The essay focuses on impact of the political, economic and social transformation on the Czech society and its mindset after 1989.

More than three decades after the reunification of Germany, significant differences between East and West Germany remain visible. The transformation process in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) left lasting marks across various aspects of life for its citizens and the inhabitants of the new federal states within the Federal Republic of Germany. This article aims to analyse the course and assess the consequences of East Germany’s social transformation following reunification. It begins by outlining the theoretical framework underpinning the East German transformation, including key definitions, major theories, and prevailing research directions, alongside a brief overview of the reunification process itself. The central focus is on the trajectory and outcomes of the transformation, particularly in the social sphere. This includes examining issues such as unemployment, labour market challenges, wage disparities, demographic issues – including the emigration of young, skilled workers to the wealthier western states, and the resulting depopulation of numerous towns and villages. Additionally, the article explores the development of a distinct East German identity and the phenomenon of Ostalgie – nostalgia for life under the GDR – as well as electoral tendencies.

This article examines a few historiographical issues in Romania’s political transformation process which were significant for the transition from the communist dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu to the political pluralism of the early 1990s. The article presents a selection of the main perspectives on the topic by representative authors while discussing several important concepts (national communism, national Stalinism, protochronism). Starting from here, the author remarks on the growing contestation, especially by some political scientists, of the concept of national communism as applied to the period of Ceaușescu’s rule. A further topic is the legacy of the communist regime, which was still visible after December 1989. Finally there comes an examination of the causes of the difficulties Romania faced in its transition from communism to a liberal democracy.

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was the only bloody one among that year’s upheavals in Eastern Europe. It was also the only one followed by an even bloodier, if short-lived, counter-revolution (on use and meaning of the term, see Meusel 1936; Tilly 1973; Allison 2022; Trăgători 2019; Căderea 2022). These peculiarities were largely due to Nicolae Ceaușescu’s tyrannic leadership style (see Otto 1990) (he also was known as the last ‘Stalinist’ of the Soviet Bloc, see Whitney 1989) and his Securitate. At the time, Romanian and foreign journalists as well as military and civilian actors of the events observed that after the dictator’s escape from the seat of power on 22 December 1989, a part of the Securitate continued to fight for his reinstatement (see Binder 1989; Romania 1989; and Romanian Revolution of December 1989 website). Combined with an intense psychological campaign meant to sow panic and chaos among the military and revolutionaries, their guerilla-style attacks were considered acts of terrorism. Yet after Ceaușescu’s execution, some of his loyalists were co-opted in the new administration’s intelligence units. The unresolved issue of the terrorists’ identity and the role of the Securitate plagued the Romanian transition to democracy and made the Romanian Revolution the most ‘entangled’ in Eastern Europe.

The article discusses Tadeusz Mazowiecki’s government’s reactions to two pathological phenomena that stirred up intense social emotions. The phenomena were a consequence of the actions taken by the last communist government of the Polish People’s Republic led by Mieczysław Rakowski. First of all, the analysis focuses on actions directed at people from the apparatus of the Polish People’s Republic, who acquired part of the assets of state enterprises and institutions using the legal regulations. The remainder of the article discusses attempts at counteracting the mass import of alcohol from abroad, which was causing considerable losses to the state budget.

This article discusses the actions undertaken by the authorities of the Polish People’s Republic to regulate the institution of a state of emergency within the communist dictatorship, as a result of the experiences of martial law (1981–1983), as well as the practical implications of these preparations in the context of the crisis in Poland in 1988 and the political process leading to the transformation of the political system in 1989. The worsening economic crisis in Poland in 1988 and, as a consequence, two waves of protests and strikes (in the spring and summer of 1988), prompted the authorities to move from formally creating the legal and organisational framework for a state of emergency to making preparations for its actual introduction, intended to pacify society. The threat of introducing a state of emergency was also used as a means of exerting pressure on the self-organising social resistance and on opposition representatives who had entered into dialogue with the authorities, seeking to increase civil liberties and human rights and to reform the political and economic system.

The aim of the paper is to show how the understanding of the transformation evolved over the last thirty years and how the way of thinking about this process has changed in Polish sociology. The subject of the analysis are sociological studies that concerned the transformation itself and its key dimensions. It was understood as modernisation in all its dimensions: economic, political, cultural, and social. Its main purpose was beyond dispute. Sociologists’ interpretations changed mainly under the influence of new circumstances, but their visions and beliefs also evolved. Over the course of three decades, three successive visions of the transformation were created, which indicated key structural factors, dominant actors, or conflicting interests: the idea of a quick transition, in which sociologists focused on recording changes and comparing them to a presumed goal; the concept of post-communism as a separate transitional period marked by a departure from rapid imitative modernisation; and a vision of transformation as an element of a wider, international context, crucial in which are the semi-peripheral location of Central and Eastern Europe and the regional history of modernisation of an underdeveloped area.

This article is devoted to the initial period of Poland’s economic transformation from a administrative-command system to a market economy. It covers the years 1988–1991, that is, three successive government cabinets. On the one hand, that transformation was accompanied by struggles arising from the legacy of the Polish People’s Republic – above all, inflation and shortages in the domestic market. On the other hand, during the same period, Poland initiated the efforts to integrate with the European Communities and to reorient its foreign trade priorities. The author argues that, in the economic sphere, the transformation preceded the political fall of communism.