Durov, the founder of VK once very upbeat about Russian scene, had to flee abroad after hostile takeover by Russian government affiliates. His Telegram is an American company.

Korolev, the champion of Soviet space programme, has died because the doctors could not ventilate his lungs. His jaw, intricately broken by NKVD interrogators in 1930s, blocked the pathway. The Soviet space programme limped ever since.

Names, leaders and technologies change, but certain things there are self perpetuating.