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imagine if these guys were able to be pragmatic and reform like the Chinese deed & not be so dogmatic about ideology - what they could've been.

I guess Deng Xioping said it best - "I don't care if the cat is black, white or purple as long as it catches mice"

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They were pragmatic and tried to reform. The problem that China did not have were ethnic tensions. Every SSR believed that it contributes more than it receives from the union and its people are oppressed. The only force holding them together was the ideology.

> The problem that China did not have were ethnic tensions.

The still on-going genocide of non-Han ethnic groups did produce a slight tension.

Yes, only slight. Ethnic tension exists literally everywhere to a certain degree. It's least significant in a nation state with 90%+ dominant people like China. It's crucial in a union without a single people making the majority of population and built-in separation of peoples like the USSR.

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