many of the citizens of the FSU took a big material hit > with its collapse. They did, but it remains to be seen whether or not that hit will be outweighed by future benefits, right? -- Luke That's always true, Luke. Since the future is unwritten, it always remains to be seen. Therefore that statement is unhelpful and no answer to anything. It was predictable -- I and others predicted (not quite accurately in detail, but accurate enough) -- that the collapse of central authority in the FSU would be disaster for the people of the FSU and the world. Actually when I predicted it it the SU wasn't F yet. It was obvious that the economy would be dismantled and looted by predators, that the leadership was following a disaterous Sachisna policy designed to impversih the nation, and that the US and the West had no good intentions towards the FSU. Moreover the collapse of the other superpower has destroyed the space left to small nations to maneouver an d invested the US with power to engage ina lmsot unlimited imperialism. In short, the collapse of the USSR was a total disaster, and it was inevitable that it would be such. (The end of Stalinism, that's another story.) jks <hr size=1>Do you Yahoo!? <a href="http://rd.yahoo.com/finance/mailtagline/*http://taxes.yahoo.com/">Yahoo! Tax Center</a> - forms, calculators, tips, and more