Whenever people talk about Soviet-designed Russian tanks doing so well in modern times, I keep thinking about the difference between American and Soviet spacewalk space suit designs.

Here's the process for donning the standard NASA space suit used on the shuttle and the ISS, the Extravehicular Mobility Unit. It's not exactly an easy or solo process.

Putting on the Soviet-designed Orlan suit is somewhat simpler. You unzip the backpack seam, swing it open, and climb in. There's even an emergency procedure for zipping it back up by yourself while you're in the suit, in case the station is literally falling apart, there's no one around to do the usual seal checks and zip it, and you have a choice between a potential sealing issue and certain death.

It's also easier to maintain. All the systems are accessible by just unzipping a fabric panel in the swung-open backpack.

The Soviet space engineering mindset mirrored the general Soviet engineering mindset. Make things relatively simple to maintain and upgrade. For example, there's a reason that most ISS modules are shaped like two cylinders joined together, one slightly larger than the other:

They're all based on the Salyut modular design.