> What painful development scheme(s) do you recommend? (That's a
> serious, not a wiseguy, question.)
>
> Doug
The NEP wasn't a bad effort, considering the historical context.
To go back a little further, what is often forgotten about Marx is that he --- for very good reason --- was almost entirely concerned with the possibilities of revolution/s in the most "advanced" countries. He didn't have in mind countries as "backward" as Russia c.1917, or China c.1949, because he didn't see them as great raw material. The Bolsheviks knew as much, I mean even Lenin's speeches from the 1920s often refer to Russia's "backwardness". That's why, initially at least, they hoped successful revolutions would flare up in the west. As it turned out, they had to make the best of a bad situation.