- What are the main causes of the collapse of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe?

- What were the key factors that lead to the breakup of the Soviet Union?
- What are some of the challenges to be expected in a post-communist society?
- What would be the most important legacy of the Communist period?

*economic problems – transition from planned economy to free market; privatization; continued
problem of emigration
*dealing with the past – crimes under the regime; surveillance of the secret service; how to deal
with people who were part of the system;
*identity – redefining identities; also longing for Communism, examples of DDR (Ostalgie) and
former Yu (Yugonostalgia)
*borders – Russian minorities in other Soviet republic; ethnic divisions in former Yugoslavia;
countries with no experience of political independance; Commonwealth of Independent States – ties
of former Soviet republics with Russia, dealing wih nuclear arsenal, Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol,
Crimea, Lukashenko in power in Belarus; dissolution of Czechoslovakia (Velvet Divorce, January
1993);