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Not the theory, a crappy economic reality. If the economy were sound the computer researchers should have been able to fund their own research by commercializing it, instead of expecting handouts funded by the working class's hard labor.

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My understanding of planned economies is that credit, investment, and profits are controlled by the state.

In any way starting a commercial enterprise would surely mark them as capitalist class traitors, wouldn't it?

Not in the case of the planned economies of China nor the USSR (post Stalin, IIRC) nor Russia (if, indeed, there's still a plan there).

There was no starting any private enterprise in USSR until Perestroika (1988ish). Best you could do is to suggest doing something to the government and if you knew the right people you could be allowed to, given some resources etc.

Think starting a project within a large company, except you can't quit and start on your own.

To be more precise, private enterprise was a crime in USSR until perestroika with punishments ranging up to death. But some people still risked

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