So, where I live there is basically 0 news coming from the Stan countries and frankly I often forget they exist lol
I don’t know why but I suddenly thought about them today, and I wondered how life has been there since the fall of the Soviet Union and how life is like over there right now. Did market reforms hit them heavy as well? Did neoliberalism find its way into the countries? Did they manage to block foreign influence to a certain extent?
Any comrade who can help me out with this?
Poverty increased massively when they lost support from the USSR: 5% to 65% in Kazakhstan, 12% to 88% in Kyrgyzstan, 12% to 61% in Turkmenistan, and 24% to 63% in Uzbekistan. Tajikistan also had a civil war caused by jihadists. A majority of people in multiple of these countries wish the USSR never ended.
Sources: World Bank, ProleWiki: sources in footnotes
Are stan-countries the ones whose names and in -istan?
That seems to be the case. I first read it as “countries that admired the USSR” lol
Hahaha
Dear Gorbachev, I wrote you, but you still ain’t Stalin
Plus Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, but not including Pakistan and Afghanistan.