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Regarding Soviet prowess, I always considered the fact that going to higher education considerably shortened and made easier your military draft term to be a main factor.

Everyone who could went to university, because why wouldn't you? This incentive pressure and selection bias we're probably insane.

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That and even better: it opened the doors towards a lot of the better jobs, both in terms of working conditions and offering some amount of breathing room.

Education was a more significant social elevator in the East than in the West, first and foremost because the ground level was much lower.

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