End of the USSR: visualising how the former Soviet countries are doing, 20 years on

[Aunt Hilda]

End of the USSR: visualising how the former Soviet countries are doing, 20 years on

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It's two decades since the USSR broke up. But what happened to those Soviet countries? Here's the key data

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They were three days that shook the world - and shook the Soviet Union so hard that it fell apart.
But for better or worse? Twenty years on from the Soviet coup that ultimately ended Mikhail Gorbachev's political career and gave birth to 15 new states, The Guardian was keen to explore just how well those 15 former Soviet republics had performed as independent countries. Our data team mined statistics from sources ranging from the World Bank, the UNHCR, the UN Crime Trends Survey and the Happy Planet Index to compare the performance of the countries. And we combed through the OSCE's reports on every election in each country since 1991 to see where democracy was taking hold - and where it was not wanted.
It was in many senses a traumatic break-up. Like a marriage, there was so much that was jointly owned that it was hard to make a clean break. Industries, military units, whole populations, were scattered across an empire, indivisible. Moreover, the economic crisis that led the USSR to the brink tilted most of the emergent countries into the abyss. GDP fell as much as 50 percent in the 1990s in some republics, Russia leading the race to the bottom as capital flight, industrial collapse, hyperinflation and tax avoidance took their toll. Almost as startling as the collapse was the economic rebound in the 2000s. By the end of the decade, some economies were five times as big as they were in 1991. High energy prices helped major exporters like Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistanand Azerbaijan, but even perennial stragglers like Moldova and Armenia began to grow...

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http://www.theguardian.com/news/data...ountries-data#

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oh guardian....

[Acquisitor]

Russia should have been more selfish imo. Excluding the Baltic states its the only country that thanks to its natural resources has potential to be wealthy. By allowing people from irrelevant countries like Moldova, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Tajikistan to come over, to work and to send money home Russia is losing not just its money, but also itself since Islamic central Asia is one big womb capable of spawning millions of mouths to feed which can only be fed by Russian natural resources.

Ambitions of the leaders to control "lost territories" is costing Russia a lot of money and possibly its future.

[Smaug]

See? All the Baltic countries are doing fine, not only Nordic blonde Estonia.

[Aunt Hilda]

See? All the Baltic countries are doing fine, not only Nordic blonde Estonia.

this is from 2011, Estonia just started to get back on their feet after a crippling recession, while the balts were in deep recession.

[gregorius]

lovely

[korkolola]

Russia should have been more selfish imo. Excluding the Baltic states its the only country that thanks to its natural resources has potential to be wealthy. By allowing people from irrelevant countries like Moldova, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Tajikistan to come over, to work and to send money home Russia is losing not just its money, but also itself since Islamic central Asia is one big womb capable of spawning millions of mouths to feed which can only be fed by Russian natural resources.

Ambitions of the leaders to control "lost territories" is costing Russia a lot of money and possibly its future.

Jesus, those 'people from irrelevant countries' have nothing to do with the fact nobody will ever be capable of controlling a territory as big as Russia properly, nor they are 'fed by Russian natural resources' (sic!). Do you even know how many state-endorsed people are controlling the money that comes form aforementioned natural resources & how the money is allocated. If Russia had a welfare state as, let's say, Norway, your point could be at least somewhat valid. Most of the immigrants there are blue-collar workers, salesmen, taxi drivers and etc. They do not have any social security numbers, hell, most of them are illegals in general.
'People from irrelevant' countries would not be there in Moscow & other bigger cities of Russia if the local population, local market did not need them. They serve a purpose there and as long as Russia is not following the steps of Western countries which adopted a welfare state system, they're going to be fine in the long term.

[Acquisitor]

Jesus, those 'people from irrelevant countries' have nothing to do with the fact nobody will ever be capable of controlling a territory as big as Russia properly, nor they are 'fed by Russian natural resources' (sic!). Do you even know how many state-endorsed people are controlling the money that comes form aforementioned natural resources & how the money is allocated. If Russia had a welfare state as, let's say, Norway, your point could be at least somewhat valid. Most of the immigrants there are blue-collar workers, salesmen, taxi drivers and etc. They do not have any social security numbers, hell, most of them are illegals in general.
'People from irrelevant' countries would not be there in Moscow & other bigger cities of Russia if the local population, local market did not need them. They serve a purpose there and as long as Russia is not following the steps of Western countries which adopted a welfare state system, they're going to be fine in the long term.

1) They bring islam with them. As their numbers grow, so will their political power. Quite dangerous.

2) not all of them are taxi drivers and kebab sellers, many are criminals with little to lose.

3) Their services are only required because they are cheaper than Russki Ivan. People with power like to either employ them or by taking bribes from those who do.

4) Russia is being overrun.

5) what if it happened in Lithuania ? how would you feel about it ? what if you would see horny lonely and angry men everywhere who would look at you with their empty eyes every time you go outside ?

[Azamat]

All of these countries liberalized their economies, turned towards market allocation, privatizing state-owned firms, and usually so to the detriment of economic efficiency and their societies as a whole. The "hammer-and-sickle rating" shouldn't be a degree, it should be binary.

[RussiaPrussia]

basically all got plundered, got poorer and lost their population thanks to the west. Also its outdated gdp per capita latvia and lithuenia are below russia now.

[Anglojew]

End of the USSR: visualising how the former Soviet countries are doing, 20 years on

---

It's two decades since the USSR broke up. But what happened to those Soviet countries? Here's the key data

---

They were three days that shook the world - and shook the Soviet Union so hard that it fell apart.
But for better or worse? Twenty years on from the Soviet coup that ultimately ended Mikhail Gorbachev's political career and gave birth to 15 new states, The Guardian was keen to explore just how well those 15 former Soviet republics had performed as independent countries. Our data team mined statistics from sources ranging from the World Bank, the UNHCR, the UN Crime Trends Survey and the Happy Planet Index to compare the performance of the countries. And we combed through the OSCE's reports on every election in each country since 1991 to see where democracy was taking hold - and where it was not wanted.
It was in many senses a traumatic break-up. Like a marriage, there was so much that was jointly owned that it was hard to make a clean break. Industries, military units, whole populations, were scattered across an empire, indivisible. Moreover, the economic crisis that led the USSR to the brink tilted most of the emergent countries into the abyss. GDP fell as much as 50 percent in the 1990s in some republics, Russia leading the race to the bottom as capital flight, industrial collapse, hyperinflation and tax avoidance took their toll. Almost as startling as the collapse was the economic rebound in the 2000s. By the end of the decade, some economies were five times as big as they were in 1991. High energy prices helped major exporters like Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistanand Azerbaijan, but even perennial stragglers like Moldova and Armenia began to grow...

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http://www.theguardian.com/news/data...ountries-data#

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oh guardian....

What's clear is that the communism was a superior system for the Muslim republics.