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This paper compares the post-Soviet (1990–2014) economic growth performance of the fSU republics with that during the late Soviet period (1969-1990). The winners from the Soviet Union’s dissolution accelerated, and the losers failed to accelerate. Armenia did accelerate against the odds, while Lithuania did not accelerate. A large diaspora is reputed to be the crucial Armenian advantage, but the Lithuanian diaspora in the U.S. was much larger and affluent by 1990. However, the Nagorno-Karabakh war mobilized the American Armenian diaspora, while under peaceful transition in Lithuania American Lithuanians did not mobilize, unlike at the time of the Lithuanian Independence war in 1918–1920.