OP
Redneck in training
Elite Member
I can speak about Czechoslovakia only. The population was 100% literate. There was a time when Czechoslovakia had the largest number of graduates from engineering and science programs per capita in the world. I kind of vaguely remember that it was about double of Japan which was number two. That doesn't say anything about quality though. The fact was that there was large number of very good engineers. The lack of progress was caused by colossal mismanagement of resources and economy.
I have several friends who were working in R&D in the past. They told me they worked on company project about 10% of the time and rest on their personal projects such as electronic ignition or interval control for windshield wipers for cars they were putting together at home and selling them to make some extra money.
One of the guys designed a machine that makes pencils (he was R&D engineer for pencil and pen maker) but it was never built until the regime collapsed. He and his son now own small business making them and selling them all over the world.
Desperation is a mother of invention. Classmate of my son lost his job after the regime collapsed. He and his brother found that there was lot of old unused machinery lying around on former collective farms. They bought few AO torches and went around offering disposal service. They removed all parts that had some value and cut the rest in pieces and sold the metal. The business expanded rapidly and today it is pretty large company that deconstructs metal structures all over the world.
There are many stories like that. The country changed quite rapidly for better after the commies were gone.
Little about history:
When Austrian Hungarian Empire blew up after WW1 90% of its industrial power was located where the Czech Republic is today. So called 1st republic (Czechoslovakia between WW1 and WW2) became 7 largest economy on the world with only about 12 million people. The country suffered only insignificant WW2 damage. All locomotives on the railroad were shot, few bridges were bombed, Skoda factory in Plzen was bombed and that was about it. Germans moved a lot of military production to Czechoslovakia during the war because it was out of reach of allied bombers. When Germans left the factories were ready to take off having initial supply of materials courtesy of Germany. Red army overthrew the government 1948 and installed communists in power. Then it went downhill from there. About 1963 the country was pretty much bankrupt. There was not much love between Czechoslovakian communists and the Russians. Most communists at any level were simple opportunist that cared little about the ideology. They just packed their pockets. About 1966 they tried to separate themselves from Russian control and tried to reform the party. But 1968 Brezhnev sent Red army to install the obedient one back. After that production every key part of pretty much of any important product was moved away from the country so they could choke it if necessary. In example friend of mine worked in a company that made radars and guiding systems for commercial airports. Production of magnetrons was moved to Russia and they ended making just the antennas.
) and 15 years ago he bought the Kalkar nuclear plant in Germany (which was never active, so no radioactivity) stripped the scrap, and also made a lunapark. He pulled a safety net over the cooling towers and used the blowers to give people a sensation of weightlessness by blowing them up in the air. This guy finished only elementary school because he was badly dyslexic. He has turned scrap into bungalow parks, and rubble into theme parks, with no noteworthy education.