Some of them we do have alternatives.

To East Germany, West Germany. Maybe to Czechoslovakia, Austria. To North Korea, South Korea. To Cuba, the Dominican Republic. To Iran, Saudi Arabia.

We do not have a good comparison point with Russia, though.

Another way to compare is comparing world rankings. That is where we know China and India are rising, not (not yet) through already attained achievements.

The USSR comes out good in that case. Better than most of Western Europe. Then again, the 20th century was a more convulsive period for Europe than average... Stalin was no Peter or Catherine.