Perhaps the USSR and China could have industrialized more gently, more humanely, or forgone it completely and driven towards some sort of agrarian Communism. But is that even a realistic possibility? When you have imperialism spreading like a cancer to commoditize every nook an cranny of the globe, when you have industrial and military superpowers doing everything in their power to pull the rug out from under you?

Had the USSR and China tried a slower, gentler, path to infustrialization the best case outcome would be ending up like big versions of Cuba and the DPRK - desperately trying to eke out what little quality of life is possible while trying to protect oneself from captialist siege while being unable to fight back on anything approaching equal terms.