ABSTRACT

The post-1989 period has seen a vast portion of the world undergoing a contested process of change which is arguably quite unique in world history. A huge region known as the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe which had integrated to form a 'Communist bloc' has become a series of relatively independent states trying to negotiate a complex change. As a part of these changes these countries are, to varying degrees, being reinserted into the capitalist world economy from which they were relatively isolated, and are contributing new geographies to the complex economic, social, political and cultural mosaic of world. In Eastern Europe before 1945, Communism actually had a rather limited impact, with Fascism being more influential in the late 1930s. World War Two saw the region invaded by the Germans and then the Russian Red Army. Agreements between the Soviets and the Allied Forces led to the territory of 'Eastern Europe' being acknowledged as the responsibility of the Red Army.