The ex-communist states of eastern Europe are leaving their pasts behind

WHERE would they be without their past, the ex-captive nations? (Or “ex-communist countries”, “former Soviet satellite states”, “the old Eastern block”: so much history even in the category). The region between the Baltic and the Black Sea is so shaped by history that at first sight the question seems absurd. Trianon, Yalta, Molotov-Ribbentrop, Munich—the gloomy echoes of past betrayals and atrocities are inescapable.

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