Introduction to the Development and Transformational Processes of the Post-Communist states in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe after Collapse of the Soviet Union (Block)

Annotation

The course deals, primarily, with main developing and transformational tendencies in the space of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe after decline of the Communist block and Soviet Union in 1989–1991. This interdisciplinary and comparative course focuses on key political, economic, social and cultural development in this region in last twenty-five years. It tries to explore successes and failures, differences and similarities of various post-Communist (post-Soviet) states in their effort to transform society and policy. The course will be divided into three wider territorial blocks: firstly, it will concentrate on the development of the post-Soviet space where Russian Federation became after the Yeltsin times of crises the dominant country in major parts of the former Soviet territory – Moscow tried to play the decisive role in countries of the so called Near abroad (former republics of the Soviet Union). Despite some countries, such as Baltic states, Georgia and partly Ukraine, Moldova and Azerbaidzhan inclined more or less to the West, Russian politicians, particularly after Vladimir Putin came to power, at least partly succeeded; secondly, the course will assess transformational efforts of the states in the Central Europe (Eastern Germany which became part of the big Germany, Czechoslovakia which divided peaceably into two states – Czech Republic and Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and the Baltic states) which culminated in their joining the European Union, NATO and other European institutions. Despite their clear direction to co-operate with the Western world they faced, however, a number of different problems inherited from their communist past; thirdly, the course will focus on the space of the South-Eastern Europe which faced in the 1990s the bloody war among the successional states of the former disintegrating Yugoslavian Federation. This war and subsequent complex search for the political settlement in this region led to many losses and delays in later clear tendency of majority South-Eastern countries to join the European projects. Despite this effort only two countries of the former Yugoslavian Federation (Slovenia and Croatia) became members of the European Union. While others, such as Serbia and Montenegro, aim to rejoin the European Union in the horizon of ten years, others face complex problems which almost surely exclude their early joining the European Union.

The course will contain two parts: lecture (45 minutes per week) and seminar (45 minutes per week). Lectures will offer key information to the topic while seminars will develop acquired knowledge through discussions, examples, presentations, projections etc.