It's that 'Winning Friends and Influencing People' was a gateway to success, and an activity the vast majority of the population was trying to be successful at. Whereas a soviet book on navigating bureaucracy would serve the same role.
Thanks yes, that is pretty much what I meant.
"How to make friends and influence people" was actually written more from a sales perspective. The topics usually boil down to efficiently establishing trust with lots of people. While I'm not sure this is really what's being asked, it does actually make a little sense in a capitalist vs communist sort of way.