The USSR was a middle-income country that grew at rich-country rates (i.e. slowly). It spent tons of its income on defense, leaving standards of living low-ish. It was also dependent on commodity exports, and price declines sent it into a downward spiral in the late 80s.
Here is a picture of Soviet, world, and U.S. growth rates. The era after WW2 when some people (including Paul Samuelson!) thought the USSR would catch the U.S. can be seen as a small, temporary narrowing of the gap. 
The USSR's inefficient manufacturing and agriculture left it increasingly dependent on commodity exports to purchase food for its people. Crashing oil prices in the mid-80s caused food shortages. Yegor Gaidar has written a book about this:
amazon.com/Collapse-Empir…
amazon.com/Collapse-Empir…
If you want to observe the effect of 20th century communism on growth, my advice is to look at pairs of countries that are very close in geography and history: North vs. South Korea, East vs. West Germany, etc.
