Crash Course in Soviet Geography

In my previous post The Year of Big Changes, I worked out the number of Soviet players absorbed by the 15 ex-USSR federations (countries) after the breakup of the Soviet Union. I also remarked that the numbers didn't look right to me. After a little more work, I determined that they look very good indeed. First, here's a political map of the USSR in 1989.

Taking Russia first, then circling it counterclockwise starting with the Baltic republics, here is the population (in millions, July 2007 est.) and the number of FIDE players in 1991 for each country.

141.4 706 RUS (Russia)
    1.3   17 EST (Estonia)
    2.3   15 LAT (Latvia)
    3.6     9 LTU (Lithuania)
    9.7   27 BLR (Belarus)
  46.3 197 UKR (Ukraine)
    4.3   10 MDA (Moldova)
    4.6   51 GEO (Georgia)
    3.0   23 ARM (Armenia)
    8.1   12 AZE (Azerbaijan)
    5.1     2 TKM (Turkmenistan)
  27.8   28 UZB (Uzbekistan)
    7.1     4 TJK (Tajikistan)
    5.3     7 KGZ (Kyrgyzstan)
  15.3   15 KAZ (Kazakhstan)

Credits:

• Full map: Soviet Union - Administrative Divisions 1989
• More maps: Russia and the Former Soviet Republics Maps (Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection)
• Populations: CIA - The World Factbook