1st Edition

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

284 Pages
by Routledge

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... Read more

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.