the post cold war economic divergence of eastern bloc countries

KipOju said:

I'm curious what explains the different economic outcomes of former communist countries. Some have already converged with average western standards, others are probably set to converge, while others are very far from it.
Were those economic outcomes predictable before the fall of the eastern bloc?

Looking at the relative economic state of post cold war countries in Europe doesn't seem that different from the beginning of the 20th century.

Click to expand...

At a surface level it appears that Yugoslavia was very much a consumer society as these advertisements suggest.
Leftyhunter

KipOju said:

I'm curious what explains the different economic outcomes of former communist countries. Some have already converged with average western standards, others are probably set to converge, while others are very far from it.
Were those economic outcomes predictable before the fall of the eastern bloc?

Looking at the relative economic state of post cold war countries in Europe doesn't seem that different from the beginning of the 20th century.

Click to expand...

This is a Yugoslavia travel promotion from from 1964 . During the Cold War JAT Yugoslavia' s national airlines had direct flights to the West including the US and Israel so tourism was a big part of the Yugoslavian economy. Yugoslavia during the Cold War had very competitive prices for tourists.

This is a travel promotional film from 1965 to encourage British tourists to travel to Bulgaria which was a member if the Warsaw Pact.

This is a film clip from a 1960 British film highlighting how pretty and well trained Hungarian stewardess where. Hungary was also a member of the Warsaw Pact but encouraged Western Tourisim has it shows Sabena the national airline of Belgium arriving in Budapest.


Leftyhunter