March 3rd, 2025

To read the full article, click here.

The events of 1989-91 became coded in the world’s imaginary as the ‘collapse’ of communism after the sudden demise of Eastern European and Soviet regimes. Like the Berlin Wall, communism broke down from one day to the next – and seemingly for good. But that’s not the only way to interpret this historic juncture.

‘Liberation’ could have become the dominant concept instead. After all, millions were liberated from communist dictatorships: the disbanding of the Warsaw Pact, the Comecon and the Soviet state suggests that Eastern European satellites and Soviet republics were freed from Russian domination.

Describing what transpired as a ‘collapse’ was ill-fated. It created the misguided impression of irreversibility and an artificially thick line between the past and the present. It overemphasized the end of communism while largely ignoring Russia’s imperial project. The liberation lens would have more accurately captured the arduous, uneven and slow process of extrication both from state socialism and from Russian imperialism, including the dangers of revanche and reversal.