ABSTRACT
It is exactly nine years since I wrote the Reflections on the Revolution in Europe. In that spring of 1990, the transformation of the communist world was still in the early stages. Memories of Poland’s first non-communist government, of Vaclav Havel’s move from prison and the dissidents’ meetings in the Magic Lantern theater to the presidential Castle, of Ceaucescu’s sudden removal and assassination were still fresh. The Berlin Wall had fallen, but German unification had not yet been negotiated. It was almost foolhardy to try and map the future course of things from that time of turmoil to open and civil societies, the return of the lost East to Europe, to Central Europe even.
