Well, Communist Russia had a strong industrial base compared to China. China was still heavily rural.

The Soviet leaders (Stalin and Khrushchev) were much more pragmatic economically and technologically than Mao so while communism did cause pain in both countries, Stalin and Khrushchev did manage to industrialize the USSR.

One example would be during the Great Leap Forward vs Stalin's 5 year plan in 1925. Both were meant to start an industrial revolution. However, Stalin used the money stolen from gulags to fund Western steel and auto technology. Mao encourage backyard furnaces which made garbage steel.