Twenty years after 1989, most former communist states in central and eastern Europe are members of the EU; others are waiting in line. Yet transition from closed to open societies is far from over. Fierce debates rage over lustration and information surfacing from previously closed archives, over latent corruption inherited from communist power structures, and over dominant representations of the communist past. Clearly, 1989 represents not only an historic moment of liberation, but also a political and social dilemma for the present day.

Eurozine compiles articles dealing with these and other aspects of "Dilemma 89" published by Eurozine partner journals over the course of the twentieth anniversary year. They include: Karl Schlögel on why the idea of 1989 as an annus mirabilis is too crude; Martin Simecka on why the interpretation of the communist past fails to go beyond self-diagnosis; Konstanty Gebert on censorship post-'89 and anti-Semitism in Poland today; Adam Michnik on why the workers have lost out in the transition; Mircea Vasilescu on politics and the Securitate archives; Agnes Heller on Hungarian politicians' failure to learn the lessons of '89; and Katharina Raabe on the post-'89 wave of eastern European literature.

Read all articles in the Eurozine focal point Dilemma 89.

Published 2009-11-06