> > Russia and it is nearly universally recognized that independence was a
> > disaster for practically everyone who tried it.
>
> Logically, it very often is anywhere since a national bourgeoisie (or
other
> local ruling class) often has a lot less interest in foreign trade than an
> imperial bourgeoisie. In fact some of the postcolonial countries which
have
> done better than their neighbours are actually those in which a war of
> independence was brutally defeated by the imperial power (e.g. Kenya and
> Malaysia).
I can't imagine many Asian postcolonial countries that are not better off after independence. In which part of Asia, was independence a disaster? And I don't have fSU in mind.
Ulhas