ABSTRACT
Across a long span of time, economic and social progress has everywhere been the norm. Every country of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union made great progress in improving their living conditions between the end of the Second World War in 1945 and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Even if Europeans regard current living standards as less than ideal, they are invariably better than those of parents or grandparents who grew up during depression or war. Communist societies were no exception to this rule.
