The USSR is the reason socialism is as popular as it is now. They popularized socialism all over the world, exposed billions of people to socialism, and helped create socialist states all over Europe, so I disagree with your assertion that the USSR "did more to put people off of socialism than any capitalist government," which is not at all true.
I can't speak about "corruption" or "subordination to a colonial power" because I'm not well-informed on that.