You made some good points, I concede I was being overly reductive. I think you made a great summary of it.

I edited my previous comment to reflect how you changed my mind.

I think it’s hard to argue that the USSR wasn’t a military dictatorship under Stalin. The USSR was hyper-nationalist and relied heavily on extensive police and military forces that used excessive violence to keep dissenters in line.

The USSR wasn’t pursuing an ethno-state like Germany, but neither is the Galactic Empire. You might argue that despite the Galactic Empire being diverse in species, notably only white human men served as officers and leaders and dominated the military, but I’m not sure that’s an intentional world-building decision rather than that’s just how films in 1977 were made. I’m not yet aware if the USSR was known for being gender and race inclusive in its government or military structure either.

If I have the time and motivation when I’m home I’ll rip the relevant portion of the commentary and upload.

The Viet Cong are not the only rebels to have ever existed, the USSR is well known to use excessive military force against its own rebels.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_the_Soviet_Union

The USSR was also a fascist dictatorship, the actual bureaucratic structure of the Galactic Empire much more closely resembles the USSR.

Edit: good points were made, it’s overly reductive to call the USSR a facist dictatorship

Return of the Jedi special edition commentary.

Believe it or not, Lucas is capable of finding both positives and negatives about both the US and the USSR.

Most of the aesthetic of Empire architecture is inspired by brutalist Soviet architecture, and ceremony for the Emperor’s arrival was inspired by October Revolution Day military parades.

That’s partially true, the Empire was based on inspiration from the US, Nazi Germany, and USSR. The rebels are of course the Viet Cong.

Was this theory developed after Star Wars was already released?

“Imperial Core” is from Star Wars and sounds like a cringe LARP.