> The USSR wound up preceding the delivery of the former USSR into third-world
> capitalism, but that was a result of particular choices made by the
> Stalinists and their heirs, not an automatic result of some "stage."
It's not that simple. The Eastern bloc fractionated into three zones: new members of the core (Eastern Europe, most of which is joining the EU in three months), an urbanized semiperiphery (Russia and Ukraine), and finally a raw materials semiperiphery (the Central Asian countries).
It's also too simple to blame the Stalinists for being Stalinists. Faced with world hostility, the Great Depression, bourgeoning Fascisms, and collapsing raw materials prices, the choice was either a ruthless autarkic industrialization -- or colonial-style liquidation at the hands of the Nazis.
-- DRR