The Sarmatian Review Index

The annual compound rate at which real wages in the U.S. fell between 1973 and 1993: 0.7%.
Percentage of married men in the U.S. whose wages fell in the 1980s: 80%.
Years in which real wages in the U.S. almost doubled, from $6.75 to $12.6 per hour: 1947-1973.

Source: Walter Russell Mead, "Expanding economy isn't helping U.S. families," Houston Chronicle, 7 September 1994.

Duma-approved (10 May 1994) Russian military budget for 1994: $20 billion.

Source: Clarinet News, RFE/RL News, 11 May 1994.

The sum added to the military budget after receiving the IMF money of 1.5 billion as a "reward" for keeping the spending down: $10 billion.

Source: Jeffrey B. Gayner, "The Retreat from Reform in Russia," The Heritage Lectures, 494, 9 June 1994.

Number of Americans mugged, burglarized, wounded, or killed by criminals in Russia in 1993: 180.

Source: Dr. Louise Shelley, "Crime and Corruption in Russia" (CSCE Briefing, 10 June 1994), Washington, DC, June 1994.

Murder rate for men in the United States in 1992: 10.2 per 100,000.
Murder rate for men in Russia in 1992: 20.4 per 100,000.
Murder rate for men in Russia in 1994: 25.5 per 100,000.

Source: UNICEF Director James Grant, as quoted by Reuters, 6 October 1994.

Grain yields (kilograms per hectare) in Poland 1992: 2,396.
Grain yields (kilograms per hectare) in Russia 1992: 1,720.
Grain yields (kilograms per hectare) in the United States 1992: 5,380.
Installed Industrial Robots per 10,000 persons in the Manufacturing Industry in Poland 1993: 2.1.
Installed Industrial Robots per 10,000 persons in the Manufacturing Industry in Japan 1993: 296.4.

Source: CIA Handbook of International Economic Statistics, 1993.

The number of people who died from smoking-related illnesses in Poland (pop. 38 million) in 1990: 69,000.
The number of people who died from smoking-related illnesses in Germany (pop. 78 million) in 1990: 112,000.
The number of people who died of smoking-related illnesses in Italy (pop. 57 million) in 1990: 83,000.
The number of people who died of smoking-related ilnesses in post-Soviet countries (CIS) (pop. 284 million): 457,000.

Source: The joint Report of the World Health Organization, American Cancer Society and Britain's Imperial Cancer Research Fund, as reported by Reuters, 19 September 1994.

Percentage of Poles who declared themselves Catholics in a 1994 public opinion survey: 98%.
Percentage of Poles who consider themselves practicing Catholics in good standing: 56%.
Percentage of Poles who consider themselves irregularly practicing their faith: 30%.
Percentage of Poles who declared themselves non-practicing Catholic believers: 12%.
Percentage of Poles who declared themselves to be nonbelievers or others: 2%.

Source: Center for the Study of Public Opinion (OBOP), as reported by Donosy, 20 September 1994.

Bestsellers in Poland in September 1994 in the non-fiction category: Jan Parandowski, Greek Mythology; Hanna Krall, Shielding the Flame: an intimate coversation with Dr. Marek Edelman, the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising; St. Augustine, Confessions.

Source: Donosy, 6 October 1994.

Number of Third World illegals in Belarus waiting to cross the border to Poland (as estimated by Belarusian border guards): 200,000.

Source: Clarinet-Reuters, 27 October 1994.

Projected year-on-year inflation in the 1995 budget approved by the Polish government in October 1994: 17%.
Projected Polish budget deficit as percentage of the gross domestic product: 3.3%.
Projected Polish budget deficit in dollars: $3.81 billion.

Source: Reuters, 26 October 1994; Reuters, 18 November 1994.

Estimated number of prisoners in the prisons of the Russian Federation (pop. 147 million) in 1994: 500,000.

Source: AP-Clarinet News, 1 December 1994.

Number of prisoners in the prisons of the Republic of Poland (pop. 39 million) in 1994: 63,000.

Source: Donosy, 1 December 1994.

Estimated percentage (in 1994) of the Russian economy controlled by organized crime: 70%-80%.