Strictly political democratisation (free elections and the establishment of a multi-party system) was the fastest process to take shape in East-Central Europe, with the most visible effects; however, it was not without obstacles. For Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, in the spring and summer of 1990 the free parliamentary elections established a new political setting and the same happened in the Baltic states, after the fall of the USSR.

The protests initiated on November 21st 2013 in Kyiv, widely known as the EuroMaidan, were primarily of a political nature: they were a reaction to the Ukrainian government’s failure to sign the Association and Free Trade Agreement with the European Union, since a decisive “European” turn in Ukraine’s political course had been the protesters’ expectation. Nevertheless, the popular upheaval very quickly spread to other regions and uncovered deeper motives, and it touched on unsolved questions that were pending since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991: Ukraine’s identity.

The Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari. A film directed by Alexey Fedorchenko, Russia, 2012.