The Sarmatian Review Index

Number of personal computer users in the United States, 19 million; Western Europe, 6.4 million; Asia, 920,000; Central and Latin America, 107,000.

Source: Kevin Phillips, "Virtual Washington," Time Magazine Special Issue (Spring 1995), 65.

Average annual growth of world population since World War II: 1.6% annually.
Average annual growth of food supply since World War II: 2.5% annually.

Source: The New Oxford Review, LXII:5 (June 1995), 15.

Percentage decline in 1994 (compared to 1993) of the production of meat, dairy products, butter, sugar and flour in the Russian Federation: 25% (meat), 17% (dairy products), 33% (butter), 36% (sugar), 14% (flour).
Times increase in the imports of selected food items: meat and fish (3.0 times), poultry (4.3 times), milk powder (2.0 times).

Source: Deputy Premier Alexei Bolshakov to Interfax, 3 March 1995, as reported by Thomas Sigel of OMRI Daily Digest, 6 March 1995.

Percentage decline in the first five months of 1995 of meat and milk production in the Russian Federation: 17%--35% (depending on item).
Percentage decline in the first five months of 1995 of the production of staples in the food industry of the Russian Federation: 12%.
Percentage decline in the first five months of 1995 of the production of potatoes and margarine in the Russian Federation: 34% and 20%, respectively.

Source: State Statistical Office figures in Segodnya on 23 June, as reported by Thomas Sigel of OMRI Daily Digest on 26 June 1995.

Cases of diphtheria in the Russian Federation, 1991-95: 2,000 (1991), 4,000 (1992), 15,000 (1993), 48,000 (1994), 150,000 - 200,000 (projected, 1995).

Source: World Health Organization, as reported by Reuter (Geneva), 19 June 1995.

The largest number of copies of one issue which the Paris Kultura, a Polish emigre monthly, has ever printed: 7,000.
The 1994 print run of Kultura: 3,000.
The print run of the Instytut Literacki books considered bestsellers: over 3,000.

Source: Jerzy Giedroyc, Autobiografia na cztery rece (Warsaw 1994).

Percentage of Polish exports going to Germany, January-April 1995: 38.1%.
Amount of money spent by foreign visitors in Poland in 1994: $2.1 billion.
Percentage of this sum spent by cross-border German shoppers: 70%, or $1.47 billion.
Percentage increase of Polish exports to Ukraine (1994 as compared to January-April 1995): 357.5%.

Source: Polish Statistical Office [GUS], as reported by Reuter (Warsaw), 20 June 1995.

Foreign investment in Poland in the first six months of 1995: $1.1 billion.

Source: Polish Finance Minister Grzegorz Kolodko on 5 July 1995, as reported by Reuter (Warsaw), 5 July 1995.

Foreign investment in Poland in 1994: $1.3 billion.

Source: Reuter, 10 February 1995.

Anticipated cost of servicing Polish domestic and foreign debt in 1996: $6.02 billion (domestic), $1.96 billion (foreign).
Anticipated cost of government subsidies for state-owned firms in 1996: $981.4 million.
Anticipated cost of maintaining the reduced social security system in 1996: $7.7 billion.
Anticipated tax revenues in 1996: $36.40 billion.
Anticipated income from privatization in 1996: $1.02 billion.

Source: Polish Finance Minister Grzegorz Kolodko, as reported by Reuter (Warsaw), 5 July 1995.

The number of Russians living abroad who applied for and were granted granted Russian citizenship: 123,000 persons in 1992-1993, 444,000 in 1994, and 110,000 in the first quarter of 1995.

Source: Michael Mihalka, OMRI, Inc., 11 July 1995.

Life expectancy for men and women in Russia in 1994: 57.3 and 71.1 years.
Number of births and deaths in Russia (pop. 149 million) in 1994: 1.4 million and 2.38 million.
Estimated number of abortions in Russia in 1994: 2.8 to 3.5 million.

Source: Aleksandr Tkachenko, head of the Russian Labor Ministry's population department, to Itar-Tass on 11 July 1995, as reported by the Associated Press (Moscow), 12 July 1995.

Number of registered Roman Catholic parishes on the territory of the Russian Federation, as of March 1995: 69.
Number of Catholic churches which the Russian government has returned to the Catholic Church since 1991: 10.

Source: Martin Lynch, "A Long Convalescence: a conversation with Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz," The Catholic World Report, Vol. 5, No. 3 (March 1995).

Number of parishioners injured by the Russian police on 7 and 8 March 1995, as the parishioners were trying to repossess the Catholic church on Malaya Gruzinskaya Street in Moscow: 15.
Number of Roman Catholics in Moscow who are Russian citizens: 65,000.
Number of diocesan Roman Catholic churches in Moscow: 0.

Source: The Catholic World Report, Vol. 5, No. 4 (April 1995); Donosy, 16 March 1995; Louisa Vinton, OMRI Daily Digest, 10 March 1995.

Percentage of Americans who said in a poll that they attended church at least once a week: 55%.

Source: The Economist, 3-10 June 1995.

Credit guarantees for the USSR (never repaid by Russia and not counted as part of Russia's external debt), issued by the United States government in 1991 and used by Mikhail Gorbachev's government to purchase American wheat: $3.74 billion.

Source: Associated Press, 24 March 1995.

Number of murders committed in Poland (pop. 39 million) in 1989 and 1994, respectively: 556 and 1,212.

Source: Reuter (Warsaw), 11 July 1995.

Number of murders committed in the Russian Federation (pop. 149 million) in 1994: 32,300.

Source: Reuter, 14 March 1995.

Number of Russian women murdered by partners in 1994: 15,000.

Source: Reuter (Moscow), 18 June 1995.

Fatalities caused by drunks in the Russian Federation in 1994: 53,000.

Source: Associated Press, 16 May 1995.

Percentage of computer software in Russia used illegally: 98%.

Source: Pravda, 31 March 1995, as reported by Sharon Fisher, OMRI, 31 March 1995.

Number of inhabitants of Germany who originally came from Turkey: 2 million, including 450,000 Kurds.

Source: Associated Press, 16 March 1995.

Size of the German armed forces in 1994: 370,000.
Projected size of the German armed forces by the end of 1995: 340,000.

Source: Reuter, 14 March 1995.

Size of the Ukrainian armed forces in 1995: 370,000.
Projected size of the Ukrainian armed forces by the end of the century: 250,000.

Source: Reuter, 27 March 1995.

Size of the Belarusian armed forces in 1995: 153,840, of which 90,400 are troops.
Size of the Belarusian armed forces after the proposed reductions: 60,000 troops and 18,000 technical workers.

Source: Belarusian radio on 27 June, as reported by Ustina Markus, OMRI Daily Digest, 30 June 1995.

1993 life expectancy for men and women in Ukraine: 63.6 years and 73.4 years, respectively.

Source: U. N. Report released 6 March 1995, as reported by Reuter, 6 March 1995.

Value of Ukrainian exports in January-February 1995 to countries outside the CIS: $140 million.
Value of Ukrainian imports in January-February 1995 from countries outside the CIS: $40 million.

Source: OMRI Daily Digest, 28 April 1995.

Exchange rate in February-May 1995 between Ukrainian and American currecy: 150,000 karbovanets/$1.00.

Source: Reuter (Kiev), 5 May 1995.

Foreign investment in Ukraine (pop. 52 million) in 1994: $200 million.
Foreign investment in the Czech Republic (pop. 10 million) in 1994: $1.4 billion.
Foreign investment in Hungary (pop. 10 million) in 1994: $750 million.

Source: Ustina Markus, OMRI Daily Digest, 13 March 1995.

Total foreign investment, since 1989, in Hungary and the Czech Republic, respectively: $6.9 billion and $2.4 billion.

Source: Reuter, 1 April 1995.

Total foreign investment in Poland since 1989: $5.4 billion.

Source: Polish Finance Minister Grzegorz Kolodko, as reported by Reuter (Warsaw), 5 July 1995

Projected Ukrainian budget for 1995: $12.9 billion.
Projected Ukrainian state revenues in 1995: $10.5 billion.

Source: Reuter, 16 March 1995.


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