Ethnic relations, economies of shortage, and the transition in Eastern Europe

The collapse of communist party rule in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union has been accompanied by severe ethno-national2 tensions throughout the region. Ceau escu was barely in his grave before Romanians and Hungarians began spilling one another’s blood and that of Gypsies (Roma); the Czech and Slovak parts of ‘Czecho-Slovakia’ began their post-communist history by quarrelling over a hyphen; the former entities ‘Yugoslavia’ and the ‘Soviet Union’ have ceased to exist as such, owing to seemingly irreconcilable differences among their nationalities; and anti-Semitism is on the rise throughout the region, even in places such as Poland where Jews are almost non-existent.