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More than one and a half decades have passed since the disintegration of the Soviet Union. As a result, its Union Republics have become fifteen independent States. Sixteen years is a sufficient time to permit a comparison between the Soviet past and the post-Soviet present. For this purpose, we have aggregated data relating to the territories, the population and economies of the former Union Republics, which are now free, and compare these with the corresponding data relating to the USSR prior to its collapse. We then ask: How do the combined economies of today's now independent former Soviet Union Republics, which we will call the Successor States, compare with the economy of the USSR in, say, 1990? This will enable us to test the validity of an argument we have advanced elsewhere, which is that, other things being equal, the Soviet Union, as a socioeconomic and political entity, was primarily destroyed not by a failure of its economy, but by domestic social factors, notably the behavior of its bureaucracy. The data assembled in this article provides considerable support for this thesis. Adapted from the source document.

ANTI-NUCLEAR MOVEMENTS IN ARMENIA, LITHUANIA, UKRAINE, AND RUSSIA -- WHERE THE USSR'S NUCLEAR POWER INSTALLATIONS WERE SITUATED -- BLOSSOMED DURING PERESTROIKA, BUT THIS EXPLOSION OF CONCERN PROVED TO BE SHORT-LIVED. IN THE USSR, ACTIVISTS PURSUING RADICAL, INCLUDING NATIONALIST, AGENDAS OFTEN IMPROVED THEIR ACCESS TO KEY MOBILIZATIONAL RESOURCES BY HIDING BEHIND ISSUES THAT WERE MORE ACCEPTABLE TO POWER-HOLDERS. WITH THE BREAKUP OF THE SOVIET UNION, THE LINK BETWEEN NATIONALIST AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS WAS BROKEN, AND WEAKENED ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENTS ARE CONFRONTED NOW WITH GOVERNMENTS THAT HAVE A NEW INTEREST IN PROMOTING THE NUCLEAR POWER OPTION.

Der Privatisierungsprozeß in den jugoslawischen Republiken und Nachfolgestaaten befindet sich in jeweils sehr unterschiedlichen Entwicklungsstadien. Während Kroatien und Serbien eigene Privatisierungsgesetze verabschiedet haben und Slowenien die föderale Planung außer Kraft gesetzt hat, wird in den übrigen Republiken immer noch die föderale Gesetzgebung angewendet. Die führende Rolle des Staates und eine "Quasi-Privatisierung" in Form von nichtprivaten "Holding-Gesellschaften" sind jedoch charakteristisch für die Privatisierung in allen Republiken. Der Bürgerkrieg erschwert zusätzlich die Privatisierungsbemühungen. (BIOst-Srt)