Area of Poland submerged in July 1997 floods: 3,720 square miles including 40,000 farms and 1,358 towns and villages. Other figures: 162,000 people were forced to flee, 300,000 acres of crops have been destroyed,1.3 million acres of land have been under water. Number of fatalities: 54.
Source: Deputy Agriculture Minister Jerzy Pilarczyk, as reported by Reuter, 18 July 1997; Polska Online-Wiadomo ci dnia, 18 July 1997; Reuter, 20 and 30 July 1997.
Size of the Russian armed forces in 1997, according to Russian Defense Minister Igor Rodionov: 1.7 million.Source: Reuter, 7 February 1997.
Number of car accidents on Russian roads in 1996: 160,523. Number of deaths resulting from these accidents: 29,468.Source: Reuter (Moscow), 13 February 1997.
Number of Russian-made Russian government cars (out of the total number of 700 purchased in 1996) which broke down within the first week: 200.Source: Reuter, 7 April 1997.
Number of prisoners in Russian jails (per 100,000 population) in 1996: 694, or the highest in Europe.Source: Reuter (Strassburg), 13 February 1997.
Percentage of crimes committed by teenagers in the Moscow district in 1996: 68%.Source: Trud, 6 March 1997, as reported by Peter Rutland in OMRI, 10 March 1997.
Russia's fiscal deficit in 1996: 9.6% of the GDP.Source: Nailene Chou Wiest of Reuter (New York), 10 April 1997.
Percentage drop in Russian oil production in 1996 (by comparison to 1995): 2%.Source: Reuter, 10 April 1997.
Number of Russians who went abroad in 1996: 13 million.Source: Peter Ford in the Christian Science Monitor, 13 April 1997.
Percentage of Muscovites who consider themselves Russian Orthodox: 67%.Source: All-Russia Center for the Study of Public Opinion, as reported by Reuter (Moscow), 27 April 1997.
Name and location of the most polluted city in Russia: Dzerzhinsk, a chemical production center 200 miles from Moscow and 20 miles from Nizhnii Novgorod.Source: Aleksei Kiselyov, co-author of Greenpeace's report "Poisoned Cities," as reported by Reuter (Moscow), 14 April 1997.
Percentage of the Soviet military taken over by Russia in 1991: 85%.Source: Russian Defense Council Chief Yury Baturin, as reported by the UPI (Moscow), 7 February 1997.
Number of foreign visitors to the Czech Republic in 1996: 109.4 million.Source: The Czech Statistical Bureau (CSU), as reported by Reuter (Prague), 4 February 1997.
Populations of Great Britain, Italy, Poland and Romania in 1959 and 1995: Great Britain 52 million and 58.48 million, Italy 49.1 million and 58.26 million, Poland 29.48 million and 38.79 million, Romania 18.3 million and 22 million.Source: Encyklopedia Popularna PWN (Warsaw 1962), CIA World Factbook 1995.
Estimated percentage of United States residents who are foreign born (including illegal aliens): 9%Source: National Public Radio news, 8 April 1997.
Number of passengers carried by the Polish National Airline LOT in 1996: 2 million.Source: Wiadomosci dnia, Polska Online, 13 February 1997.
Inflation in Polandin January 1997: 2.9%Source: Lena Bialkowska in Donosy, 18 February 1997
Estimate of overdue payables in Russia in mid-1996 (including arrears to supplies and banks, tax and wage arrears): $90 billion, or 21% of Russian GDP.Source: Daniel Rosenblum's lecture at the Kennan Institute on 13 January 1997, as reported by Jodi Koehn in Report: Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, Vol. XXV, No. 10 (1997), 1.
Number of organized criminal groups operating in Russia in 1997: 9,000.Source: Russian Interior Ministry, as reported by Reuter, 13 June 1997.
Russian share of the world market in illegal recordings of music (compact disks and tapes): 70%.Source: RFE/RL, 10 June 1997.
Average size of Polish farms in 1996: 7.91 hectars.Source: GUS [Polish Statistical Office], as reported by Michal Jankowski in Donosy, 23 April 1997.
Percentage of the world's population of storks nesting in Poland annually: 25%.Source: Reuter (Warsaw), 29 April 1997.
Number of Poles who take up jobs abroad each year: 700,000.Source: Michal Jankowski in Donosy, 30 April 1997.
Number of people who attended Masses and other meetings with Pope John Paul II during his May 31-June 10, 1997, visit to Poland: six million.Source: RFE/RL, 10 June 1997.
Percentage of Poles who decided to go to confession following the Pope's visit to Poland in May-June 1997: 47%.Source: A statistical survey published by the Znak Publishing House, as reported by Lena Bialkowska in Donosy, 23 June 1997.
Anticipated Polish foreign trade deficit in 1997: $13 billion.Source: Polish finance minister Marek Belka, as reported by Reuter (Warsaw), 16 June 1997.
Current account deficit in the Czech Republic in 1996: 8.6% of GDP.Source: The Czech Statistical Bureau on 23 June, as reported by Reuter (Dubrovnik, Croatia) on 25 June 1997.
Size of the Ukrainian budget for 1997 [sic] accepted by the Ukrainian Parliament on 27 June 1997: revenues $12.1 billion, expenditures $13.5 billion, with inflation predictions ranging between 17% and 25%, and deficit predictions ranging from 4.00% (IMF) to 5.7% (Ukrainian government).Source: Reuter, 26 and 27 June 1997.
Global GDP in 1996: $30 trillion.Source: Reuter, 27 June 1997.
Russia's place on the UN index measuring standard of living and educational standards in 175 countries: 67.Source: Elaine Monaghan of Reuter (Kiyv), 26 June 1997.
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