The Future of Eastern Europe: A Discussion with Zsuzsanna Szelényi
New Books in World Affairs
00:00
The Influence of the Soviets on the Balkans
In Slavic countries like the Czech Republic, Bulgaria or Slovakia, there's a strong cultural influence from Russia. What's so striking to me is that that Soviet period, which was the best part of 50 years, made so little impact. As soon as the Russians had gone, everything was back to where it was. And these countries could not really leave their very specific national identities because the Soviet system forced all of these people to believe in the nationalism and anything. The questions were absolutely critical questions in the 1990s.
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