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@Radical_EgoCom @IndyHermit @FisherPeter

I dispute this.

The USSR should be understood the way it was, not the way it claimed to be. Isn't that the spirit of historical materialism anyways?

Given the historical development of the USSR, it would be most accurate to say it was distinct from socialism, state capitalism, and communism. It was a hierarchical, state society where the working class had essentially no power over the economic process. The process of accumulation in the USSR was significantly different from both socialism and capitalism.

The USSR was the result of a Blanquist coup by a developmentalist and fierce clique of highly dedicated revolutionaries, and from the start was a perversion of the democratic vision of proletarian rule envisioned by Marx and Engels.