Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgements

Introduction

• Background
• The Rejection of Utopia
• Empirical Sources and Narrativity
• The Structure of the Study
• Concluding Remarks

Chapter 1. Narratives of the Revolutions

• Estonia – the Singing Revolution
• The German Democratic Republic – die sanfte Revolution
• Czechoslovakia – the Velvet Revolution
• By Way of Conclusion

Chapter 2. Revolution as a Utopia

• The Notion of Utopia
• Freedom
• Future
• Concluding Remarks

Chapter 3. Utopia Not Yet Fulfilled: Ambivalence after the Revolutions

• Post-revolutionary Ambivalence
• Postmodern Ambivalence
• Concluding Remarks
• Excursus: Ambivalence in Ivan Klíma’s Poslední stupenv du° vevrnosti

Chapter 4. Utopia Not Fulfilled: Disillusionment

• Material Reasons for Disillusionment
• Atomisation
• Alienation
• Excursus: Diachronic and Synchronic Alienation in Post-communist
• Novels
• Acceptance: Sacrifice
• Concluding Remarks

Chapter 5. Individualism as a Utopia

• The Notion of Individualism
• Individualism and Communism
• Individualism and Post-communism
• Individualism, Politics and Democracy

Chapter 6. Collective Utopias: From National Independence to Europe

• Nationalism and Communism
• The Idea of the Nation: Present and Not Yet Present
• The Utopian Struggle
• National Identity: Universal or Particular?
• Concluding Remarks

Conclusion: Politics between Utopia and Disillusionment

• Understanding Post-communist Politics
• The Utopia of Politics
• Final Remarks

Appendices

Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Henri Vogt is Professor of International Politics at the University of Turku, Finland. He received his doctorate from the University of Oxford, and has previously worked, inter alia, as Visiting Professor of European Studies at the University of the Saarland, Germany, and Senior Researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. His other books include A Responsible Europe? Ethical Foundations of EU External Affairs (coedited with Hartmut Mayer; Palgrave Macmillan 2006).

Reviews

"Vogt listens, and he does it brilliantly thus providing the reader with a truly unique narrative that is both analytically deep and enjoyable to read…Thanks to Vogt's confident, forceful and lucid style, the narrative never loses its grip on the academic debate; it incorporates an enormous body of the relevant literature in political science, philosophy, cultural anthropology, and social psychology. Yet, the text clearly gives priority to what makes this study exceptional: the live experiences of Eastern Europeans."  ·  Kosmopolis. The Finnish Journal of Peace, Conflict and Global Politics Research