Right, US 60,000 is also official.
55k iirc.
Difference in the USA they have published the names individually. And you can get access to government papers.
I can go their and write a book about Vietnam war and get access to source material.
I can't go to Russia and get access to the same materials say for WW2/Great PatriotIc War.
You could in the 90s, historians got to look at Stalins private papers and I don't think you can do that now.
I don't care as it's up to the Russians what they make available to foreigners.
But do you remember what I said about the west being scared of the USSR and vice versa? Kruschev for example claimed they were cranking out nukes like sausages and they took him literally. In reality they had 4 ICBMs.
The USSR and Russia aren't as transparent. That can cause problems. The CIA didn't predict the collapse of the USSR because they didn't have that information and the Soviet regime had closed cities etc. They had to interview tourists as in a lot of cases their information was limited to what they could see out side the window of the embassy in Moscow.
Now I don't expect to rock up to Russia and get a guided tour of a military base.
But if you're to secretive misunderstandings happen. Russia probably needed help in the 90s but in the lead up people didn't know how bad things were.
Leningrad and Moscow for example had the highest priority of goods and that's all the west really got to see except maybe Volga cruises and trips on the trans Siberian railroad.
And tourists only tend to see the good it's.
There's a Russian vlogger who's been to my country on YouTube. She couldn't do that 30 years ago. Soviet ambassadors daughter married and NZer and he went to Russia). Well you could probably do that 30 years ago.
That's better to NIMHO comeZ. Go to Russia have a beer, I hear Baltikas not bad.
