Whatever happened to the Soviet Union?
Twenty years ago today, there was an attempted coup in the then USSR as the leadership of reformer Mikhail Gorbachev was challenged. The coup did not succeed but set in train events that led months later to the break-up of the Soviet Union into no less than 15 separate states.
How have those states fared in the intervening two decades? You’ll find key data here. Among points to note:
- The three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (which I have visited – see here) – have been success stories with consistently democratic elections, a four-fold increase in the size of the economy, and entry to the European Union.
- The three states in the EU hinterland – Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova – have the weakest economies and both population and life expectancy have fallen seriously.
- In the Caucasus, Azerbaijan has one of the strongest economies because of oil, but Armenia and Georgia have experienced incipient growth and the region has seen serious ethnic conflict.
- Russia itself (which I have visited – see here) has recovered its economic decline and its economy is now twice the size it was, but the population has fallen by 7M and life expectancy has fallen below 70. Only 4 of its 10 elections are judged to have been democratic.
- In Central Asia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have grown five-fold economically because of enormous energy reserves, but growth in the other states – Uzbekistan (which I have visited – see here), Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan – has been more modest. None of these states has ever held a genuinely fair election.