"The dramatic wish of Romanians... was to be occupied by Americans, not Russians"

[Barnabas]

I agree on Norway´s per capita gdp looking wrong

like it should be 17.110 and not 7.110

[notyoueither]

It's the East German number that smells, to me.

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride
I have the actual encyclopedia in my bedroom, I am not taking it from a website.

It says,

Producto Nacional Bruto ( A precios corrientes del Mercado) xxxxxxx dlr EUA (xxxx dlr EUA per cápita)

so, the only info they give is it is nominal gdp.

How do you convert East German currency to US dollars in accurate terms? And then if you could, what do they buy?

The CIA did a really bad job of it.

They had East German GDP per person higher than West German around this time frame. They got that by using recognised numbers for the West, and employing a voodoo economist to measure East Germany based on entrails and frogs eyes and such.

[Colon™]

I've argued before that international GDP comparisons are risky, including those based on PPP. For instance, PPP does not account for divergences in relative valuations between goods within a country. It assumes that if a car is worth ten times as much as a television in the US, this also is the case everywhere else.
The problem also is that many manufactured goods and services are not homogenous, and if there's little or no international competition you can get pretty big differences in quality and other features. That problem seems particularly acute to me in the communist bloc since they were mostly sealed off from the west. Sure a commie country produced x amount of TV's, but what point is there in assigning a value to those if those did not face outside competition? The fact that entire industries collapsed once they got exposed to foreign competition should give a hint of how their produce was worth.

[Saras]

Colon

Basically all stats on Warsaw Pact GDP pre-1990 are bollocks because of this.

[Vince278]

Originally posted by Serb
2) You seem to forget who introduced the term Iron Curtain and who started the Cold War.

who introduced the term Iron Curtain - Winston Churchill
who started the Cold War - Stalin

Originally posted by Serb
4) You seem to forget that no other country suffered in WW2 more than Russia.

On a per capita basis Poland has everyone beat.

Originally posted by Serb
5) You seem to forget that fire of war went through Russia twice: first from west to east, then from east to west, leaving behind only scorched wasteland and 26 million dead bodies.

How many were killed by Russians?

Originally posted by Serb
7) You seem to forget that Russians have to re-build their country from scratch.

Keep trying.

Originally posted by Serb
8) You seem to forget that Russians had nobody to help them in that proccess and had to rely on themselves only

Don't forget our Lend Lease program. Thousands of Americans died sending arms and supplies to Russia.

Originally posted by Serb
9) You seem to forget that Eastern Europe suffered both from war and Nazi occupation much more than the Western Europe

and Eastern Europe and the Baltics suffered even worse from Soviet occupation while Western Europe rebuilt.

Originally posted by Serb
11) You seem to forget that USA was always richer than USSR.

Capitalism
Communism

Originally posted by Serb
12) And finally, you seem to fail to understand that Russia didn't have the luxury of being weak, but gentle. Russia needed allies and buffer zones, because you created NATO, were extremely hostile towards us and wanted to destroy us. Had we were weak, had no allies and no buffer zones, you would attack us and completely exterminate us, no doubt.

Did you say "gentle?"
NATO still exists and so does Russia. There's your proof that we do not wish to attack Russia, despite any appearent weaknesses.

Originally posted by Serb
14) Have a nice day!

You too.

Originally posted by Serb
I had a though weekend (one wedding ceremony and one birthday party within two days), but I'm fine now. Thank you, but your help is not necessary.

My congratulations to everyone. How's the wife? Any little Serbs yet?

Originally posted by Serb
I don't get it. Please, repeat that again. Who was worse than bunch of invaders who shoot, hang, buried and burned alive hundreds of thousands of people?

Again, Stalin.

Originally posted by Serb
Anyhow it was a diplomatic victory for USSR, important for its survival.

The Malenkov-Ribbentrop pact was actually a diplomatic victory for the Germans. It allowed them to concentrate on attacking the West until they were ready to attack Russia, which caught even Stalin by surprise.

[Vince278]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Up until the fall of Eastern Europe, East Germany had the 11th highest GDP (per person) in the world.

Having a high per capita GDP is easy with a small population and a very low birth rate. They probably weren't 11th in absolute terms.

[Vince278]

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride
Are you saying that the soviet union behaved worse in Romania in Romanians in the Soviet Union?

Worse than the Germans.

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride
dozens of millions of inhabitants of the soviet union died, to defeat hitler, have more respect for them.

I honestly do salute their courage and determination.

Now, has anyone ever wondered why Soviet losses were disproportionately much higher than anyone else's?

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride
Considering how the soviet union was devastated and how they treated east germans or romanians, russians dont really seem particularly revengeful to me, abuses happened, but I cant really shed a tear for ww2 germans and romanians.

It is criminal to make the ordinary citizens suffer for the perceived sins of their politicians.

[notyoueither]

I shed a tear when I spoke to a refugee from East Germany. She was raped, and every female into their 60's in her village was raped by Russian soldiers.

All in the name of revenge, so it's all good.

[chequita guevara]

Who said it was good?

[Vince278]

The Russians appearently.

[chequita guevara]

Granted, I understand why they did it, and considering what they suffered, I find it hard to wag my finger at them, however wrong it might have been. It's not like our side didn't committ attrocities as well. We just did it from 10,000 feet in the air.

[Vince278]

Bombing a city from the air is an act of war, which was allowed. The mass rape of a village (or nation) is a war crime. I challenge you to find where in the Geneva Conventions it is allowed. Nothing justifies their behaviour (even if the exact same thing were done to them).

[Wernazuma III]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Granted, I understand why they did it, and considering what they suffered, I find it hard to wag my finger at them, however wrong it might have been. It's not like our side didn't committ attrocities as well. We just did it from 10,000 feet in the air.

Interestingly, most of the rapes and violence abuses by the Russians were not carried out by the fighting troops, nor by Russians living in "most affected" areas by German invasion. Especially feared were the supply troops in the "aftermath", where many Mongolians and Siberians served.

[Drake Tungsten]

It is like Japan would rather have US than Chinese occupation after WWII.

Yeah, a Chinese occupation of Japan was a realistic possibility...

[DaShi]

Originally posted by Vince278


How many were killed by Russians?

All of them. The world belongs to Mother Russia!