WW2 (in billion USD in 1945) (Source)	population (in million people in 1945) (Source)	Financial cost of WW2 per capita in 1945 (in USD in 1945)	GDP PC (international dollars (1990) in 1950) (Source)	Finanical cost of WW2 per capita as % of GDP PC in 1950	Human losses as % of 1939 population (Source)
Germany	272	69.3	3924	4281	91.7	8.23
USA	341	140	2435	9573	25.4	0.32
UK	120	49.2	2439	6800*	35.9	0.94
USSR	192	175	1097	2600**	42.2	13.7
China	190	533	356	614	66.8	~3.4
Japan	56	72	778	1873	240.7	~4
Poland	1.55	25	62	2447	2.5	~17

* UK GDP PC wasn't in the original source but they said that it would have been the 7th highest.

** USSR GDP PC wasn't in the original source and I don't want to look for it in the Madisson study which is why I estimated it from the wikipedia graph.