I don't want to open a can of worms, but there's a hefty debate behind your insightful (but succinct) comment. I feel like a couple counterpoints to your statements are in order, though.
If the quality of life of the USSR increased, we need to ask two questions. Would it have increased more or less under a more liberal regime? How are you factoring in the murder of tens of millions of people? Even low end figures show that 5% of the peak Soviet population was slaughtered or imprisoned.
Regarding India's woes, systems of government/economy are in no way a panacea. Besides, India's economy was extremely communist, almost explicitly modeled after the USSR. India only turned to liberalizing their markets recently, even later than China.
India began on socialistic ideals and the streak continues somewhat to the current day (it has reduced immensely since the liberalization in the early 90's). That being said I do not recall India or its economy being communist at any point. (There is a Communist Party of India to this day but it has never been significant on the national stage).
If the quality of life of the USSR increased, we need to ask two questions. Would it have increased more or less under a more liberal regime? How are you factoring in the murder of tens of millions of people? Even low end figures show that 5% of the peak Soviet population was slaughtered or imprisoned.
Regarding India's woes, systems of government/economy are in no way a panacea. Besides, India's economy was extremely communist, almost explicitly modeled after the USSR. India only turned to liberalizing their markets recently, even later than China.