Changes in Eastern Europe and Russia after the Soviet Union Background: : Until the Communist governments of the
Warsaw Pact nations began to fall like dominoes late in 1989 ” followed
two years later by the Soviet Union ” the Eastern Bloc appeared to be a
permanent fixture on the international landscape By the end of 1991, the
one-time monolith of Eastern European communism seemed near extinction The
journey, however, had only begun The changes of 1989-91 initially so
promising and hopeful- often had unexpected and even painful repercussions The
removal of the political and social straitjackets was welcome, but it resulted
in an inevitably awkward period of adjustment” (p 410)
Question: Write a response identifying two of the most
significant challenges that people in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet
Union faced in the period immediately following the collapse of communism?