Basically the closer the country was to Germany the better it did for different reasons. Czechoslovakia had a better privatization scheme and stronger industry that they would want integrated with German capital so it wasn't looted and destroyed by international capital. Poland was given support and subsidies to be a strong NATO bulwark on Russia's border. The Baltic states had spent centuries polishing german horse cocks so there were many people in exile after WW2 who worshipped Germany/the west and were fanatically loyal and pro NATO when they came to power and were rewarded for that loyalty. The other soviet republics had to be punished, especially the Russians. Yugoslavia was destroyed by the wars and NATO so there was nothing to really care about.
MrPiss
I'm not a book nerd but Hakim on youtube has many videos on the fall of the European communist states along with book recommendations.
Also, I'm partially confused by the question since you mention Warsaw Pact countries and then want a focus on the western USSR. Regardless one of the most visible things in statistics is that on basically any graph of population you can see once capitalist infection starts those countries immediately had a population decline because people left the economic chaos of shock therapy, people stopped having kids, and others just fucking died. Ukraine is the worst in that regard where it turns on a dime from strong population growth to strong decline.
Just had a limited conversation like that with my mom. She's something like a generic Democrat at this point but she hates Trump and realizes that our extended family members are racist assholes and didn't push back when I showed my hatred for this shithole country. Tomorrow I think I might break the be normal rule with one of my cousins and say our politicians should be taken out back and shot like old yeller.
Very thankful I saw a chapo.chat link on a different subreddit within a week of the ban and got to lurk here for a few years. I definitely would not have found this place since I'm always online but in a different way than a lot of you guys.
Anyway, happy anniversary.
Exporting garbage to other countries is such a weird and sickening thing. It's also adds more waste and pollution to this consumerist society because we can't throw away our own trash and need to ship it half way around the world for it to be someone else's problem.
We all know that the US constitution is essentially toilet paper and what matters is state power but I'm shocked that they'd do this. Birthright citizenship is a big deal and a foundational right for this shithole country. It's one of the few good things that helps sell the American dream and they're trying to throw it out. The Supreme Court can really just ignore things written in plain English if they want. Like they shouldn't even have to hear a case to rule it unconstitutional and instead they're allowing it to partially go ahead in this weird bureaucratic way.
Will you create a separate containment thread for those who want to 
about Zohran if things get bad enough? A posting thunderdome for electoralism debates.
If you scroll down you'll see the colors buildup in the replies as people respond to each other. Basically that is an indication of a struggle session as the lines on the left hand side build up showing how deep the conversation has gotten. Right now my response should be on the green layer so we aren't yet.
in 1992 in the first democratic election 42 percent of the population just couldnt vote.
Democracy manifest. If you followed along with the democracy index made by the freedom burger institute you'd know that Estonia (somehow) has a better democracy than both France and the Great Satan.
Democracy index (bullshit):
This'll probably result in more programs like the f35. Internationally too big to fail and requiring years to fix things that should have been managed properly from the beginning.
The union state is basically an attempt to bring together former soviet republics after the ussr collapsed as some kind of political continuation. It would be weird for Iran to join. Iran joining the CSTO would make more sense but that has been losing members because of American imperialism and Russia's foreign policy in reaction to that.
Getting picked up at the airport by my brother is always fun. I'm always wondering what dumb bullshit he's going to believe now.
Yesterday, I learned about the testosterone and supplements he's taking. He was diagnosed with incredibly low testosterone but he's just (illegally?) buying some to take and he's taking seemingly random supplements based on vibes and whatever he learns online from, I assume, Facebook and Youtube. Then later when talking about the economy I said "everybody hates bankers" and he said "yeah big noses and small hats". Didn't want to push back too hard against him on that and other things because he gets angry easily and he already yells at our mom enough. I can't just call him a dumbass or a fascist dog every five minutes. My mom also told me he's beating his dog again. Family is truly the most precious thing.
Anyway, Happy 4th of July to all who celebrate and death to America.