1st Edition

From Revolution to Uncertainty The Year 1990 in Central and Eastern Europe

    284 Pages
    by Routledge

    284 Pages
    by Routledge

    Throughout Eastern Europe, the unexpected and irrevocable fall of communism that began in the late 1980s presented enormous challenges in the spheres of politics and society, as well as at the level of individual experience. Excitement, uncertainty, and fear predicated the shaping of a new order, the outcome of which was anything but predetermined.



    Recent studies have focused on the ambivalent impact of capitalism. Yet, at the time, parliamentary democracy had equally few traditions to return to, and membership in the European Union was a distant dream at best. Nowadays, as new threats arise, Europe’s current political crises prompt us to reconsider how liberal democracy in Eastern Europe came about in the first place.



    This book undertakes an analysis of the year 1990 in several countries throughout Europe to consider the role of uncertainty and change in shaping political nations.

    Illustrations





    List of Contributors





    Introduction



    Włodzimierz Borodziej, Stanislav Holubec and Joachim von Puttkamer





    Chapter 1



    Groping in the dark: expectations and predictions, 1988–1991



    Philipp Ther





    Chapter 2

    Catalysts of the collapse and of the transition, 1989–1990



    Mary Elise Sarotte





    Chapter 3



    Poland and the collapse of the patron in 1989–90: as seen from the Polish embassy in Moscow



    Włodzimierz Borodziej





    Chapter 4



    Tea with the primate: at the roots of political conflict in Poland



    Joachim von Puttkamer





    Chapter 5



    Czechoslovakia’s year of decision: from the socialist revolution of 1989 to the ‘real’ revolution of 1990



    James Krapfl





    Chapter 6



    Talkin’ bout a revolution: on the social memory of 1989 in Hungary



    Éva Kovács





    Chapter 7



    A transition to what and whose democracy? 1990 in Bulgaria and Romania



    Bogdan C. Iacob





    Chapter 8



    When the Slovenian Spring turned into a hot summer



    Marko Zajc





    Chapter 9



    1990: building democracy in Yugoslavia and the danger of war



    Marie-Janine Calic





    Chapter 10



    Transforming industry: on the corporate origins of post-socialist nostalgia in Poland



    Joanna Wawrzyniak





    Chapter 11



    German reunification and the dynamics of migration



    Tim Schanetzky





    Chapter 12



    The party is over: the identities and biographies of Czechoslovak and East German (post) communists in the year 1990



    Stanislav Holubec





    Chapter 13



    Poland, the German question, and German unification, 1989–1991



    Włodzimierz Borodziej





    Chapter 14



    The German question and its European solution



    Wilfried Loth





    Index

    Biography

    Włodzimierz Borodziej is professor of History at Warsaw University, Stanislav Holubec is a researcher at the Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, and Joachim von Puttkamer is professor of Eastern European History at Jena University and co-director of the Imre Kertész Kolleg.