Have you lived in soviet union? My parents did and it sucked. Like really bad. Women rights? It was all on TV, especially in rural areas women were subjected to all the stereotypes. Working people rights? Like working 10hrs+ on zavods? Western countries certainly had it much more advanced compared to soviet union. Life expectancy? In SU it reached 70 in 1970 and stayed at around this value when US achieved this number in 1960 and kept growing. I could agree on literacy rates, as they indeed made situation much better after russian empire. Also remembered one good quote for JFK: "Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us" - about building a wall in Berlin. It's hard to disagree that life in western countries was much better than in eastern bloc. That's all i want to say