ABSTRACT
The dependence doxa can be thus defined as a naturalization of the region's structural dependence on the West. One could compare it to the earlier dependence of the region on the Soviet Union. Ironically, in the post-communist period, greater intellectual interest to mechanisms of the region's external dependence is now focused on the communist period and the region's dependence on the Soviet Union at that time. After all, it was the "Soviet colonization" and the imposition of communist "irrational economic system" on the region, which is now considered to be the main source of the region's "backwardness". Ever since the former Soviet Union lost its symbolic capital, the communist past has been considered a stigma and has been conflated with the classical orientalist set of features with regards to the negative stereotyping of Eastern Europe. As mentioned above, a good example in this case is the concept of "eastern mentality", which is currently often related to the supposed communist heritage.
