In the former Soviet bloc countries, the situation is different.

Five other women, all from Eastern bloc countries, had better marks.

K-700s and its variants are still used today in former east bloc countries.

The flat tax has proved especially popular in former Soviet bloc countries.

"On the other hand, no one ever escaped a Soviet bloc country in front of a crowd."

At the same time, demands for economic aid from former Soviet bloc countries are increasing.

"More people from the former Communist bloc countries are writing and publishing books than can read them," he said.

One has only to think about the Soviet bloc countries in these terms to see how stagnant they are by comparison.

They've lost the means to continue pumping massive aid to the Eastern bloc countries.

"My homeland was much more liberated than the Soviet bloc countries," she wrote to me recently.