Introduction

The fall of the USSR did not bring about the “end of history” in its former space. If anything, history is being made there anew. The collapse of the Soviet Union has opened the historical stage to a whole host of new actors, new participants, who are determined to shape their own destinies—and the destinies of others. This in turn has forced traditional players to face problems never dreamt of, and has given us an unprecedented opportunity to observe phenomena well known from other historical situations but now taking place in a setting never seen before—a postcommunist world.