The hottest Substack posts of Devlin’s Newsletter

And their main takeaways

Austerity, budgets and prices

137 implied HN points • 11 Mar 23
🌍 World Politics Economic Theory Trade
  1. Prices are important in the context of budgets and interactions with preferences.
  2. Socialist states faced challenges with deficits, inflation, and the need for subsidies.
  3. Cooperation was needed among socialist states to trade, dismantle price controls, and manage production networks.

In the Shadow of Stumbling Colossus

78 implied HN points • 16 Apr 23
🌍 World Politics Military Training Wars Tactics Soviet Union
  1. The Cult of Victory related to WW2 had negative impacts on Russia, promoting bad military practices and authoritarianism.
  2. The Soviet Invasion of Manchuria wasn't a great military operation and doesn't exemplify operational art excellence.
  3. Soviet tactical training in WW2 was consistently poor, affecting the army's readiness and performance.

Tsarist prisons didn't have a peculiarly large mortality

58 implied HN points • 18 Jul 21
  1. There is a misconception about mortality rates in Tsarist prisons compared to Soviet prisons.
  2. The confusion arises from comparing crude death rates per 1000 and mortality rates in percentages.
  3. Research shows that the Tsarist penal system did deteriorate towards the end, but the contrast in mortality rates is not as stark as commonly believed.
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