... in 1960-th there was a toy - a metal constructor. It was a big box full of different plates, axes, wheels, nuts, bolts a.s.o. It was relatively cheap (since it was produced basically by the same plants where the nuclear bombs were made). It was needed to have some brains to model something with this toy. There were lots of cheap magazines publishing projects for this toy. Sometimes it was problematic to subscribe for these magazines (it's Russia!!!!1111) but they still were cheap.
About 2010, I needed such a constructor to model some of my ideas before I implement them in full scale metal. I went to the toy shop. And I found that no such constructor is sold now. There was only a Lego. During some more searches I found the old-school metal constructor but it was extremely costly.
So, what do I think about this: 1) It was a deliberate policy of Commie Ruskies to grow bright engineers that would produce the Kuzkina Mat' (H-Bomb) of next generation; 2) It is a deliberate policy of modern Russian (and USA too since Lego is your production) to grow a controllable population.