In the 1980s, as China sought to introduce markets into its economy, an internal debate roiled over whether to liberalize prices gradually or all at once. It rejected the free-market shock therapy option, and challenged neoliberal orthodoxy in the process.
Russia didn’t dodge neoliberal shock therapy, and the people regret it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostalgia_for_the_Soviet_Union#Polling_history
Putin is popular because he at least kicked the Global North’s neocolonial shock therapists out of the country.
Pretty much yeah. USSR could’ve looked a lot like China today if smarter people were in charge in the 90s.