ABSTRACT
The collapse of the Soviet bloc drastically altered relations between Moscow and all the east European capitals. Poland's politicians remain fearful about the prospects and consequences of economic breakdown, political turmoil, and social unrest in the former USSR, renamed as the Commonwealth of independent States in December 1991. Poland borders on four post-Soviet republics—Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, and the Russian oblast of Kaliningrad. The Warsaw administration has tried to establish and expand good relations with these emerging states and avoid resuscitating any dormant historical conflicts. Poland also displayed concern about the control of post-Soviet strategic and tactical nuclear weapons and their division between the four nuclear republics. The Czechs and Slovaks did not share a frontier with the Russians until after World War Two, and few significant disputes materialized between Prague and Moscow in the pre-war period. Government officials voiced concern over the allegedly deteriorating position of the Polish minority as Vilnius reasserted its independence following the foiled Soviet putsch.
