On Monday, September 12, 2022 at 1:21:53 PM UTC+8, David P. wrote:
Why did some former Communist countries like Poland or the Baltic states become viable free-market economies, while Russia did not?
Answered by Greg Tatar, May 13, 2022
First, some of those countries had people going to the west to work. We knew many Poles who would come over for the summer and work as janitors or whatever because the dollars they earned were far more valuable back home than the worthless communist
currency.
Second, those countries were generally occupied. They had Russian soldiers stationed and they were not allowed to manage their own affairs. So they wanted to get away.
Third, the Russians and their lackeys were stealing and the countries wanted to get away from them.
Fourth, the countries in Europe thought of themselves as European. Russia does not think of itself that way. Peter the Great tried to get it to feel European, but he realized it would never happen.
So when the Soviet jackboot was lifted, the countries ran as fast as they could to the prosperity and freedom of the west. Some countries didn’t really make it, but countries like Poland, that had independent histories, were relieved to be free of
the Russians and to regain their old identities.
Meantime in Russia, some people got busy stealing everything they could. It wasn’t like the jackboot had been lifted from their necks since they were the jackboot. There was nothing to go back to or regain because Russia had always been an
authoritarian place run by a despot. There was no model because Russia was not likely to embrace the west, having always been looked at with suspicion. They had some economists try to “help” them, and they had a lot of foreign investment, but in the
end, the old kleptocracy was unwilling to give up power.
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[COMMENTS]
JAMES W ECCLESTON · May 13
Nailed it, pal.
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Van Knutson · May 16
And sadly, all those investments, like Venezuela, are write offs. -----------------
Tibor Bamhor · May 17
Geographical proximity too. You can easily visit and see different ‘world’…
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Greg Tatar · May 21
Yes. I remember traveling from Berlin through Czechoslovakia and Hungary and Poland in 1991 and noting the very different worlds. Didn’t get into the Ukraine because at the time there were lines to get to Lvov that you would sit in for a day or two.
In the ensuing years things have changed dramatically.
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Mike Jacoby · May 28
True, some educated Poles have taken menial jobs in the West. But mostly those from the lower classes. But how that relates to the question?
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Greg Tatar · May 28
They didn’t take the jobs permanently, they took them for a few weeks or months. We had one fellow who was a professor come to the US to work anything he could get because back home, the dollar was worth much more than the zloty. If you wanted a car
for example, you had to get in line. With dollars, you were able to move ahead of the others because the government wanted those. So people would come for a few weeks or for the summer and since family was back home, they’d return. We had many friends
and family members who did that.
It relates to the question because those people came to the western countries and saw that they were being screwed. People behind the Iron Curtain who were able to go to West Germany, France, Great Britain, Canada, or the US, and then who went back
home, realized that they didn’t have to be in the situations they were in. And most of them had come from established nations, or at least kingdoms that had been independent of Moscow for centuries. Poland had been a kingdom off and on since the late
900s. The Magyars arrived in Hungary in the 900s and in 1000 converted to Christianity and established the kingdom of Hungary. And so on. They chafed under the domination of Russia, saw what happened in the west as compared to their own countries, and
were anxious to join the west. And joining the west meant joining the western economy too.
The Russians were never part of the west and so were not as eager to return to anything, since they were what they always were.
In retrospect, some of the countries were rushed. Hungary for example, is sliding back and its prime minister is friendly with Putin. But at the time, the idea was to stamp out the brutal Soviet Union once and for all. And had Russia been different, it
would have been welcomed. There was great hope that it would become a prosperous, friendly member of the economic system. Putin’s desire to restore the Soviet Union shown how foolish that was.
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Urmas Alas · Wed
Because everyone in the Baltic countries remembered the horrors of 1940, many fled abroad when the Soviet army approached in 1944. They were still alive in the late 1980s and came back home and brought with them their experience of life in the West.
Among them were prominent specialists and diplomats. Their help in rebuilding the countries was invaluable.
Finnish TV was watched in Northern Estonia. From there, everyone could see how politics is made in a democratic country. People had an idea of a civil society. All this helped rebuild the country after the end of the Soviet occupation.
Russia needs not have to follow Western ways of life but can have the economic system like China. The thing Russia can do is to progressively introduced changes and managed them with a replaceable team of best people in pecking order can continue to
govern and control them well to a high standards of integrity and disciplines. Seriously, Poland and the rest of former USSR countries are not in fully complete footing of free market economic system yet. The speed of economic system is changing but is
not yet to its peak yet.
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