>The USSR satellites were radically better off apart from Soviet Russia.
Well, no. Latvia is experiencing huge population drain and is being called "disappearing nation" [0], Estonia is not much better, and different -stans are slowly going back to the middle ages (I personally visited Uzbekistan for 2 weeks and witnessed it with my own eyes. It's not pretty).
I'm not saying that they were thriving under Soviet Union, obviously not, but you can hardly find a former USSR republic which shows stable growth in GDP per capita, population, and, say, ease of doing business.
Well, no. Latvia is experiencing huge population drain and is being called "disappearing nation" [0], Estonia is not much better, and different -stans are slowly going back to the middle ages (I personally visited Uzbekistan for 2 weeks and witnessed it with my own eyes. It's not pretty).
I'm not saying that they were thriving under Soviet Union, obviously not, but you can hardly find a former USSR republic which shows stable growth in GDP per capita, population, and, say, ease of doing business.
[0] https://www.politico.eu/article/latvia-a-disappearing-nation...
EDIT: oh, i'm stupid. you were speaking about sattelites meaning not parts of former USSR, but Eastern Block. Your point stands.