The world's two biggest oil exporters in 1995:
1. Saudi Arabia 2. Norway.
Source: Reuter, 1 December 1995.

Estimated Russian crude oil output in 1995:
282.8 million tons.
Estimated decline in Russian crude oil output in 1995 (by comparison with 1994):
4%.
Source: Reuter, 11 January 1996.

Another estimate of decline in Russian crude oil output in 1995 ((by comparison with 1994):
12%.
Source: Peter Rutland of OMRI Daily Digest, 9 November 1995.

Estimated size and value of Russian oil exports in 1995:
123.6 million tons worth $12.51 billion.
Planned size of Russian crude oil exports in 1996:
112.5 million tons.
Percentage decline of oil exports to CIS states in 1995:
18.2%.
Source: Deputy fuel and energy minister Evgeny Morozov to Interfax, as reported by Reuter, 13 February 1996.

Decline in Russian GDP in 1995:
6%.
Source: The Russian State Statistics Committee, as reported by Jonathan Lynn of Reuters, 15 February 1996.

Estimated value of Russia's foreign trade in 1995:
$97.5 billion.
Total value of Russian exports in 1995:
$63 billion.
Total value of Russian imports in 1995:
$34.5 billion.
Russian trade surplus in 1995:
$28.5 billion.
Percentage increase in trade surplus in 1995 (compared to 1994):
43%.
Source: First Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets, as reported by the Associated Press, 1 January 1996.

Estimated Polish GDP in 1996:
$140.6 billion.
Size of the Polish 1996 budget passed by the lower house of the Sejm [Parliament] on 11 January 1996:
$44.8 billion.
Estimated Polish state revenues in 1996:
$40.9 billion.
Source: Reuter, 11 January 1996.

Percentage of workforce in agriculture in Poland and in the European Union, respectively, in 1994:
26% and 6%.
Source: German farm minister Jochen Borchert, as reported by Reuter, 20 January 1996.

Number of farms in Poland in 1995, compared to the anticipated number of farms that would make Poland compatible with the European Union:
2 million and 600,000-700,000.
Source: Polish agriculture minister Roman JagieliÄski, as reported by Reuter, 20 January 1996.

Number of people killed in Russia in air crashes in 1994:
302.
Source: Reuter, 6 December 1995.

Inflation in Russia in 1995:
131%.
Source: Reuter (London), 10 January 1996.

Inflation in Poland in 1995:
21.6%.
Source: Reuter, 15 January 1996.

. Inflation in Mexico in 1995:
56%.
Source: Houston Chronicle, 6 February 1996.

January 1996 inflation in the Czech Republic:
2.3%.
Source: Reuter, 8 February 1996.

Unpaid wages in Russia as of 20 January 1996:
$4.25 billion.
Source: The State Statistics Committee figures released 15 February 1996, as reported by Reuter, 15 February 1996.

Estimate by Sergei Yegorov, Chairman of the Association of Russian Banks, of unpaid wages and other late payments in the Russian Federation in 1995:
$65 billion.
Source: Nezavisimaya gazeta, 4 January 1996.

Subscriptions to Russian newspapers in the first half of 1996:
28.3 million; of these, subscriptions to local newspapers:
19.3 million.
Source: Laura Belin of OMRI Daily Digest, 3 January 1996.

Number of abortions in Poland in selected years between 1987-1994:
1987 - 123,534; 1989 - 105,333; 1991- 30,878; 1993 - 1,208; 1994 - 782.
Date anti-abortion law was enacted in Poland:
March 1993.
Source: Henry V. King, "Abortions Decline In Poland," The Wanderer, Vol. 129, No. 3 (January 18, 1996) .

Estimated number of persons in France in 1830 holding portions of the national debt:
125,000; in 1869:
700,000; in 1881:
4,000,000.
Source: W.E.H. Lecky, Democracy and Liberty (New York: Longmans 1913), I: 52.

Estimated number of hereditary nobles in the Russian Empire in 1858-9:
610,000; of these, number of Polish nobles (who had come under Russian rule following the Partitions of Poland):
323,000.
Source: Richard Pipes, Russia under the Old Regime (New York: Scribners 1974), 176.

Estimated amount of U.S. dollars circulating in cash outside the United States:
$250 billion.
Source: U.S. Federal Reserve representative, as reported by Reuter, 5 December 1995.

Estimated amount of U.S. dollars circulating in cash in the Russian Federation:
$12-$13 billion.
Source: Russia's Central Bank, as reported by Reuter, 5 December 1995.

Number of ships launched in Polish shipyards in 1995:
34.
Number of outstanding orders:
111.
Place of Poland in world competition for shipbuilding:
4.
Source: Ryszard Wesolowski of Reuter, 11 January 1996.

Estimated growth of Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, and Polish GDP in 1995, respectively:
2%, 4.9%, 6.6%, 7.0%.
Source: Reuter, 25 (twice), 26 January and 1 February 1996, respectively.

Estimated decline of Belarusian GDP in 1995:
10.8%.
Source: Reuter, 30 January 1996.

Estimated decline of the population (148 million in 1995) of the Russian Federation by 2005:
from 5 million to 12 million, or between 3.5% and 8%.
Estimated decline of fertility in the Russian Federation by 2005:
from 1.4 births per woman in 1995 to 1.0 birth per woman in 2005.
Source: The Russian Central Bank's research and statistics department, as reported by the Associated Press, 23 August 1995.

Estimated decline of the Russian population over the next two centuries, as indicated by select estimated figures for 2000, 2050, 2105, 2200:
138 million, 107 million, 64 million and 23 million.
Note:
these estimates are based on the assumption of continuity of present trends.
Source: Mikhail S. Bernstam, "The Demography of Soviet Ethnic Groups in World Perspective," The Last Empire:
Nationality and the Soviet Future, ed. Robert Conquest (Stanford: The Hoover Institution Press, 1986), 322.

Corresponding estimates of the decline of Ukrainian and Belarusian populations in the same period of time, selected for the same years (with the first figure being the actual number of Ukrainians and Belarusians in 1984). Ukrainians:
44 million, 45 million, 40 million, 32 million, 20 million. Belarusians:
10 million, 10 million, 9 million, 7 million, 5 million.
Source: Mikhail S. Bernstam, "The Demography of Soviet Ethnic Groups in World Perspective," op. cit.

The figure by which deaths exceeded births in Ukraine in 1995:
276,000.
Source: Associated Press, 22 February 1996.

The principal organized crime group in the United States in the year 2000, as estimated by FBI director Jim Moody at a hearing of the House Crime Subcommittee in January 1996:
Russian crime gangs.
Source: Reuter, 25 January 1996.

Portion of RussiaÕs foreign debt owed to foreign government creditors (so-called countries of the Paris Club) which Russia seeks to reschedule, after rescheduling $32.5 billion owed to commercial creditors (so-called London Club):
$55 billion.
Source: Reuter, 21 December 1995.

Average monthly wage in Georgia in 1995:
$7.60.
Source: Reuter, 15 February 1996.

Number of visas issued to Russian students by the US Consulate in Moscow alone each year:
2,000.
Source: Carol J. Williams in Houston Chronicle, 18 February 1996.

Price per child in one of Moscow's exclusive kindergartens, including those run exclusively in English:
$3,500--$10,500/year.
Source: Reuter, 18 February 1996.

Value of Russian arms exports in 1995:
$2,5 billion.
Anticipated value of a Russian arms deal with India in 1996:
$3.5 billion.
Source: State Industrial Policy Committee, as reported by Reuter, 18 and 19 February 1996.

Size of the IMF loan to Russia in 1996-98, agreed to in Moscow on February 22, 1996:
$10.2 billion.
Source: Reuter, 22 February 1996.