ABSTRACT
While every society is in transition, few have experienced transformation as abruptly and pervasively as nations once in the Communist bloc. Transformation is different in kind from the adaptation that established political systems periodically engage in to maintain their stability. Transformation is abnormal; it starts with the disruption of a steady state. It is a relatively short phase in a country’s history, an interlude between a way of life that has been upset and the establishment of a new way of governing society. In the case of the Communist bloc, it was more than a political revolution. There was the treble transformation of the economy, society and the political regime – and often of the boundaries of the state as well.
