Economic and Social Transformations in Eastern Europe

Following the end of the Second World War, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe were ruled by communist governments and became part of the Soviet-bloc, with planned, state-run economies and totalitarian one-party rule. The collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1989 has led, over the past two decades, into the dramatic transformation of the region from planned to liberal democracies, an event which has been described as one of the most significant in world history.