Unfinished Revolution

While the West has repeatedly been sold images of a victorious people's revolution in 1989, the idea that dictatorship has been truly overcome is foreign to many in the former Communist bloc. In this wide-ranging work, James Mark examines how new democratic societies are still divided by the past. While some view 1989 as a betrayal and defeat, and continue an "unfinished struggle" against the former regime, others seek to heal the divisions of history, and ex-Communists proclaim themselves to be the real liberators from dictatorship. This book also presents the voices of ordinary people who lived through Communism to uncover the variety of ways in which they now come to terms with their choices and experiences. Drawing on a broad range of themes and sources – speeches, public ritual, protest, international disputes, museums, memorials, forensic archaeology, secret police archives, and interviews – this is the first work to integrate the study of politics, culture, and social memory across east-central Europe.