Regarding salary equivalence, in the early 90s I spent a week in Moscow having flown in a team to go and count tanks etc. While they were working we had the week to explore the city, along with a couple of Russian military escorts. One was a young Air Force captain of similar age to myself, also married with a young child. He described his home - a 2 bed flat in the city which he shared with his parents.
When he asked me where I lived, I told him in a 4 bed house. ‘With all of your family?’ he asked, rather incredulously. ‘Just my wife and son’, I said. I’m not sure if he was convinced I was telling the truth, that kind of opulent lifestyle was typically reserved for members of the politburo then.