ABSTRACT
The decades following the end of World War II in East Central Europe have been all but lost in myth — popular historical narratives of the period do not stand up to scrutiny. 1 The old communist accounts of liberation and reconstruction were never fully convincing, and the fractious nationalist narratives of resistance to Soviet rule do little more than scratch the surface of events. Still, the story of universal national resistance proved its usefulness during the Velvet revolutions that toppled communist regimes in 1989, and it retains a strong position in popular memory throughout the region to this day
