An Illusory Transition: Resilient Authoritarianism in the Former Soviet Union (Freedom HOUSE PRESENTS ...‪)‬

When President George H.W. Bush gave his "A Europe Whole and Free" speech in Mainz, (West) Germany in May 1989, the assumptions of the time suggested a clear path in establishing open and democratic countries in Europe and Eurasia, what he termed a "commonwealth of free nations." Two decades later, the inevitability of that vision is in doubt. Despite impressive democratic gains in the former Soviet republics of the Baltics and the satellite states of Central Europe--countries that have forged democratic institutions and achieved both European Union and NATO memberships--a massive portion of Eurasia is still not free. The vision of a Europe "whole and free" has not been fulfilled. Today, it is evident that the new democracies of Central Europe and the authoritarian states of the former Soviet Union inhabit entirely different political spaces; in many respects the trajectories of their respective political development are propelling them even further apart.