This volume was prepared concurrently to the edition of the issue 6 (2024–2025) of Institute of National Remembrance Review. The organisational and editorial matters caused the planned issue concerning transformation of Central and Eastern Europe in 1988–1991 to be split into two parts. This part encompasses the papers on the transformation occurrences in the former Soviet Union countries and provides overviews of selected books concerning their democratic transformation.

Among the included texts are articles by Jacek Wróbel (employee of the IPN Archives) on the separatist uprising in Transnistria – the quasi-state on the border between Moldova and Ukraine; by Dr. habil. Dariusz Miszewski (lecturer with the War Studies University in Warsaw) on Russian interference in Ukrainian internal affairs in regard to its separatist and autonomous movements; by Dr. Monika Rogers (researcher at the Lithuanian Institute of History in Vilnius) on the legal changes originating from process of democratic transition and dealing with the Soviet past in Lithuania; and by Dr. Yuriy Serebriansky (Deputy President of the Kazakhstan PEN Club) on the impact of the transformation in the USSR on the Polish diaspora – in fact composed of the descendants of Polish deportees and exiles from Communist era – in Kazakhstan. The issue closes with some book review articles: by Dr. habil. Zbigniew Bereszyński (independent researcher) on Tomasz Kozłowski’s book (Koniec imperium MSW. Transformacja organów bezpieczeństwa państwa 1989–1990, 2019) concerning the transition of the Communist security police during the democratic transformation in Poland; by Dr. Prokop Tomek (historian at the Military Historical Institute in Prague) on an edited volume about the events of 1989, published by the Slovak Nation’s Memory Institute (Ústav pamäti národa, ÚPN) (1989 Rok zmeny. Zborník z medzinárodnej vedeckej konferencie, Bratislava 4-5 November 2014. 1989 – Year of Change. Anthology of the International Scientific Conference, Bratislava 4–5 November 2014, 2017); by Dr. Daniel Povolný (historian at the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, USTR, in Prague) on an edited volume about the fall of communist regimes in Central Europe, published by the Institute of Contemporary History in Prague (Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR, ÚSD) (Dominový efekt: opoziční hnutí v zemích střední Evropy a pád komunistických režimů v roce 1989, 2013); by Professor Hubert Wilk (researcher at the Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History of Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw) on Michał Przeperski’s book Dziki Wschód. Transformacja po polsku 1986–1993 concerning the social face of transformation in Poland; by Dr. habil. Cecylia Kuta (researcher at the Institute of National Remembrance Branch in Cracow) on Paulina Codogni’s book (Wybory czerwcowe 1989 roku, 2012) about the process of political transformation in Poland; and by Professor Grzegorz Hryciuk (lecturer at the University of Wrocław) on Matěj Bílý’s book (Varšavská smlouva 1985–1991. Dezintegrace a rozpad, 2021) concerning the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. The issue ends with a conference report penned by Piotr Skrzypiński (doctorate student at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań) concerning the October 2024 conference in Toruń held on the 40th anniversary of abduction and murder of Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko.