Why are countries in eastern Europe poorer than in western Europe?

为什么东欧国家比西欧国家贫穷？

以下是Quora网友的评论：

Skerdian Meta

Taking into account the last 1,000 years we can count many reasons:

回顾过去一千年，我们可以找出很多原因：

1.Reinassence took place in the west, which means that west Europeans were more advanced in poetry, science, arts and knowledge in general after 2–3 centuries of German fables and music, Italian opera,, gothic architecture end a lot more, which makes a society more advanced.

2.Spirit of freedom. The west had many struggles so the population can get enough freedom from the oppressing elites. Started with the Magna Carta in the UK, which led the foundation for a “free” nation, with some sort of rights and respect for the broader population. The French revolution, German and Italian unification, Spanish Reconquista, US independence war etc. The west fought for its freedom and the right to prosper.

1.文艺复兴发生在西方，意味着在经历了2-3个世纪的德国寓言和音乐、意大利歌剧、哥特式建筑的发展之后，西欧人在诗歌、科学、艺术和整体知识方面都更加先进，社会也更加先进。

2.自由精神。西方经历过很多斗争，所以人们可以从统治精英那里获得足够的自由。首先是英国的《大宪章》，它奠定了一个“自由”国家的基础，赋予了更多民众权利和尊重。法国大革命，德国和意大利的统一，西班牙收复失地运动，美国独立战争等等。西方为自由和发展的权利而战。

3.The industrial revolution took place in the west, starting in the UK first, then spreading to north west Europe and north Italy. East Europe and China were mostly peasants and farmers until 1990s.

4.The spirit of business and enterpreneurship was born in the west. For the reasons mentioned above, and below, people in the west have a more advanced sense of business.

3.工业革命发生在西方，率先从英国开始爆发，然后蔓延到西北欧和意大利北部。直到20世纪90年代，东欧和中国还都是以农民为主。

4.商业精神和企业家精神诞生于西方。由于上下文提到的几点原因，西方人拥有更先进的商业意识。

5. The philosophy of the east-west schism after WW2 was the co unist east would have no materialism, no private ownership, nothing. All food was being exported somewhere from all Easter agricultural countries. The western capitalism had materialism as the basic concept but without values, unless people embraced them themselves.

5. 二战后东西方分裂的哲学是，东方没有物质主义，没有私有制，什么都没有。所有的食物都是东方农业国家出口的。西方以物质主义为基本概念，但没有价值观，除非人们自己接受。

Kancheepuram Narasimhan

One reason I can think of:

我能想到的一个原因是：

Britain (Now UK): had 50 Asian/ African countries in their empire. Looted Gold/silver/tin, rubber, cloves, tea, Copper , petroleum -well every thing

France: Had huge colony in Africa, Asia to loot.

Nederland : had huge Indonesia ( called Dutch East India till 1946) to loot

Belgium had Congo to loot.

英格兰(现在的英国)：大英帝国曾经统领了50个亚非国家，英国掠夺了金/银/锡、橡胶、丁香、茶、铜、石油—嗯，几乎一切。

法国：在非洲和亚洲有巨大的殖民地可供掠夺。

荷兰：有大片的印度尼西亚(1946年前称为荷属东印度)可供掠夺

比利时有刚果可以掠夺。

Spain had: Entire Central / South America (except Brz) to loot + Philippines in Asia

Portigal: had gigantic Brazil plus colonies in Africa/ India/ China/ Indonesia to loot.

Germany: had colony in Africa

西班牙：有整个中南美洲(巴西除外)和亚洲的菲律宾

葡萄牙：有庞大的巴西以及非洲、印度、中国和印度尼西亚的殖民地可供掠夺。

德国：在非洲有殖民地

BUT none of East african countries: Bulgaria/ Romania/ Serbia, Macedonia/ Poland, Czech, Hungary, Greece, Crotia, Slovenia, Bosnia had colonies to loot.

但是东非国家比如保加利亚/罗马尼亚/塞尔维亚、马其顿/波兰、捷克、匈牙利、希腊、克罗地亚、斯洛文尼亚、波斯尼亚，都没有殖民地。

Earl William Morris

Well, this question isn't very specific, but the general presumption is that you're referring to financial wealth. Poverty is relative and there are different measures of poverty. Fiscally speaking almost all of Eastern Europe is economically poorer than Western Europe.

That's one measure of wealth, GDP. An exception here would be Finland. Financially speaking Finland, which shares a massive border with Russia and is in the Eastern European Time Zone is as wealthy or wealthier than numerous nations in Western Europe. The Czech Republic also falls into this group on a per capita basis.

好吧，这个问题不是很具体，但一般都假设你指的是金融财富。贫穷是相对的，贫穷有不同的衡量标准。从经济上说，几乎所有东欧国家在经济上都比西欧穷。

GDP是衡量财富的标准之一。但芬兰是个例外。芬兰与俄罗斯接壤，位于东欧时区，从经济上讲，芬兰与西欧的许多国家一样富裕，甚至更加富裕。按人均GDP计算，捷克共和国也是富裕国家。

However, government reserves, cash in hand, or in the bank, is not the only measure of wealth. There are areas of Eastern Europe that have wealth in natural resources that are untapped/underdeveloped. Finland also falls into this group, along with some of the Balkan Nations, Poland, Ukraine, and the two northernmost Baltic Nations, Estonia and Latvia which have some quite large and relatively untapped natural gas reserves.

但政府储备金，即手中的现金或银行存款，并不是衡量财富的唯一标准。东欧有些地区拥有未开发的丰富的自然资源。芬兰也属于这一类，还有一些巴尔干国家，波兰、乌克兰，以及波罗的海最北端的两个国家，爱沙尼亚和拉脱维亚，这两个国家拥有相当可观的、尚未开发的天然气储量。

When standard of living is considered it can be said that certain Eastern European nations do have a higher standard of living than large parts of their Western European neighbours. This is a complex subject and one must look at a litany of economic measurements to compare the two parts of Europe, and overall Western European nations are much wealthier than their counterparts in Eastern Europe, but there are exceptions and in the future this will change on a case by case basis.

在考虑到生活水平时，有些东欧国家的生活水平确实高于其西欧邻国的大部分地区。这是一个复杂的问题，人们必须用一连串的经济指标来对比欧洲的两个部分，总的来说，西欧国家比东欧国家富裕得多，但也有例外，未来这种情况也会根据具体情况而改变。

Inshal

The Roman Empire, at its zenith, controlled vast territories with an estimated population of over 50 million people, creating a vast internal market that facilitated trade and economic growth. In contrast, the territories of Eastern Europe, with their fragmented tribes, did not benefit from such large-scale economic integration.

罗马帝国在其鼎盛时期控制着大片领土，人口估计超过5000万，创造了一个巨大的内部市场，促进了贸易和经济的增长。相比之下，东欧地区的部落较为分散，并未从大规模的经济一体化中受益。

During the height of the Hanseatic League in the 14th century, it comprised over 200 cities, facilitating trade routes that stretched from London to Novgorod. This trade network significantly boosted the economies of the member cities.

The Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries saw Western European countries surge ahead. For instance, by 1850, the United Kingdom had produced 53% of the world's coal and 50% of its iron. Eastern Europe, still largely agrarian, did not experience the same rapid industrial growth.

在14世纪汉萨同盟的鼎盛时期，有200多个城市，推动了从伦敦延伸到诺夫哥罗德的贸易路线。这一贸易网络极大地促进了成员城市的经济发展。

18、19世纪的工业革命使西欧国家突飞猛进。例如，到1850年，英国生产了世界上53%的煤和50%的铁。东欧仍然以农业生产为主，没有跟上快速的工业增长。

Post-World War II, the Marshall Plan provided over $12 billion (equivalent to roughly $130 billion today when adjusted for inflation) in aid to Western European countries. This financial injection played a crucial role in their post-war recovery. Meanwhile, Eastern European countries under Soviet influence did not receive such aid and often had to send reparations to the USSR.

第二次世界大战后，马歇尔计划向西欧国家提供了超过120亿美元的经济援助(经通货膨胀调整后，约相当于今天的1300亿美元)。这一资金的注入对战后西欧的复苏起到了至关重要的作用。与此同时，受苏联影响的东欧国家没有得到这种经济援助，经常被迫向苏联支付赔款。

By the end of the 20th century, the GDP per capita of Western European countries like Germany and France was over $20,000, while many Eastern European countries had figures below $5,000.

Today, while the gap has narrowed thanks to the European Union's efforts and the resilience of Eastern European nations, disparities remain. For instance, in 2019, Luxembourg, a Western European nation, had a GDP per capita of over $115,000, while Bulgaria, an Eastern European country, had a figure of just over $9,000.

到20世纪末，德国和法国等西欧国家的人均GDP超过了2万美元，而许多东欧国家的人均GDP还不到5000美元。

今天，虽然由于欧盟的努力和东欧国家的恢复，东西欧国家的差距已经缩小，但这种差距依然存在。例如，2019年，西欧国家卢森堡的人均GDP超过11.5万美元，而东欧国家保加利亚的人均GDP仅略高于9000美元。

A Dude

Because they are former vassals of the Soviet Union. They had the dual misfortune of being subject to ruinous Soviet economic policies while simultaneously having their resources plundered by the Russians. Then there is the political upheaval caused by the power vacuums left by the Soviet Union after its collapse. These aren’t things you just bounce back from.

因为他们是苏联的附庸国。他们经历了双重不幸，一方面受制于苏联毁灭性的经济政策，另一方面资源又被俄罗斯大肆掠夺。苏联解体后，留下的权力真空又造成了动荡。这些事情都不是能很快恢复过来的。

Thuyết Vị Lai

Most Western European countries are former colonial powers, and there is no doubt that the wealth that Western Europeans accumulated from the 16th century until World War II was the looting of the entire world.

Also during this period, Southeast Europe was invaded by Ottoman Muslims and ruled for a few centuries until the Russians repeatedly defeated the Ottomans, and Southeast European countries have since regained their independence. ,

How can the robber be poorer than the robbed?

大多数西欧国家都曾经是殖民国家，从16世纪到第二次世界大战，西欧人就是靠在全世界四处掠夺积累了巨额财富。

而在这一时期，东南欧被奥斯曼MSL入侵并统治了几个世纪之久，随后俄罗斯人多次击败奥斯曼人，东南欧国家才得以重新获得独立。

强盗怎么会比被抢的人穷呢？

Federico Giancane

Short answer: Capitalism

Long answer: After the fall of the Eastern Bloc, the stable growth of Eastern European countries was cut short and there was a massive recession, especially in Russia, from which they never recovered. For the countries that joined the EU, they became part of a liberal shared market made specifically to exploit other countries at the advantage of Western Europe, so now many Eastern European countries are exploited by their own capitalist or quasi-(Poland, Hungary, Belarus, the Ukraine, Russia) AND by other capitalist countries (Romania, Bulgaria, the Baltics, Slovakia, Czechia)

简短回答：资  本主义

详细回答：东欧集团解体后，东欧国家的稳定增长被打断了，出现了大规模的经济衰退，尤其是俄罗斯，至今一直没有恢复。对于加入欧盟的国家来说，他们成了自由共享市场的一份子，这个市场就是为了利用西欧的优势来剥削其他国家而成立的，所以现在许多东欧国家都被他们自己的资  本主义政权（波兰、匈牙利、白俄罗斯、乌克兰、俄罗斯）和其他资 本主义国家（罗马尼亚、保加利亚、波罗的海国家、斯洛伐克、捷克）剥削。

Rasa Mišeikytė

Because of former Soviet Empire and current Russia’s desire to rule the world. When for so long being born in rich or land owner family was crime punishable and later economy was being managed by dumb leaders, sure Soviet economy was in ruins, which caused Perestroika (attempt to revive economy from “bottoms”). This, thankfully, gave opportunity to occupied middle European (Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia) and other countries to escape Soviet Empire, but also lead to end of this empire and further economical crash in all post-Soviet space because of broken production chains

因为前苏联帝国和现在的俄罗斯想要统治世界。长期以来，出生在富人或地主家庭就是一种犯罪，后来经济一团糟，苏联经济注定是一片废墟，这导致了改革(试图从“底部”复苏经济)。值得庆幸的是，这给了被占领的中欧(立陶宛、爱沙尼亚、拉脱维亚)和其他国家逃离苏联帝国的机会，但也导致了帝国的终结，苏联解体后这些国家因为生产链断裂而发生了经济崩溃。

It was all only 30 years ago when this crash happened and only about 20 years ago (around 1999) when economies reached pre-1990 level. So, basically, middle and eastern Europe economies had only 20 years to grow from very poor level, using only borrowed capital, because there wasn’t any own (contrary to East Germany, which was developed with West Germany capital). To make matters worse, Russia practically all accumulated wealth is using to engange in wars with it’s neighbours - Georgia, Moldova, Syria, Ukraine, …, so economy grow in Russia turns out to be a basically bad thing, leading to destruction in Russia’s neighourhood. As any kind of war is a big strain on economies.

So yes, reason of weak economy in post Soviet space is Russia’s imperialism

这是30年前的事，在大约20年前(1999年左右)，各经济体才勉强恢复到1990年前的水平。所以基本上，中欧和东欧经济体从非常贫穷的境地开始发展，只用了20年的时间，只能用借来的资金，因为他们自己没有资金(与东德相反，东德是用西德的资金发展起来的)。更糟的是，俄罗斯积累的几乎所有财富都用在了和邻国—格鲁吉亚、摩尔多瓦、叙利亚、乌克兰……的战争上了，所以俄罗斯的经济增长基本上就是一件坏事，导致了俄罗斯邻国的悲剧。因为任何形式的战争都是对经济的巨大压力。

所以，是的，苏联解体后经济疲软的原因是俄罗斯的帝国主义。