But I feel compelled to comment on something else.
RE: "Russians never owned anything"
I didn't make up the history of NEP. Russians proved just as free market capable as the Chinese have -- but Stalin and party ideologues terminated NEP and the Nepmen and seized western business men's technology and investments after just eight years or so.
The west had just begun pouring technology and wealth into Russia. Henry Ford even built an exact duplicate of his Michigan tractor plant and once that factory was built and operational he had it disassembled and shipped to south Russia where is was re-assembled.
American businessmen such as Averell Harriman, Armand Hammer, and Henry Ford facilitated commercial ties between the Soviet Union and the United States. However, after just eight years of outstanding free market successes among the Russians Joseph Stalin attempted to eradicate vestiges of capitalism and to make the Soviet Union economically self-sufficient.
The Red Chinese version of NEP has lasted more than 20 years and really took off starting on the afternoon of Jan. 20, 1993 -- in a big house on Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, D.C. IMO.
BTW, the liberal Republicans and "progressives" tried to get "free trade" going with the Soviets all throughout the Cold War. If we didn't help build the Soviet economy we'd be "playing into the hands of communist hard liners" and it would be our fault if there was a war, the "free traders" said. We didn't and there wasn't. We won the Cold War.
Now let's see what's going to happen when the "free traders" have it their way dealing with Communists.