Yes,
Lenin came with his New Economic policy (NEP) which was basically return to capitalism. However then he got stroke and Stalin took over.
he got “stroke” and Stalin took over.
“stroke” = poison, a favorite of Stalin
For Stalin, it was all about power, no matter how many lives it destroyed, no matter how it destroyed the economy via centralized absolute control.
Towards the end of the Cold War, I think it was 1987 or 1988, a high ranking party official said before the Hungarian parliament “Socialism didn’t work. We must start over. “ The command economy was abandoned. If Brezhnev or Andropov was in power, the tanks would have been sent like Czechoslovakia twenty years prior.
Then Poland dropped the chains.
Czechoslovakia likewise.
East Germany imploded with the fall of the wall.
Romania’s Ceaucescu was up against the wall.
Eventually Gorbachev gave up.