That's why I posted my previous reply, despite me being in strong opposition of the "argue anecdata with your own anecdata" approach in discussions. But I couldn't resist replying, because all of my 9 years of experience in Russian educational system were the opposite of what OP claims in terms of memorization, and so were those of every single person I know in real life who went through that system (in other schools in Russia, not just from mine, obviously). Coworkers of mine (who went to Soviet schools a decade or two before I was even born) echoed the same sentiment in discussions on the topic, with the halfway sad "some things never change there, huh" sentiment.

Would have been less surprising if my school was doing poorly in rankings and such, but it was quite the opposite.

Of course, all my claims here are anecdata, but it just feels like something is off when the fantastic utopian description of how "soviet math" education works just runs counter to every single lived experience I had, as well as that of everyone I know in real life. Especially given that experiences of some of those people in real life I mention were separated from mine by both decades and geography (some did school in Moscow, others in smaller towns, some in soviet ukraine, etc.).