I think it’s fair to say that there were unacceptable failures. soviet pro-natalist policy for example was ultra cringe for a long time and they ought have known better. that being said, though, what are we comparing it to? the ussr must have seemed like a city on a hill to e.g. english women in the 1920s. libs are always harping on about soviet Ls while nervously nudging their own contemporaneous skeletons behind the sofa