It stunned the west when it was first encountered over Korea. It could climb faster and higher than any western fighter of the day, had a good turning radius, and carried some pretty potent firepower. They built thousands of them, too.

More recently, the MiG-29 and Su-27 were the first of a new generation of Russian (then Soviet) fighters that adapted a quality verses quantity approach to excellence. I think it was Stalin who said, "Quantity has a quality all its own." Up until the MiG-29 and Su-27, the typical Soviet fighter's biggest quality was that they were cheap to build (meaning you could build scads of them) and easy to maintain. With the new generation, they proved that they could build high quality fighters to match the best the west had to offer.

Once again, this is why I don't think much of the list provided in the article. It's way too small and too US centric.