Hacker News Reader

Yugo was way richer than Albania, and I doubt Poland was as poor as Romania. So wasn't just a "we don't care they're mere peasants"

Again, ppl were technically allowed to leave the USSR (and East Germany too). But it might take 10 years and you were a social pariah in the meantime.

View on HN

You are right, it is hard to generalize: for example Albania did not dependent on Moscow at all and Romania even had its own foreign policy that did not automatically follow Moscow. Go figure...

You could leave the GDR - but you had to wait for the permit for several years and your ability to earn an income was severely restricted during that period; In the USSR Jews could apply for emigration since the seventies, and permission was very dependent on the current political climate and the whims of the higher ups.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com