I agree that the analogy isn’t exact, Interflug, but the point I was making was that the Soviet airliner existed in a command economy with guaranteed large markets and long production runs so there was no incentive to “outdo the other side” or to come up with products that could compete in the world marketplace.
Designs that could, and should, have been superseded by more modern designs instead remained in production with minor tweaks here and there.
Once that command economy evaporated, the bulk of the market for Russian and Ukranian airliners evaporated along with it – apart from niche roles like heavy cargo transport where Antonov designs still reign supreme.
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