Aleksander Smolar

Aleksander Smolar is senior research fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris and chairman of the board of the Stefan Batory Foundation in Warsaw. He served as a political advisor to Polish prime ministers Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Hanna Suchocka.

July 2001, Volume 12, Issue 3

History and Memory: The Revolutions of 1989-91

There has been surprisingly little celebration of the tenth anniversary of the revolutions that brought down communism. The exaggerated hopes of the time have given way to disillusionment, but the real achievements of many of the postcommunist countries should not be discounted.

Democracy after Communism

Is the challenge of building and consolidating democracy under postcommunist conditions unique, or can one apply lessons learned from other new democracies? The essays collected in this volume explore these questions, while tracing how the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have fared in the decade following the fall of communism.