Was the Soviet Union Meritocratic?

>>3011293
Does sucking Joseph Stalins dick count as merit?

>>3011306
No.

>>3011293
it certainly had some meritocratic periods, as the USSR made remarkable scientific developments

>>3011293
yes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysenkoism

Depends. You could reach high positions in the Army regardless of your status. You could also become a top bureaucrat/politician if you worked your way through the party. Khruschev was a peasant's son.

Then again you had the nomenklatura which was basically a caste on its own and which usually sought exclude the outsiders from top positions. It's a difficult question.

>>3011348
>sought
`sought to

>>3011332
also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japhetic_theory

>>3011348
>Through the party

So.. Not meritocratic? People being chosen due to their loyalty and merit in dialectics don't translate well to being a national parks administrator or something similar.

>>3011293

During the Stalinist-era, the USSR was very much anti-meritocratic, actually. Showing too much talent or ambition was a great way to earn a permanent vacation to Siberia. A great many scientists and authors were imprisoned simply because they didn't agree with the Party on certain issues, often issues which most people wouldn't even consider to be political issues.

Stalin would have put his friends in power if Germany wasn't forcing his hand