food was hard to come by in the USSR

I lived in the USSR, and to get food we would go to, well, grocery stores. Where it all was. Plus farmers' markets. Plus most people had dachas with vegetable and fruit gardens. Plus the state gave you as much land as you wanted each year to grow potatoes.

Most of the soldiers in the Soviet army had to grow their own food, because purchasing it for them was deemed far too expensive.

Again, I did serve in the Soviet military, but, you know, something something about pearls and swines… Many bases would indeed have a small pig farm because swines could be fed there for free with rejects from the soldiers' canteen, so it was free additional meat at no cost. I am fairly sure we did not grow our butter, grains, fish, vegetables, tea, fruits, and everything else on the menu.

A large portion of the Soviet economy was kept afloat by what amounted to slave labor from the 25-30 million people imprisoned in Gulags in Siberia at any given time.

A-ha-ha! The highest number under Stalin was 1,500,524 in January 1941.

And gays! You forgot to weave them in into your picture.