Oh, yeah, Soviet Russia did it. It did set workers' incomes at just above starving and prohibited strikes under the penalty of death.
The Soviet Union probably ceased to be a net progressive force fairly soon after Lenin's death, but I'm sure you understand the context of the times. Literally the entire world was waging war against a politically unstable and primarily agrarian state which had a clear choice between rapid industrialization and total collapse. And of course, even accounting for the USSR's habit of book-cooking, living standards markedly increased from the Tsarist era.
