I'm wondering how those who fared best insulated themselves from the effects, and if anyone was able to actually improve their circumstance similar to our recent so-called Great Recession.
There are not many who did benefit, Japan might be the only one that comes to mind. For one, they had very favourable circumstances. While their GDP went down at the beginning of the crisis, they quickly and decisively took action. First, they dropped the gold standard. They were no longer tied to buying more gold to inflate their currency. Then they started deficit spending, which acted as a stimulus for their economy. Meanhile, they devalued their own currency, which is not the best thing for your national markets but very good for exports, because your exports become cheaper for everyone else. Because of this effect, japanese exports (especially manufactured goods like clothing) replaced british products on the international market. Their heavy deficit spending also enabled them to build up their secondary sector, thereby avoiding the structural crisis that many countries which still relied heavily on the primary sector suffered until the second world war. While they were able to improve their position on the international market and push their secondary sector forward quickly, their fiscal politic also created heavy inflation that plagued japan for years and was only solved after the second world war. In a sense, they didnt really benefit from the depression, but the crisis forced them to make a move and they made the right one.
The Soviet Union had economic growth during this time period because, they were more self sufficient then most countries. But economic growth is just one thing, at the same time the Holodomor happened killing more then 6 million people.
But I'll refer to someone more knowledgable then me:
And (although that doesn't say everything) GDP per country from 1820 and up.
http://www.worldeconomics.com/Data/MadisonHistoricalGDP/Madison%20Historical%20GDP%20Data.efp