Had the leaders reintroduced NEP after Stalin's death in the early 50s ,the Soviet Union would still be around with a GDP of 10 or 15 trillion dollars . China is a Soviet Union with NEP
What? The Soviet economy grew like crazy under Stalin, and he even pushed the Germans back to Berlin. Workers from depression racked Western Europe moved to Russia for work in the 1930s.
It was when Khrushchev took over that the economy began to sink.
My understanding was that the Soviet economy actually boomed from the mid 50s to the late 60s (Khruschev's tenure from 1953-1964) -- but that once Brezhnev took over, that's when it started hitting the brakes.
Over the decades, this difference in growth compounded, until you hit Brezhnev where growth in friction, inefficiency, and corruption exceeded growth in productivity.
And then you had a lot of, uh, degrowth with Yeltsin's shock therapy.